Natural Earth Paints Review

School starts back up in just a couple weeks. This means that bed times need to come back down to a reasonable hour… aka no more Lego building until 1:00 in the morning. You hear that dear daughter????

It also means that I am getting antsy about sending my youngest to Kindergarten. I want the transition to be as easy as possible and that is a tall order for a child who doesn’t do well with change. He will be leaving his previous school (preschool) and going to the same school as his older sister. He will be riding the bus and will be expected to find his way to his classroom each day. He will also be in a classroom with “typical” children and I am petrified that his autism will make him the odd one out. We have been down that road already with our oldest and it is no fun. I am seriously tempted to go to his school the first day and grab someone by the shirt collar and demand they do right by this child since they so royally messed the job up last time. Sigh…

Anyway, to get him ready for school I have been doing some schoolish activities with him so that we can discuss what is coming. One of those activities has been a daily painting time. Since he loves to paint he is more receptive to all this talk about a new school. We have been using, and thoroughly enjoying, Earth Paint.

When I go to a craft store to buy paint I usually stick with ones that I know are safe bets, like Tempura. I just don’t know what is inside some of the other paints and I don’t want to risk bringing something toxic into the house. And yet even the “safe” paints are big fats failures on the sustainability front. This is why I have deferred to ordering plant based paints online. We have a brand that we have used for years and have been quite happy with it. Even so I was equally happy to try Earth Paint and give it a thorough test run.

What I like most about Earth Paint: The colors are rich and true to nature. They are not glossy, overly bright colors that scream “came from a bottle.” The red is not the screaming red you would see on finger nail polish but rather the darker, deeper red you would find in berries. It just bothers me to see paintings of trees where the green used to do the leaves looks like it is a shade away from neon. These are the real colors of nature because they actually come from nature.

The kit you see in the photos is comprised of organic, eco-friendly paint made from natural earth pigments (pure clay). The naturally colored clay is collected from the ground, dried, crushed and sifted into pure pigment. When you mix a bit of water with the six powdered colors you get a super creamy paint that is similar to tempera. Or you can thin it out with even more water to create watercolor like effects. We found it super easy to mix and use. Mixing was half the fun in fact.

You can use it on paper of course but also things like wood, rocks, fabric, etc. The other plant based paints we have used could not boast this because their paints were/are significantly thinner and more like watercolors. We may end painting some rocks and sticks again this week, using Earth Paints. That was lots of fun but the techno colors of that project bothered me. These natural colors would look gorgeous I think.

This Made in the USA kit contains:

• Six colors of hand-crafted earth paints – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, brown (makes 120 oz. of paint when mixed!)
• Six biodegradable mixing cups (bio-plastic)
• An Earth Paints booklet with mixing instructions, nature-based art activities, information about the use of earth paints in ancient times, and more

*All reusable packaging that is 100% Post Consumer Recycled and biodegradable

Our family was grateful to stumble upon what is likely our new favorite natural paint. We give Earth Paints an A++. The oil paint kit is next on our list of products we need to try…a Christmas gift perhaps?

Many thanks to Earth Paint for sending us the kit to review!