I was wondering if anyone has found a good option for coloring slime that isn't a synthetic dye or pigment with heavy metals in it. Food coloring is petroleum based and very questionable so I don't want to be covered in that. Powdered pigments that aren't synthetic are basically ground up minerals that sometimes contain things like lead, aluminum or chromium which also isn't great to be covered in.

I'm wondering is something food based could work, like mixing some spirulina powder into methylcelulose to get green slime? Anyone ever try this or have other suggestions?

It looks like even spirulina is not even safe from heavy metals:


Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3824145/

So it has trace heavy metals, but still safe to eat. So it is probably safe on skin.

Spirulina does contain a toxin:


Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10221061/

This is mostly referring to consumption. Who knows what Microcystin toxins do to skin though.

A related topic, I was looking into whether or not it is safe to get messy with blue-green algae bloomed lakes like Lough Neagh last year when QS4Ever made the video "Environmental Pollution: Angel". It is not:

https://www.cdc.gov/habs/be-aware-habs.html
https://www.in.gov/dnr/state-parks/files/sp-BlueGreenAlgae.pdf

Spirulina is a blue-green algae. I would guess that when mixed from a powder and suspended in a slime, it would not be harmful. I would guess that the worst spirulina would cause is a rash, or a rare allergic reaction. It does not seem much more harmful than anything else like mud.

Spirulina is interesting. I never heard of it before. I wonder what it would look like when mixed with slime.

This is an interesting post. It makes me wonder if berries or spinach could be used to make color if blended into liquid. People get messy with foods and pie filings all of the time, so I would guess natural pigments from organics would be fine. It probably just requires extra shower time and scrubbing.

Edit: Grain of sand info. I am no scientist, and I don't even make slimes to get messy.

You can try Crayola washable kids paint, I think it's poster paint. It's edible and doesn't stain. Not sure if it meets your requirements as far as health concerns go. I only used it once and it was a great alternative to food colouring.

Spinach powder?

There seems to be a lot of powders that are meant for making organic drinks and smoothies. Carrot powder also seems interesting. So many powders. I don't know if they would look like a good color slime though.

I use powders from justpigments.com. I only use pigments approved for cosmetic use without restriction. I would hope they meet your criteria but who knows for sure.

Children's powder paint is non toxic and is what a lot of people use. We've used it for years with no issues.

For anyone interested in bulk powder paint I do have quite a few 9kg tubs to sell. When we were selling a lot of gunge i bought 4 pallet loads of it to get a good price. I'm down to around 30 tubs and trying to clear them if anyone is interested.

I would second this - all of the gunge we buy uses children's powder paint as the colouring and have had no issues with it whatsoever!


DM me? Possibly interested and (I think) fairly local to you so could possibly collect some!