Easter is just around the corner! And that means it’s time for the wonderful family tradition of decorating Easter eggs. We’ve put together some of our favorite ways to get creative and keep things natural. Plus, we even have a few tips on how to incorporate your favorite essential oils into the process.
Let’s Get Creative
First thing’s first, essential oils are a great starting point for any creative project. Basil Linalool, Rosemary 1,8 Cineole, and Peppermint are all excellent choices to help promote clarity and alertness, while also providing a calming atmosphere. Or try diffusing our Joyful Creation Synergy. It was designed to encourage creative expression and a sense of joy and enthusiasm.
You can always mix it up and diffuse a few of your favorite citrus oils for a fresh, invigorating aroma that is sure to remind you of spring.
Eggs: Hollow or Boiled?
When it comes to decorating eggs, the go-to is usually just to boil them. And hard-boiled eggs are perfect for this purpose… for a while. If you’re looking to get a longer shelf life for your beautifully decorated eggs, it’s fairly easy to hollow out your eggs. Start by poking a small hole in one end and a slightly larger hole in the other end. You can even use a toothpick to break up the yoke to make it easier to hollow them out. Then, blow through the smaller hole while holding the egg over a bowl. The contents slide right out, making lovely hollow eggs to decorate with.
Natural Dyes
If you’ve never tried natural dyes, you’re missing out! Not only can you get some truly fantastic colors, but you’ll skip using artificial dyes and coloring. Plus you might even have some of the ingredients around the house! All you need to do is simmer these foods (longer times equal deeper colors), add a little vinegar, and then soak the eggs. Check it out:
- Light Blue – 1 cup blueberries
- Blue – 2 cups red cabbage
- Yellow – 2 tablespoons ground turmeric
- Pink – ½ to 1 cup shredded beets
- Purple – 1 cup red onion skins
- Orange – 1 cup yellow onion skins
- Brown – 1 cup of strong coffee
- Green – 2 cups spinach
The richness of the dye will depend on how long you simmer the ingredients. The longer the time, the deeper the color. You’ll also be able to affect the end result by how long you soak your eggs (anywhere from 20 minutes to overnight). Just make sure to add about 2 tsp of vinegar for every cup of colored liquid before you soak your eggs
Creating Fun Designs
The fun doesn’t stop there! You can make amazing designs like marbling, speckled, and more. One easy way is to apply melted coconut oil to the egg before you soak it. Try crinkling up plastic wrap, dipping it in the melted coconut oil and gently stamping it on to your egg to create a fun marbling effect. Or use an old toothbrush to splatter the coconut oil on your egg. You can even use paintbrushes to create custom designs! Once the coconut oil has cooled, it will prevent the dye from reaching the shell, creating beautifully intricate patterns.
Polishing it Off
Once your Easter eggs have dried and are looking absolutely gorgeous, it’s time to add some shine. And what better way to do that than to use essential oils. Use a paper towel to rub your favorite oils or favorite blend onto your eggs. Not only will you get a nice sheen, but it’s a great way to enjoy passive diffusion. Just be careful not to let the essential oils have direct contact with your skin If you’re looking for some great blends, try Honeybell, Love Vanilla, Citrus Burst or any of your favorites. If you’re doing the project with young ones and don’t want to use undiluted oils, you can always dilute them in a carrier oil first and continue polishing.
For another fun way to combine essential oils and Easter, try making these DIY Vanilla Bath Bombs with plastic Easter eggs as the molds!
Don’t forget to show off your gorgeous creations! Make sure to tag us on Instagram and follow us as we share more amazing ways to use your essential oils.
We did this at easter and it worker great.
great Post will keep in mind for next year
We did this at work. Used netting to press herbs to the egg it made really pretty natural designs to go with the natural dye
What a great idea! I will be doing this next year with my grandson. Thanks!
I tried this for Easter! I try to steer clear of artificial dyes when I can. I let them sit overnight and they had a really cool layer on them in the morning but I rubbed the excess off and it left them with light dye. The beets worked GREAT! They were beautifully pink! Yellow Onion, coffee, blueberries, and spinach weren’t as successful (I didn’t use enough spinach and blueberries though). But it was a fun experiment and I will probably do it this way again!
I never saw anything like this! Thank you so much for posting this! We will definitely have to try this.
YES! Thank you.
I’ve never tried natural dyes before, great idea for next year.
Do the smells of the items used stick to the egg too? While blueberry would be a nice smell, cabbage would not be. We have a very young child in the family so applying essential oils to mask a scent is not an option when she’s around.
Does the essential oil affect the taste? I love the natural die idea.
Great ideas! I love the look of the natural dyes!
Thank you for providing such wonderful information for around Easter time!
This is AWESOME!!! What a creative idea!!
What a super neat idea for Easter. And a great family activity.
So pretty I love these idea. I can’t do dye so this is so awsome.
Love the colors from the natural dyes! As a kid, and later as a parent, we colored our eggs with crayons. Each year ‘Mr Lindsey’, an egg colored to favor our balding neighbor, would make an appearance. Preparing the eggs was part of our weekend festivities.
Yay! Love this!
So cute!
Love the idea of rubbing the Essential Oils on them. great for making a good smelling Easter decoration.
While I am probably not going to use the natural dye idea…my kids just aren’t that patient. I really like the idea of polishing them off with oils at the end and using passive diffusion, especially if using the shells for decoration. NEver would have thought of that.
So beautiful and so tempting to eat!
My kids don’t quite have the patience for this yet, but I’m excited to try it 🙂
Love these ideas!
