Easter is almost here! That means your annual egg-hunting competition is also right around the corner.
When painting Easter eggs, any paint will work – acrylic, watercolor, puff paint, and even spray paint. Due to high demand, most people choose the cheaper brands of paint in large volumes. Unfortunately, paint products contain high VOC content, which reacts with oxygen and forms an ozone layer in the presence of sunlight, thus making them one of the main contributors to global warming. Not to mention the high volume of heavy metals often found in paints that are detrimental to the environment.
But paint doesn’t have to be toxic to the environment. Check out these eco-friendly paints for a greener Easter egg hunt in today’s article.
1. Eartheasy
Children love to put things in their mouths. Especially delicious-looking things, like the colorful Easter eggs in your garden. Even if they aren’t sucking on the colorful eggs, residual paint can stay on your children’s hands until they wash them off. This causes a higher risk of food poisoning for your children when they accidentally consume normal egg dyes.
Made from a combination of beeswax and plant dyes, Eartheasy light paints are very child-friendly. Thanks to their natural and food-safety ingredients, your children are safe even if they accidentally put some of these paints into their mouths.
- Price: $18.75 per set.
- Free shipping is available for all orders over $75.
- Check out their product here.
2. M. Graham & Co.
For artsy folks who wish to turn their Easter eggs into works of art, oil colors should be at the top of their art supplies list. However, oil colors are not very eco-friendly: the paint thinner in their colors is incredibly toxic and can give off flammable fumes. Not to mention, cleaning up the leftover paint is a tough task.
Introducing M. Graham & Co., whose paints use walnut oil as a binder. This natural ingredient eliminates the need for chemical solvents, yet still ensures the paint slides off the brush. Because solvent negatively affects human health when accidentally consumed, the solvent-free M. Graham & Co. Oil paints are safe for your annual Easter egg hunt.
- Price: $10.89 to $50.00 per tube, depending on the size.
- Check out their products here.
3. Sennelier Egg Tempera Set
Acrylic paints are one of the more polluting paints, which makes finding an eco-friendly alternative for them all the more pressing. One of the latest additions to eco-friendly paints, Tempera offers good quality acrylic paints with vibrant color pigments, making sure your Easter eggs stay colored for the whole hunt.
Tempera paint is made up of pigments that have been combined with a sticky, water-soluble binder media, such as egg yolk. It dries rapidly to the touch, but it can take up to a year to fully cure. This makes for long-lasting paints that are kid-friendly and safe for the Easter eggs in children’s hands.
- Price: $10.43 to $180.95 per set.
- Check out their products here.
4. Natural Earth Paint
The most universally known eco-friendly paint brand at the moment is likely Natural Earth Paint. This kit contains high-quality colors sourced from throughout the world, all of which are eco-friendly. Typical pollutants like fillers, additives, synthetic preservatives, toxins, petroleum-based pigments, and heavy metals are not included in these paints.
Natural Earth Paint has an encompassing collection of paints of all kinds. Thus, if you are not sure which kind of eco-friendly paint you should go for, then give Natural Earth Paint a quick look. From acrylic to oil colors, they have it all. Natural Earth Paint paints also include durable and vibrant color pigments, so your Easter eggs will retain their beautiful details for a long time.
- Price: $54.95 for a 10-color set.
- Check out their products here.
5. LUTEA
Watercolor paints are not eco-friendly. Because they are water-based and do not contain solvents, they are safer than acrylics. Still, many of the pigments used to color the paints include heavy metals, which may damage soil and rivers if incorrectly disposed of.
For watercolor enthusiasts, LUTEA offers their set of eco-friendly watercolors right here. A popular choice for amateur painters, watercolors are easy to use and clean up after you are done. However, their plant-based watercolor set is not only eco-friendly but also offers a rare chance to rediscover organic colors from plant life around the world.
- Price: 260,61 € for a 12-color set.
- Check out their products here.
6. Krylon
When coloring your Easter eggs, spray paints are not a very popular option. The extra paint that misses the eggs can be both wasteful and toxic. Plus, when painting something on a surface as small as an egg, spray paint is not an optimal option. Even with posterboard cutouts.
However, should you want to try spray paints for your Easter eggs, Krylon is a safe bet when it comes to being eco-friendly. Krylon opts for raw materials, like soy and sunflower oils in their paints as binders, as well as significant solvent reduction compared to other brands. With low VOC in all of their products, Krylon is leading the wave of sustainable paints.
- Price: 260,61 € for a 12-color set.
- Check out their products here.
7. Miss Mustard Seed
Milk paint is a strange concept, but it is a breakthrough in eco-friendly paint. Like Tempera paints that have eggs as their ingredients, milk paints utilize organic ingredients for a greener environment. Completely natural, non-toxic, and free of VOCs, it’s been around for a long time.
Milk paint by Miss Mustard Seed is composed of five ingredients: milk protein (casein), limestone, clay, chalk, and natural colors. Delivered to you in a bag, Miss Mustard Seed requires some mixing before you can start painting your Easter eggs with it.
While Miss Mustard Seed paints are mainly used on interiors and furniture, they can be used to color your Easter eggs as well. Thanks to its natural ingredient, accidental ingestion of milk paints are unlikely to damage your health. Available in 25 colors, have a few of these in your garage not just for this Easter, but also when you feel like repainting your furniture.
- Price: $29.95 for a bag.
- Check out their products here.
While children are more than happy to believe that the Easter Bunny is responsible for the colorful eggs littering the hunting grounds, we know better. The more detailed an egg is, the more painstaking hours you need to put into it. But it is worth it, isn’t it?
For children, yes. Going Easter egg hunting is probably one of the most looked forward to activities for a child, along with Christmas present opening and going trick-or-treating. The same cannot be said of environmentalists. Because of the paint.
This Easter, add a little eco-friendly green to your Easter eggs’ color palette with one of the aforementioned eco-friendly paints. Or in case these pants are too over the budget for your Easter, try looking for alternatives in our Tenere stores.
Learn how you can plant trees by shopping on Tenere here.
