How to Dye Easter Eggs Without a Kit
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Skip the Easter egg decorating kit this year. Here’s how make your own egg dye in minutes, using things you probably already have in your pantry.
How to Dye Easter Eggs Without a Kit
Ingredients:
Hard-boiled eggs
Food coloring
White vinegar
If You Don’t Have Vinegar: Use lemon juice in place of the vinegar, or just leave the vinegar out. Eggs dyed without vinegar will turn out pastel-colored. You need a mild acid, like vinegar or lemon juice to achieve really vibrant colors.
What You Do:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Measure 1/2 cup of the boiling water into a canning jar or another heat-resistant container. Then, add one teaspoon of vinegar and 10-20 drops of food coloring to achieve your desired color. Repeat the process to create additional colors. We used neon food coloring to make most of the colors that you see here. If you’re working with small kids, allow the dye to cool before you move on to dying eggs.
Place eggs in your dye, and allow them to soak for around five minutes. You’ll probably need to flip your eggs partway through, so that both sides are evenly colored.
To give you an idea of what sorts of colors you can achieve, we dipped a brown egg and a white egg in each color. Those are brown eggs on the right side of the carton and white eggs on the left side. Aren’t they gorgeous?
If you want to get fancy, you can do some color-blocking by placing stickers on the eggs before you drop them into the dye. We had some spring-themed foam stickers on hand, so that’s what we used. Regular stickers would work just as well.
Here’s what the eggs looked like when we removed them from the dye baths.
And here’s an example of what they looked like after we peeled off the stickers.
How to Store Your Dyed Easter Eggs
Place your finished eggs back in their carton, and allow them to dry completely, before you move them to the refrigerator.
Tip: When you take your eggs out of the fridge, allow them to dry before you handle them. This will keep the colors from smearing or running.
How to Dye Easter Eggs Without a Kit
Here’s an easy way to create your own Easter egg dyes using a couple pantry essentials. No kit required.
- Total Time: 20 minutes (plus dying time)
- Yield: Varies
Ingredients
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Food coloring
- White vinegar (see notes for options, if you don’t have vinegar)
Instructions
Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Measure 1/2 cup of boiling water into a canning jar or another heat-safe container. Then, add one teaspoon of vinegar and 10-20 drops of food coloring. Repeat to create additional colors. If you’re dying eggs with kids, allow the dyes to cool before proceeding.
Soak the eggs in the dye for around five minutes. Flip the eggs halfway through, to ensure both sides are well coated.
Place the dyed eggs back in their carton, and allow them to dry before handling.
Notes
- If you don’t have vinegar, use lemon juice, instead, or just leave it out. Eggs dyed without vinegar will be pastel colored.
- Place stickers on the eggs before you dye them to create two-toned designs. Remove the stickers once the eggs have dried to reveal the designs.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes (up to 20 minutes)
- Category: Easter
- Method: Dying
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: how to dye easter eggs without a kit
Another Way to Dye Easter Eggs Without a Kit
Beautiful site!! Easy to read & follow and inspirational!! Thank you!!
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thank you! Easter is going to be very different this year for all of us, and I was really stressed about it for the kids. This will help make something remain special
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Thanks for the easy recipe!
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Quarantine = homemade everything???
Thank you so much for these easy instructions. The eggs turned out so vibrant and my kids had so much fun! Happy Easter to you and your family ?
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Thanks so much! Happy Easter!
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This is the way poor families have always done it. So I found the excitement refreshing!
Welcome to our world, and people feel sorry for us. We always knew our way was more fun and creative.
Can you double the amounts of everything so the eggs can be fully submerged?
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Sure. That’ll work just fine.
Well done presentation and beautiful results. Thanks!
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Nice, quick and easy!
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Love that you posted this!
Instead of stickers, you can have kids color the eggs with crayons before dipping the eggs. The egg will not take the dye where the crayon marks are.
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Thanks for mentioning this. Wax resists are really fun.
don’t forget to use hard boiled eggs lol
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Can you use gel food coloring?
Yes. Since they’re more concentrated, I would start with a drop; stir; then adjust up.
Is the dye okay to make ahead of time? Like a day or two before?
Yes, that shouldn’t be a problem.
Thank you so much for these easy instructions! I couldn’t get a kit at the last minute, and hadn’t known the kids were coming. A life-saver! I had all the ingredients here at home already.
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