Thank you PT! So much better to use natural dies, even when not planning to eat the eggs. I love the subtle pastel colors.
So pretty!! Love the idea of using essential oils as the polish!
I would have never thought to rub some essential oils onto finished eggs! So smart!!
This is amazing, I definitely will be doing this for my kids. Thank you!
Great idea! Will try them this weekend 🙂
I never thought of using natural dyes like this! I have all the ingredients on hand so YAY!!! On to coloring eggs
These are great ideas – I hadn’t heard of a couple of the color options. I look forward to trying some this weekend!
Love trying new dye techniques, thanks!
Growing up we always hollowed out our eggs. I have never met anyone else who does it that way! Everyone I know boils them. And I have done boiled eggs with my son to cut down on breakage!! Now that my son is older and we decorate eggs more for the art of it, I think we might try hollowing them this year!!
Fun ideas!
I always use natural products to dyes the Easter eggs. My favorite is red cabbage for blue colored eggs and mix of orange onion skin with beets for unusual red color. White colored eggs works the best when you use natural dyes.
This looks so fun. Now to try and convince my kids it’s the way to go this year.
These are absolutely beautiful! I’ll be making these with my 3 year old for his first egg dying experience!
Fun ideas! Love the natural dyed eggs.
Such a great alternative to dyes. This is how is was truly made to be without all the other toxic stuff. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the information! Now wish my kids still liked to dye eggs.
I am so excited to try this this year! Thank you!!
Genius. We’ve done natural dyes before, but hadn’t thought of using EO. Blue Tansy would be gorgeous – and keep the party to a reasonable level of chaos. 😉
I have always wanted to try natural dyes for Easter eggs.
What an amazing idea! Definitely going to try this next year!
Great idea!
Thank you for the tips..I was looking for ideas on how to use natural colos in my cakes. Great!
Great ideas!! Never would of thought about using oils for eggs. The kids will love this!
cant wait to try these!!
Thanks for this! Beautiful colors!
Natural dyes are the way to go. They make unique and beautiful egg colors! Especially if your doing hard boiled eggs you intend to eat. Thanks for sharing!
I cannot wait to do this…I just have to find someone that likes boiled eggs lol.
This is a wonderful idea..think I will plan to do this with the grandchildren
This is such a good idea I’m so glad I found it!
We’re going to try this this weekend! Thanks for the awesome ideas
Thank you for this! These ideas are great!
This is great, would have never thought of this chemical free egg dye. Will most certainly be trying this out!
I love this idea! Never thought to do this, and the colors look so pretty!
Love all of the earthy colors from natural dyes! We used something very similar and turned out absolutely gorgeous!
These eggs are so beautiful. Makes me want to color extras. The tips and suggestions are great. Another thing that you can do is use crayons to make decorations or write names on the eggs.
Um– genius idea to reuse those plastic Easter eggs as molds for bath bombs! I do not own a bath bomb mold, so now all I have to do is purchase the citric acid and I can totally do that DIY project. Love it!
Wow! The colors are so beautifully natural.
We love using natural colors to dye eggs, but I never thought of using them as passive diffusers! How fun is that? So creative.
Thank you for these alternative ideas PT! Looking forward to switching it up!
Wow, these are so pretty. I think I am gonna try! 🙂
Oh my goodness I love this! Me and my youngest son are definitely going to try hollowing out an egg and dying it! How fun!
I love the natural dyes!!!
Wow! It never crossed my mind to use essential oils for the shine. Totally love the idea, thank you Plant Therapy.
I love natural Easter Egg dye. We have done this a few times and it works great!
Such a wonderful idea! I’ll definitely be trying this with the kiddos this year.
These are great! Thank you!
The photo shows a beautiful outcome. I love the tumeric color. Thanks for the ideas, PT.
Wonderful Idea… nature has so many pretty colors.
Keep thinking about trying to do natural… Maybe this is the year!
love the ideas for dyes
Thank you for a different way to dye eggs!!
This is the coolest post ever! I’ve always considered doing diy coloring but was scared too!
Great idea. I’ve tried some of these years ago, but the blueberry and the red cabbage I haven’t tried. Going to have to put on my “to do” list. Thanks! ❤
I love this! One of my children has an egg allergy, so we paint the artificial craft store eggs. I always display them, and now I think I’ll add some lovely oils and use it as an Easter passive diffuser. Thank you! <3
Great ideas to try – thank you!
Thank you for these natural dye ideas!!! We hate artificial dyes so this will be a fun activity to try!! It’d be fun to see how dark they get if we soak them overnight. Or to combine some of these items to make a new color. Thanks pt!!!
These are some AwEsOmE natural coloring ideas!! So eggcited to add my oils to our coloring and create a new tradition!! Thanks PT for always being so Awesome!!
Never thought about using natural dyes. It sounds like so much fun! Will have to suggest to my family that we try this for Easter this year. 🙂
Good to know!! Thanks!
This is fantastic! Why have I never thought about any of this before? Thank you so much for sharing this – its going to make Easter fun this year letting the kids help make the dyes as well!
i love everything about this idea and we will be trying this!! thanks PT!!
Such great tips for natural dyes. I can’t wait to try them out this Easter!
This is a great idea!! I might have to try some of these this year!
I love all the tips and especially natural dye ideas
I love this… Can’t wait to try using these natural dying methods. Thank you!
Such a great idea. This Easter will be a good fun for my son 🙂
I love the natural dyes idea. I think we’ll try it this year!