5 Natural ways to make eco and skin friendly colors

Holi is a wonderful festival of colors involving fun, bonding, joy and harmony. This festival brings everyone together irrespective of caste and creed.

• Holi marks the onset of spring season. Traditionally, the colors for Holi were prepared from the various parts of trees such as flowers, leaves, fruits etc. Some of them are Indian coral tree (Parijat), flame of forest (Kesu), marigold, turmeric (Haldi), henna (Mehndi), neem, sandalwood, beetroot etc. Turmeric, neem, sandalwood, tesu flowers are 100% natural and have beneficial healing properties as per ayurveda.

In modern times, with the arrival of dry chemical colors, people stopped taking the efforts for extracting the flowers colors and the use of chemical colors in holi is increasing every year due to its convenience and ready availability.

Concerns with chemical colors:

• Holi colors are available in three different forms i.e.paste, dry and wet colors. To get darker, long lasting colors and thick texture – industrial dyes and metal oxides mixed with low quality engine oil (for Paste) are used in holi. The synthetic dye based holi powder can cause dermatitis, respiratory problems and allergies and prolonged application can cause cancer.
• The colorant used in the dry colors, also called gulals, was found to be toxic, with heavy metals causing asthma, skin diseases and temporary blindness.
• For water based colors, one of the common and easily available water colorants is Gentian violet, it is highly toxic and hazardous to human health. It leads to severe skin ailments and eye problems.

With people becoming more aware of the ill effects of using chemical colors, emphasis should be more on spreading the knowledge of using natural colors for holi. Following are some of the easily available natural colors that can be used to enjoy the Holi festival.

1. Turmeric for yellow color – the most natural and safe to use color. Turmeric is not only good for the skin but is also antibacterial in nature
2. Red from Annatto seed/sindhur – Annatto powder paste applied to the skin helps fight wrinkles, sun damage and other signs of aging which makes it another good skin friendly color to be used for Holi.
3. Green/Brown from Mehandi – natural mehandi powder which is not only good coolant for the skin but an excellent condition and colorant for the hair.
4. Blue – Blue pea, jacaranda or any other blue flowers can be boiled for making blue color, they are gentle on the skin and does not cause any allergies.
5. Other colors – use of marigold, hibiscus, rose, tomatoes, beetroot and other naturally available ingredients can be dried, powdered, mixed with rice flour or can be used as such.

Below is a table depicting the various sources that can provide safe to use colors for the Holi festival.