What are natural pigments?

Natural pigments are colorful substances that come from things found in nature, like plants, animals, and rocks.

Imagine you're painting with crayons, each color is made by mixing different kinds of stuff together. Natural pigments work the same way, but instead of being in a box, they’re inside things like berries, leaves, or even shells.

Think of natural pigments like colorful fingerprints left behind by nature. For example, if you crush red beetroot, it leaves a red mark, that’s its pigment! Or if you rub some charcoal from a stick on paper, you get black, that’s also a kind of pigment.

Some pigments come from plants, like the yellow in turmeric or the blue in indigo. Others come from animals, such as the red in cochineal (which comes from tiny insects). And some even come from rocks and minerals, like the green in malachite or the red in ochre.

These pigments have been used for thousands of years to paint pictures, dye clothes, and even color food, just like you might use fruit juice to make a colorful drink!