Natural Dyes

At Nathalia JMag we experiment with natural dyes and from those experiments we have found that Turmeric and cochineal are the most easy duplicable natural dyes. It's easy to recreate the same tones using these two natural dyes. 

Turmeric is a root and it is traditionally used to season food or as an anti inflammatory. It's list of benefits is long but one of its properties is that is a dye agent and it is used in food coloring and cosmetics. We use turmeric to accomplish our gorgeous yellow shades. Turmeric initially yields a really bright yellow but over time the garment will fade.

Turmeric is not lightfast which means that when it is exposed to sunlight it will fade. Therefore how long the garment stays a bright yellow is all up to the end consumer and how they take care of the garment. If the garment is stored in a dark closet and only hand washed it will stay a bright yellow for much longer than is it if constantly washed and exposed to sunlight. 

Cochineal is a Beatle and its an ancient dye that dates back to pre-columbian times. It's origin is unknown but today it is cultivated in Peru and in Mexico, both of these cultures say that it originated there. Cochineal was such an important dye that when it was first discovered by colonizers it was held at higher esteem than gold.

Cochineal produces beautiful tones of red, orange, purple and pink. Since this dye is very expensive we use it to dye our textiles pink. 

The best part about cochineal is that it is actually lightfast ! This means that the color will remain the same through washing and drying and it can also be exposed to sunlight.