We believe that the extra step of mixing your own paint is well worth the peace of mind of knowing you are using the safest and most sustainable paint on the market. Our Natural Earth Paint for children contains only three natural ingredients, and the Earth & Mineral Pigments contain only one ingredient. Most pre-made paints on the market contain a variety of toxic chemical stabilizers, petrochemicals, fillers, and preservatives. Natural pigments provide an unsurpassed luminosity, depth of color, UV resistance, humidity resistance, and archival qualities. As soon as you have a liquid paint you need a preservative to keep it from going bad on the shelf - by mixing your own, there's no need for preservatives. Conventional paints are the "fast food" approach that the mainstream paint industry thinks consumers demand, but we believe our customers deserve better.

• Our Ingredients: We source our pigments and natural ingredients from eco conscious businesses across the globe, but they have plenty in common—each one is small, family-owned, and harvests or grows its ingredients sustainably.
• Our Safety Testing: Our paints, pigments, and supplies have been tested by government-certified labs and are third party tested. They are labeled in accordance with ASTM D4236-94(2021). We take every precaution in selecting safer alternative ingredients when formulating our paints.
• Our Packaging: We use 100% post-consumer recycled packaging, home-compostable pigment pouches, and recyclable glass and aluminum bottles for our products.
• Our Facilities: We operate out of a solar-powered facility in Southern Oregon that also serves as a community drop-off site to reuse plastic packaging materials. Additionally, all our kit boxes are created in a wind-powered facility.
• Our Certifications: We’re committed to a truly eco-friendly business model as reflected by our prestigious Gold certification from Green America, the highest rank for a green business.
• Our Contributions: We believe being eco-friendly means not only creating a sustainable business, but also a sustainable world. That’s why we give a portion of our profits from each purchase to organizations like One Tree Planted, Rogue Climate, Rogue River Keeper, Green America, and many more.

Yes! Subscribe to our newsletter to receive monthly discount codes, tips & tricks, blog updates, and more.

We offer full refunds on any defective or damaged products. We also offer full refunds (less shipping costs) on elective returns if the product is in re-sellable condition and the return has been made within 3 months of the purchase.

Orders containing in-stock items are typically processed within 2 business days from when we receive the order during operating hours. If a purchase contains out-of-stock or pre-order items, we will ship the order once ALL items are available and it can be fulfilled completely. Once an order is shipped, you will receive a confirmation email with tracking information; please save this email in case of any issues with your order. If your tracking # says that your order was delivered but you didn't receive it, please contact your local post office, go into the PO and ask your neighbors.

After a package leaves our facility, it becomes the responsibility of the contracted carrier to get it to you. Any issues or problems that arise must be resolved with them directly. For USPS orders in particular, we've be instructed that it is best for the recipient to first speak with their local post office regarding any concerns.

Additionally, you can monitor your shipment or file a claim for lost mail with each of the carriers we use: U.S. Postal Service, UPS, or FedEx.

We work hard to ensure orders are processed and received as quickly as possible, but unfortunately, we're unable to locate lost or delayed packages. We recognize errors happen and ask for your patience in those circumstances, but we will not ship replacement items or issue refunds until a formal determination is made by the carrier. Please use the resources outlined above to seek resolution if needed.

Yes! If you’re ordering from Europe, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia or New Zealand, please click the appropriate link to visit the distributor for your region. You can order from their websites or they can tell you if there are retailers in your area. We normally use USPS International for all other international orders, and the order typically takes 2-3 weeks for delivery. We can't predict delays that can occur due to customs inspections - as it's quite random. Since we never know if a package will be held at customs, any import fees or taxes applied to the delivery must be paid by the recipient.

We purchase our pigments from small quarries in countries across the world, including the USA, France, and Italy, depending on where that color pigment is prevalent in the ground. We manufacture our paints in Ashland, Oregon.

All of our pigments are mined sustainably in a way where no pollution is created from the process. Our pigments come from family owned quarries in France, Italy and the US. The European quarries harvest sustainably and don't create any air or water pollution in the process. They have been harvesting pigments from those locations for many generations and aren't close to running out. Earth pigments are in abundant supply around the world and were the main source of colorants for over 100,000 years by all cultures around the globe.

Yes, all of our Earth and Mineral Pigments and paints are extremely archival and have excellent/ permanent lightfastness. Natural earth pigments are the most permanent and archival of any pigment and don’t contain fillers, stabilizers, solvents and preservatives.

The earth pigments will last thousands of years in a glass jar and never fade or degrade. Without the fillers and additives, nothing gets in the way of the purity and longevity of these paints.

Note: see each pigment description on the pigment product page.

Our Natural Earth Paint for children contains organic corn starch, gum arabic (tree sap), and natural earth & mineral pigments. Our Earth & Mineral Pigments contain only one ingredient—natural earth & mineral pigment!

Check the Technical data tab on each product page to see ingredients listed for every product.

