Can You Dye Brown Eggs?
Dyeing eggs is a fun activity that the whole family can get involved with — you only need some eggs and a few simple ingredients to get some beautifully colored eggs!
White eggs are most commonly used for dyeing, as they hold onto the colors better (especially pastel colors), but you might not have any white eggs to use.
Can you dye brown eggs? Yes, you can dye brown eggs! Brown eggs can still take on various colors, although they will not be as light as white eggs might be — they will not necessarily be able to be dyed a pastel color, without some preparation beforehand.
If you are wanting to dye brown eggs, read below for everything you would need to know about dyeing them, and how you can still achieve beautifully colored eggs!
Is It Possible To Dye Brown Eggs?
Brown eggs and white eggs are pretty much identical in everything, except the color of their shells.
Brown eggs obviously pose a bit of a problem when it comes to dyeing, as the brown surface will not be able to display colors as well as white eggs would.
Darker brown eggs are not able to hold onto the more delicate pastel colors such as pink, pale blue, spring yellow, and more, like white eggs are able to. However, brown eggs can hold onto darker colors, such as red, blue, dark green, and more.
The problem is that these are not very Easter-like colors, and eggs are usually dyed for easter. Luckily, with a few simple tricks, you can actually lighten the shells of brown eggs to be able to hold on to pastel colors better!
How To Lighten Brown Eggs
You can dye brown eggs “as is” and settle for a darker colored dyed egg, such as a navy blue, dark green, or maroon red, but if you are wanting to get lighter colors, then you can lighten the brown egg’s shell before dyeing.
The best way to do this is to soak the egg in vinegar before dyeing. This is best done after the egg has been hard-boiled, as it does not matter too much if the shell becomes weaker from the vinegar soaking.
Soaking the egg in vinegar removes some of the darker color from the outside of the shell — once you wipe away at the surface of the egg once it has been left to soak, it should be a light enough color that you can dye the egg pastel.
Tips For Lightening Brown Eggs With Vinegar
Lightening brown egg shells by soaking them in vinegar is a simple process, but here are a few tips and notes to keep in mind when doing so:
- Distilled white wine vinegar is perfect to use to lighten the egg shells, as it is inexpensive and easy to come by.
- You can leave the eggs in the vinegar for longer than 5 minutes if they haven’t lightened enough, but do not leave them in for longer than 10–12 minutes, as it might cause the shells to become too soft.
- Some brown eggs might lighten to an almost white color after soaking in vinegar, and some might only lighten to a cream color. However, these will hold onto color better than a darker brown shell.
- Make sure to use food coloring that is safe for consumption, especially if you are planning on serving the dyed eggs for consumption.
- It is normal for there to be some bubbles on the surface of the egg when it is placed in the vinegar, as this is just the vinegar reacting with the shell of the egg, and releasing gas bubbles.
How Do You Dye Brown Eggs?
Dyeing brown eggs is a fairly straightforward process, similar to how you would dye white eggs.
However, there is a special step you can use that lightens the outside of the brown egg, to get it to a point where it is able to hold onto lighter colors more.
Here is a step-by-step on how to dye brown eggs!
1. Hard Boil Eggs
There are different methods you can use to prepare your eggs for dyeing, but the most family-friendly option is to hard boil the eggs first.
You can hard boil the eggs as you would usually, leaving them in boiling water for 8 minutes until firm.
2. Soak In Vinegar
This step is optional, and it is only necessary if you want to lighten the brown shell of the eggs to be able to use lighter, pastel dyes. If you only want to use darker dyes for the eggs, then you do not really have to do this step.
However, to use lighter dyes, you would need to soak the eggs in vinegar. Once the eggs have hard boiled, cool them under cold running water.
Once cool, place the eggs into a bowl and cover them with white vinegar, making sure the egg shell is covered fully. Leave the eggs to sit in the white vinegar for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, remove the eggs from the vinegar, and use a paper towel or clean cloth to wipe the brown coloring away from the surface. Rinse the eggs and set them aside for dyeing.
3. Prepare The Dye
Fill a suitable bowl or container with enough water to cover the eggs, and add a teaspoon of white vinegar.
Drop in around 20 drops of food coloring, more or less depending on how dark or light you want the dye to be.
4. Prepare The Eggs
The next step is to prepare the eggs for dyeing.
You could either place the eggs “as is” into the dye solution, or you can add some rubber bands to the eggs, draw on them with wax crayon, or use waterproof tape to mark off designs where you do not want the dye to take.
5. Dye The Eggs
Once you have prepared the eggs, place one at a time on a slotted spoon and lower it into the dye solution. Dunk the egg into the dye and turn it occasionally so that all sides are covered.
You can leave the egg in the dye for up to 5 minutes, depending on how dark and vivid you want the color to be.
If you are only dyeing a small portion of the egg, you can dip the egg into one color, and then dip it into another color for a multi-colored, layered finish.
6. Dry The Eggs
When it is time to remove the eggs, use a slotted spoon to carefully lift the eggs out of the dye, then place them aside to dry. Placing them on paper towels will help them dry quicker, and will help prevent any stains on your countertop.
Wait until the eggs are fully dried before decorating them further with any stickers or tape.
How Do Brown Eggs Turn Out When Dyed?
Brown eggs turn out very similar to white eggs when dyed, with them holding on to dye the same and having the same effect — the only difference is that as the shells are darker, the dyes on the egg would need to be darker to show.
Without preparing the egg and stripping some of the brown color with a vinegar soak, it will not be able to be dyed pastel or light colors, but it will only hold onto darker colors well.
For Easter, this can be an issue if you want to follow traditional Easter colors.
However, brown eggs can be dyed successfully — they can hold some bold and vivid colors, and they can still be great fun for the whole family to experiment with; you just have to opt for darker colors or soak the shells first.
Final Thoughts
If you want to dye some eggs, but cannot find any white eggs and have some brown eggs ready to use, there is no reason to put off the dyeing process!
It is possible to dye brown eggs, and you have two options when doing so.
You can either dye the brown eggs as is, and use a darker dye to show on the brown shell, or you can lighten the brown shells by soaking the eggs in vinegar and then dyeing them pastel colors.
Whichever you choose to do, whether you want darker colors or traditional Easter pastels, dyeing the shells of brown eggs is a fun process for the whole family!
Related Questions
Now that we’ve learned all about the ways to dye brown eggs, here are some additional questions that we thought you might have.
Can you dye eggs with Kool-Aid?
You can dye eggs with Kool-Aid! Kool-Aid does give the eggs a good color. You will need to leave the eggs to soak in Kool-Aid for up to 20 minutes for it to be effective.
Can you eat eggs that have been dyed?
It is absolutely fine to eat eggs that have been dyed, as long as the eggs were dyed using food-safe products and no other chemicals or toxins were used in the preparation and dyeing process.
