Holi Special: 6 Tips on How to Make Natural, Homemade Colours

The festival of colours is here! It's time to start the celebrations by getting all the basics ready at home. And the first thing on the list is of course Holi colours. While there are numerous stores in your neighbourhood from where you can pick up the colours from, they are definitely not safe for your health. Artificial colours contain chemicals and other synthetic agents that can cause irritation, allergies and dry skin. We already know that yet we continue this bad habit because it is cheap and easy. The truth is that you don't really need to hamper your health or shell out large amounts of money to buy chemical free colours. You can go the natural way and make colours at home with easily available kitchen ingredients. Yes, it's true!

Here are six tips on how to make natural Holi colours at home:

1. Herbal Gulal

Holi is also the time for family bonding, and this is the perfect activity for all family members. Here is an easy recipe to make gulal by renowned beauty expert Suparna Trikha. Take 200gm arrowroot powder, 100gm haldi, 50gm marigold flowers, 20gm orange peel powder (finely powdered) and 20 drops essential oil of lemon or sandalwood. Put all the ingredients into a large plastic mixing bowl or tub and hand mix, rubbing together gently. You will see a beautiful yellow coloured, safe and natural gulal being made.(Holi 2017 Special: 5 Best Gujiya Recipes)

2. Herbal Water Colour

For those of you who would like to play a wet Holi, buy Tesu flowers and soak about 100gm in a bucket of water overnight to get the beautiful saffron colour. You can have the children fill balloons or their water cannons with this safe natural coloured water.

3. Shades of Pink

For magenta or shades of pink, beetroot is an excellent agent. Boil a few pieces of beetroot in a cup of water to create dark magenta coloured water. Or you can also keep pieces in the water and let it rest for a few hours for the colour to develop. For dry powder, grind beetroot to make a paste and let it dry in the sun. Mix with besan or wheat flour and use. Hibiscus flower is another good option.(Holi 2017: 8 Ways You Can Protect Your Skin from Harmful Colours)

4. Dry Powders with Food Colours

Beauty expert Ishika Taneja says, "Dry colours on your mind? Take rice flour, add proportionate food colour and mix it with two teaspoons of water to make a thick paste. Leave it to dry and then blend it in a grinder to use it as a powdered colour.

5. Saffron Tinge

It's easy to make saffron, orange or yellow natural Holi colours. For powder, take besan and mix it with some haldi along with a little water. Then leave it in the sun to dry. For water colours, soak henna leaves in water overnight and use the water to play Holi in the morning. You can also use henna paste.

6. Go Green

Yes, you are thinking right. You can use various green leafy vegetable to get the green colour. Spinach is a popular choice and so is coriander leaves. Just make a paste and mix it in water and play!