Our Natural Face Paint contains distilled water, natural clay & mineral pigments, organic castor seed oil, Certified Organic beeswax, Certified Organic Shea Nilotica (Fair-trade Shea butter), glycerin (from coconut oil), cetearyl alcohol (from natural vegetable oils), laponite (seaweed), olive-mulse (olive-based emulsifier), and 1% Optiphen (a formaldehyde-free and paraben-free preservative).

We use 100% post-consumer recycled packaging, home-compostable pigment pouches, and recyclable glass and aluminum bottles for our products.

Our Natural Earth Paints are suitable for ages 3+, while our Complete Eco-Friendly Oil Paint Kit , Earth & Mineral Pigments  and Natural Acrylik Paints are best suited for teens through adult artists. Our Natural Watercolor Kit is suitable for all ages (although is a professional quality paint).

Our paints are not intended for consumption. However, our Natural Egg Dye Kits are FDA approved for use in food! Our paints are great to use on children's toys and can be sealed with our Natural Varnish or Natural Acrylic Medium, but care should be taken to limit exposure in one's mouth.

All of our products are vegan-friendly except for the Natural Face Paint, which contains organic beeswax.

All of our products are free of gluten and dairy. Our only product containing nuts is our Refined Walnut Oil, but it is not processed in our facility.

The blue and purple pigments are our only pigments that have been fired and manipulated to get their vibrant color. Each is composed of 90% natural earthen clay and 10% man-made minerals (which are heated in an oven to a high temperature to create their vibrant color.) Throughout history, blues in nature were very rare and usually made with precious stones like Lapis Lazuli. These stones are now unsustainably harvested in Afghanistan, so we have found a beautiful and eco-friendly alternative.

Absolutely! None of our products are ever tested on animals.

Titanium dioxide occurs in nature as the well-known mineral, Rutile. Rutile is the second most abundant mineral in sand. It has been processed to extract the pure white mineral that we use in our paint kits. 

To ensure the products meet our strict safety standards, each product is third party tested for heavy metals, toxins and bacterial contamination. Our customer's safety is our #1 priority.

It’s not healthy to breathe any type of dust into your lungs, even if it is natural. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, "The size of particles is directly linked to their potential for causing health problems." When mixing paint, use caution to avoid creating clouds of pigment dust when possible. If you gently scoop the pigment onto a palette and carefully mix it with binder, you should not have any airborne dust. However when mixing large amounts you may create dust. We recommend you wear a mask when mixing in dry form if you have any concerns or sensitivities. You can see specifics on how to mix your paints safely here.

Our Natural Earth Paints wash off of skin and other surfaces very easily with water. The only color that may stain a white shirt is red because of the strength of red earth. To clean oil paint from your hands and body, our Pinerite Natural Hand Cleaner - the perfect all-natural solution. Our Eco-Solve can be used to clean oil paints off of hard surfaces, clothing, carpet, or fabric.

Our pigments are not certified cosmetic grade. Our pigment providers have said that they are safe for cosmetics but they are not technically certified cosmetic-grade or certified safe for skin. We use certified cosmetic grade pigments for our natural face paint but we don't sell those pigments. 

It depends on what type of paint you are trying to make. Our “Resources” section is full of useful information and recipes for making a wide variety of paints and art supplies for professional artists through children. 

Water alone does not work - it will appear to make a creamy paint but when it dries it will dust off the surface. You need to add a natural binder to make it adhere to a surface.

Here are a few of the most popular recipes:

Oil Paint

Watercolor Paint

Gouache Paint

Egg Tempera Paint

Drawing Ink

You can use the Natural Earth Paint Kit, the Complete Eco-friendly Oil Paint Kit, or the Natural Acrylic Paint on wood. The children’s Natural Earth Paint Kit is a water-soluble paint that dries quickly—it’s not a professional-grade paint, but it’s still beautiful and opaque. With this method, you should seal the wood with our Natural Varnish or Acrylic Medium to make it waterproof since the paint will rub off if it gets wet. Another option is using the oil paint from our Complete Eco-friendly Oil Paint Kit (pigment mixed with walnut oil)—it makes an archival, beautiful, professional, eco-friendly paint! This paint is oil-based, so it takes 4-7 days to dry to the touch. Using the Natural Acrylic Medium, you can mix the medium with our Earth & Mineral Pigments for a vibrant acrylic paint that dries faster than oil paints. Or for ready-made Natural Acrylic Paints, these create a durable, water-resistant, professional quality, fast-drying paint.

Yes! You can check our recipe for naturally colored air dry clay here.

On average, it takes about 4-7 days for oil paint to dry, but it may take shorter or longer depending on your surrounding humidity conditions and the thickness of paint layers. To speed drying time, add in some Sun Thickened Linseed Oil to your medium.

Earth pigments have been used by most indigenous cultures to paint their faces and bodies for thousands of years. Our Natural Face Paints are made with cosmetic-grade pigments and organic ingredients and are perfect for any kind of body painting. However, the children's Natural Earth Paint contains gum arabic and cornstarch, which are safe ingredients but can be drying or irritating to some individuals’ skin with prolonged contact. Some people do use it as face paint but we recommend using our Natural Face Paints instead because they’ve been specifically formulated to nourish the skin while providing vibrant, skin-safe color.

