Natural Holi colours are made at home from four basic ingredients: turmeric for yellow, beetroot for pink and red, spinach or neem leaves for green, and indigo or butterfly pea (aparajita) flowers for blue, mixed with cornflour or gram flour (besan) as the bulking and clinging agent in a 1:2 ratio (colour to flour). The wet liquid versions are made by boiling the same plant matter and using the strained water. Homemade colours cost a fraction of synthetic gulal, do not stain skin permanently, and are biodegradable. This article gives the four-colour basic palette, the preparation method, and the practical points first-time makers ask.
Yellow from turmeric
The easiest of the four colours, and the only one that is single-ingredient at the source:
- Take 1 part turmeric powder (haldi) and 2 parts cornflour or gram flour (besan).
- Mix thoroughly in a bowl until the colour is uniform.
- Pass through a fine sieve to break up any lumps and get a smooth gulal-like texture.
- Store in an airtight container until Holi morning.
For a brighter saffron-orange variant, add half a teaspoon of dried marigold petals ground to a fine powder. Turmeric on the skin is antiseptic, mildly anti-inflammatory, and washes off in two or three rinses with regular soap; on white clothing it stains a faint yellow that fades over two or three washes.
Pink and red from beetroot
Beetroot gives the widest range, from soft pink to a deep magenta, depending on the proportion of beetroot to flour:
- Peel and chop one medium beetroot into small pieces. Grind in a blender or grater to a coarse paste.
- Mix the paste with 4 to 6 tablespoons of cornflour in a wide bowl.
- Spread the wet mixture on a baking tray or large plate and let it dry in the sun for a full day, breaking up clumps every few hours.
- Once fully dry, grind in a mixer to a fine powder. Sieve.
For a wet liquid version: boil chopped beetroot in water (1 cup beetroot to 3 cups water) for 15 minutes, cool, strain. The resulting deep magenta water is the liquid colour. It washes off skin in one or two rinses but does stain cotton noticeably; light-coloured fabrics need a vinegar pre-soak.
Hibiscus petals (red hibiscus, jaswand) give a similar pink, made the same way: dry and powder the petals, mix with cornflour. The red rose petal version is gentler and more fragrant but expensive in volume.
Green from spinach, neem, or mehndi
Three plant sources give different shades of green:
- Spinach (palak): a soft fresh green. Wash 2 cups of spinach leaves, blanch for 30 seconds in boiling water, drain, blend to a paste, mix with cornflour, sun-dry and powder as for beetroot.
- Neem leaves: a more olive-tinted green, with the added benefit of antibacterial properties. Dry the leaves in shade (not direct sun, which destroys the colour), grind, sieve, mix 1:2 with cornflour.
- Mehndi (henna powder): a deeper, brownish green. Mix dry mehndi powder with cornflour 1:1. Note that pure mehndi will stain skin a reddish-brown for a few days; for a non-staining version, use just a small proportion of mehndi to a larger volume of cornflour and gram flour.
The green tends to look duller in dry powder form than the bright synthetic green most people are used to. The colour brightens when mixed with water on skin; the natural green is closer to seedling-green than to neon.
Blue from indigo or butterfly pea
Blue is the hardest natural Holi colour, since most plant blues are unstable on exposure to air. Two workable sources:
- Indigo (neel) powder: dried indigo plant leaves powdered for cloth dyeing. Mix with cornflour or arrowroot powder 1:2. The colour is a strong dark blue and can stain cotton noticeably; treat as a wet colour rather than a free-throw gulal.
- Butterfly pea (aparajita / shankhpushpi) flowers: the deep blue flowers steeped in hot water give a clear blue liquid (the same flower is used in blue tea). Use only as a wet colour; the petals do not dry into a powder that holds the blue well.
- Jacaranda flowers and blueberries are sometimes used in DIY guides; both are too expensive and unreliable for a useful volume.
For what it’s worth, most home palettes skip blue entirely and rely on the warm three (yellow, pink, green) plus a deeper red. The blue is the colour where commercially produced herbal gulal (sold by brands marketing organic Holi colours) is the easier source.
The bulking agent: cornflour or gram flour?
The flour binds the pigment and gives the powder its throw and clinging quality. Two options:
- Cornflour (corn starch): white and neutral, gives the brightest final colour. The standard choice for the bright synthetic-look gulal.
- Gram flour (besan): faintly yellow, gives a softer earthy tone. Has the advantage of being mildly cleansing on skin, which means the gulal doubles as a skin paste.
- Arrowroot powder: a third option, gentler than cornflour, but more expensive. Used in commercially produced herbal gulal.
- Rice flour: a fourth option, but coarser; the texture is less smooth.
The 1:2 ratio (pigment to flour) is the baseline. A more pigment-heavy 1:1 ratio gives a more saturated colour but less of it; a 1:3 ratio stretches the volume but the colour is paler.
Wet versus dry preparation
Dry gulal and wet pichkari colours are different products with different preparation:
- Dry gulal: for hand-application and throwing in the air. The plant matter is sun-dried with the flour, ground to a fine powder, sieved. Stored airtight.
- Wet colour for buckets and pichkari: the plant matter is boiled in water, strained, and the coloured water is the product. No flour needed. The water can be poured into pichkaris or buckets for spray-and-douse use.
- Paste for face application: the dry gulal mixed with a small amount of water, milk, or rose water immediately before application, forming a thin paste that brushes onto cheeks and forehead.
Common questions
How long does homemade gulal keep?
Stored in airtight tins away from moisture and direct sunlight, homemade gulal keeps two to three months without significant fading. The plant pigments do degrade over time, faster than synthetic colours. The practical approach is to make it a week or two before Holi, not months in advance. Boiled wet colours should be refrigerated and used within 48 hours.
Will it stain clothes?
Yes, all natural pigments stain to some degree. Turmeric is the worst offender on white cotton; beetroot stains visibly but fades; spinach and neem fade quickly. The standard advice is to play Holi in old clothes you do not mind staining permanently. Pre-soaking stained whites in lukewarm water with vinegar before washing helps lift the colour; for tough turmeric stains, an additional sunlight exposure during drying does the rest.
Are natural colours actually safer for skin?
Substantially yes. Commercial synthetic gulal often contains lead chromate, mercury sulphite, or copper sulphate (responsible for the brightest reds, blues and greens), which cause skin irritation, eye damage, and respiratory issues. Plant-based homemade colours have none of these. People with very sensitive skin or known plant allergies should still do a patch test 24 hours before, since spinach, neem, or specific flower pigments can occasionally cause contact dermatitis.
A limitation worth noting
Natural gulal does not match the colour intensity, shelf life, or palette range of commercial synthetic colours. Yellow, pink, and earthy green are reliable; bright blue, neon orange, and purple are difficult at home and are the categories where good commercial herbal brands (Aurolab, Vatika, Bipha) are worth buying. This article covers the standard four-colour home palette; advanced techniques (mordant treatments, fermentation of indigo, alkali fixation) are out of scope and are better learnt from specialist natural-dye guides.
For more on the festival and on natural dye chemistry, see the Holi entry on Wikipedia and the entry on natural dyes.
