A lot of others here have brilliant colors in everything they use and I'd like to do that too, but would also like to avoid staining. Specifically, what will do that? I'm interested in actual products I can buy if anyone is ok with sharing that kind of information. Strong preference for things available in the US because that's where I am.

I tried searching the forums and the best I've been able to find was a neon food coloring that's available on Amazon, with mixed reviews.

To an extent it'll depend on what you use the gunge on. Our experience is that other than white things, most stuff washes out fine, just use cool temperatures and plenty of water, but there'll always be that one item that randomly stains permanantly. That's one of the reasons we have an extensive WAM wardrobe, if something does get stained we just bin it and replace.

The bright colours used in UK gunge are basically kid-safe poster paint, which usually washes out of things well, but of course there's always the risk.

I once used food gel (the stuff in a tube, not a bottle), and ended up looking like a smurf. So I'd definitely say to avoid them.

I do agree with DM. The kid safe poster paint is probably the best to use for colouring gunge/pies. As its non toxic and (usually) washes out fine.

Can find it in must art/hobby shops and even supermarkets, it usually states non toxic and washable on the bottle.

I use powders from justpigments.com. I only use pigments approved for cosmetic use without restriction. I've used black & gold and both washed right out... even from white.

I'm definitely a fan of kid friendly poster paint for the safety aspect, I just haven't gotten it to be very bold. I've only found it for sale in person in liquid form (
16 fluid oz). Is it available in powder form over there? I feel like I use a ton of liquid and don't get much color out of it, but maybe I'm just not using enough?

The WAM wardrobe here at home is larger than I'd like to admit thanks to the Goodwill liquidation store where anything one would wear is sold for $1.69/lb. The problem is I keep finding things I actually like there!

We buy our gunge powder already coloured, so yes, the colour definitely comes as powder, but I don't know what proportion of gunge powder to paint powder is used in mixing it. Occasionally there'll be a little clump of pure colour where the powders haven't fully mixed, or a little patch of pure white which is just the actual gunge, these all mix in fine when we make up a bucket though.

Messy Supplies colours mostly come in standard or "fluorescent", which are the really bright TV-style colours. We've not experimented with Messy Pup gunge yet.


LOL! Fortunately I'm buying for models rather than myself, but I do have to reign in the desirte to buy entire shopfulls of stuff just because I think one of our people will look awesome in it. Really need to get using what we have. Me having hoarding tendencies doesn't help.

I get ready mixed poster paint in 5 litre cans (169 US flo/oz) from an education supplier. These are used neat or to colour cake batter/oatmeal etc

From the same supplier (and Amazon) I also get 3-5kg tubs of powder colour.

(In my lunacy I generally mix these with oil or fat to make 'grease' paint - or to add colour to something uncontaminated by water in. They stain clothing like hell in this form!)

As DM1 says, though, these non-toxic powder paints are what are used to colour gunge. The colours are bright and strong when wet but sufficiently dilute to wash out of even light colours entirely (depending on the fabric). Cotton will always risk taking dyes/synthetics not usually.

One tip I was provided with by a well known US producer I will pass on was to ensure that any colour or dye used in any WAM concoction is properly mixed and incorporated into the solution. This will help avoid skin staining.

This happened once on my watch (though luckily just the lady's lower arms and not her hair or face!) when she had fluorescent Holi powder dyes thrown over her and was then doused in cooking oil.

I'm going to experiment with Holi color powder. It's intended to be used dry and wash out easily but that doesn't mean I can't see how well it tints cake batter.

Ingredients are corn starch + natural dye. Cost per lb is low, but that's meaningless if it takes a crazy amount of the stuff to do anything. There were zero references to it when I searched the forums.

I found it at https://www.colorpowdersupply.com/bulk-color-powder/ for anyone who wants to play along or finds this thread at some point int he future

I also recommend wearing gloves when handling any pre-mixed coloring additives (especially concentrates). I spent a week trying to explain why I had green hands once

Is the powder Colorations brand? That's the only one that I could find that was also from an education supplier.

I'm in the UK, BTW. Here are some examples of ones I've used before. I still have quite a large stock purchased pre- 2020. It looks like most of these are discontinued now or out of stock from the places I used to buy them. EBay appears to be the only source now.

Note: they all warn about staining, of course!

Thanks, that's actually quite helpful. Amazing that two of those say 9 and 10kg on the bucket, that's just huge!

MS "Clayzee Colours" have a very intense pigment and is fully opaque (as it's clay-based mess).
I've had one incident where the yellow stained my partner's neck for a few days, and it permanently stained my pool. No issues with other colours.

As with all messes- don't let it dry in. It's so much easier to clean when it's still wet.


The amount of pigment varies depending on the colour- I've noticed yellow and pink MS gunge packs tend to be a bit bigger than some other colours.
Comparing to a pack of uncoloured MS gunge- it's probably 40-60% pigment by volume.