Yes, Earth & Mineral Pigments can dye fabric if mixed with a mordant to set the color to the fabric. Most commercially-available mordants are potentially toxic so make sure you find a non-toxic mordant. We have tutorials for making permanent, eco-friendly, and natural fabric paint and fabric dye from soybeans. Also, our Natural Acrylic Paint is the an excellent permanent, water-proof and natural fabric paint.

Yes! You can paint murals or decorative art on your walls with either the Natural Earth Paint Kit (water-based) or for more durable, water-resistant paint, the Natural Acrylic Paints or the Complete Eco-Friendly Oil Paint Kit (pigment mixed with walnut oil). You can also follow our wall mural earth paint tutorial and mix the Earth & Mineral Pigments with wheat paste as a binder. For regular house paint, use the clay house paint tutorial.

For metal and concrete, you should use an oil-based primer on the surface first—there are many online resources on the topic. Our paints are not intended for exterior surfaces or heavy exposure to harsh weather unless sealed with our Natural Varnish or Natural Acrylic Medium

For rocks or stone, the best paint option is the Natural Acrylic Paint which is the most water resistant or the Natural Earth Paint if you don't mind that it will wash off in the rain.

Our tubes of Natural Acrylik Paint work great for this purpose. If you use the Natural Acrylik Paint, it wouldn't need a sealer on it. If you preferred another coat of protection you could try the Natural Acrylik Medium on top. You would need to do tests to see how it works with your specific application and the durability you need as we find it works best on certain kinds of plastic rather than others.

Our Natural Acrylic Paints work well for leather.

Native Americans traditionally mixed earth pigments with hide glue. You can also use Natural Oil Paint however it will take 1-2 weeks to dry.

Another traditional practice for painting rawhide - such as "parfleche" was painting with pure pigment while rawhide is still damp in order for the pigment to penetrate and mix with the natural glues in the hide. After drying, a protective sizing (cactus juice) was applied to the surface to protect it but you can also use our "Natural Varnish".

We'd suggest using our Natural Acrylik Paint to paint ceramics which is durable, water-based, water-resistant paint. Or check out this tutorial on different ways to color ceramics while making them.

Our pigments can also be used in the glazing process - potters use our pigments for clay slips and glazes all the time.

Our Natural Acrylik Paints work great on glass or you can use the Natural Acrylic Medium mixed with our pigment. You can do a test with hand-washing and see how well they hold up to your liking and if they need another sealer. If so, you can put another layer of Natural Acrylik Medium.

Yes!

Natural Screenprinting Ink

Natural Relief Ink (Woodcut Linocut)

Natural Relief Ink (student grade)

Natural Intaglio Ink / Etching

Natural Water-based Relief Printmaking Ink

The children’s paints in the Natural Earth Paint Kit are best used fresh. We recommend that you only mix as much as you need for one painting session, but the paints will stay good for several weeks if kept sealed and refrigerated. The oil paints in the Complete Eco-friendly Oil Paint Kit usually stay wet on the palette for up to a week, but any extra paint can be stored in aluminum foil, air-tight glass jars, or aluminum tubes and will stay good for over a year. For more information on storing oil paints, visit our blog.

We have had many customers in the past use our pigments for coloring candles by mixing with the wax. Our Earth & Mineral pigments behave like all other types of pigments. 

We do not recommend our Acrylik Paints for painting on candles. While there are no VOCs, we still cannot be certain that the plant-based resin is safe to inhale if combusted, and so we always advise against burning resin. 

Yes!

PASTELS

Pastel Recipe #1

Pastel Recipe #2

Oil Pastel Recipe

CRAYONS

MARBLED PAPER

HAND-MADE EARTH PAPER

WATERCOLOR PAINT

Airbrush & Spray Paint: We’ve been told that our tubes of Natural Acrylik Paint watered down work great, although we have not tested it.

Yes! You can sign up for our US affiliates program here and our Canadian distributor’s affiliates program here.We do not have affiliates programs outside of the US and Canada at this time.

Yes! Please go to this page to learn more about our wholesale purchasing options. Complete the form at the top of the page and we will contact you within 2 business days.

Yes, we donate monthly to local environmental non-profits. Because we are a still a small business we are limited in what we can donate. However, we would be happy to offer 50% off all Natural Earth Paint products (shipping not included) and coupon cards for non-profits and fundraisers that we approve of. For more information, please email us at info@naturalearthpaint.com.

Yes! Our Earth & Mineral Pigments are available in up to 1 lb. quantities, and our Natural Earth Paints come in large bags as well.

For all FAQs about the Natural Acrylik Paints, go to the product page and click the FAQ tab. For FAQs about the Natural Acrylik Medium, go to the product page and click the FAQ tab.

If you didn't find the answer to your questions here, go to the product page for the product you have questions about and click on the FAQ tab. More information and FAQs are found there.