Non-toxic colours popular among Bengalureans

These colours are made with discarded flowers or leaves, and mixed with flour

With Holi around the corner, sale of herbal gulaal and non-toxic colours are going up. An increasing number of Covid-19 cases might have dampened the festival spirit by a tad, but sales of these colours are on, say sellers.

Non-toxic colours are made with discarded flowers or leaves, and mixed with flour. Saritha S S, owner of Jivan Organics, Yelahanka Town and Doddaballapur Main Road, sells non-toxic colours in six shades — red, yellow, green, blue, pink and orange.

“We sold five shades for eight years and increased it to six due to demand. The colours are quite popular among our regulars, especially families with children. These are made by a women self-help group in Sirsi, with flower and vegetable extract, and rice flour and corn starch,” she says.

Sahaja Organics, opposite RBI Layout, JP Nagar and Udayapura Post, Kanakapura Road, is selling natural colours that are made out of herbs, agri-produce, food crops, fruits and vegetable extracts and flowers.

Chethan M S, branding head, says, “These colours do not have any talc or chemicals in them.”

Colours available are blue, yellow, pink, orange and green, and are being sold in packets of 100 gm for Rs 54.

Home delivery is available from the Kanakapura Road outlet.

Eco-friendly outlook

FabArtistry, Whitefield, tries to promote eco-friendly products from local manufacturers at its store.

Puja Hanjura, co-founder says, “Members of the Bhil tribe in Pune make Holi colours out of maize flour and flowers. We have sourced these colours.”

Pink colour is made of dried rose petals, yellow of amaltash flowers, orange of palash flowers, and green made with tree leaves. “The powder is handcrafted, non-reactive and edible.”

With increasing Covid cases, the sales are a bit slow, she notes. The colours are priced at Rs 65 for 100 gm and Rs 550 per kg.

Debyani Basu, co-founder of GreenMantraStore, Marathahalli, has been promoting zero-waste sustainable lifestyle for a while. The store sells sweets and goodies on all festivals in non-plastic packaging. “We sourced non-toxic colours from Craftizen and then repack them in sustainable bags,” she says.

She has been selling Holi colours since 2019. “The sales are a bit low this year, but many of our regulars have placed orders.”

Green Mantra sells the colours in two combos: three-colour combo for Rs 290, and five-colour combo for Rs 450. Orders can be picked up in person or via Dunzo.

Helping marginalised communities

Craftizen Foundation, HAL 2nd stage, Indiranagar, has been selling non-toxic colours since 2018.

Mayura Balasubramanian, founder, says, “Our foundation wanted to support traditional artisans when we started. We understood that crafts can be a source of livelihood for many marginalised communities. We tied up with partners like Nimhans, Orione Seva and Gramina Abyudaya Seva Samsthe, who helped us connect to artisans with intellectual disability.”

“We were looking for a natural material suitable for artisans with intellectual disability to work with. Flowers are therapeutic to work with and this is how we created ‘Petalists’, a group of such artisans,” she says.

The foundation sells in three volumes: five-colour combo (500 gm) for Rs 450, three-colour combo (300 gm) at Rs 290 and 1 kg packs for Rs 650 each. “The five-colour and three-colour combos are most popular,” she adds. Orders can be picked up from the foundation’s location, or delivered through Dunzo or Swiggy Genie.

To place orders, call

GreenMantraStore: 99455 40847

FabArtistry: 87900 82020

Craftizen Foundation: 96060 71227

Jivan Organics: 97411 10333

Sahaja Organics, Kanakapura Road: 97416 90741

Online too

Many herbal colour options being sold on Amazon and Flipkart has one-day delivery.