Egg paint or Egg Tempera is a great alternative if you want safe organic paint in your home.
You first put pigment in water overnight, then mix eggs and oil with a handheld mixer until they resemble mayonnaise. (The eggs and oil should both be room temperature or both be in the fridge) The last step is mixing the pigment in water with the eggs and oil mixture to make the paint. That’s it in a nutshell.
Why should you choose safe organic paint when there are so many other paint options?
I started looking into lead paint a couple of years ago because I read several studies where they proved a link between lead paint exposure and ADHD. Two of my three children have ADHD and I didn’t want any lead paint lurking around my house.
Having ADHD in your family is a huge motivator for organic paint. Many paints do not contain lead, but they have many other undesirable additives.
For a quick overview of how to make Egg Tempera check out my Picture Slideshow.
(Web Story) Click here Making egg Tempera.
I am originally from the USA, but I met and married a Swede sixteen years ago and moved to Sweden.
My husband and I bought a farm (Not a working farm) after our son was born. The oldest buildings on the farm are from 1790.
When my son was diagnosed with ADHD I started looking into the possibility of finding harmful lead paint in some of the farm buildings.
Lead paint was banned in Sweden in the 1920s. Older layers of paint could contain lead. Fortunately, the owners of our farm didn’t paint much. They didn’t even paint the outside of the house, and I haven’t found any paint that I suspect is lead-based paint.
When I buy older furniture with thick layers of peeling paint, I sand the paint off (while using a face mask) and repaint. Old pieces of furniture often have a layer of lead paint.
If you want to skip the medical jargon and read a summary of ‘The Link between ADHD and lead paint’ or a summary of ‘The Hidden sourceses of lead’ you can read my post ‘The Kiss of death!’
If you are not interested in lead lipstick just scroll down to the next title ‘The link between ADHD and lead’ Klick below
https://theadhdminimalist.com/the-kiss-of-death-lead-lipstick-can-cause-adhd-in-children/
Even if you ignore the link between ADHD and lead exposure you are still left with frightening lead side effects such as vomiting, seizures, and lead poisoning.
To read from one of my sources on lead poisoning click below.
(source) https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lead-poisoning/symptoms-causes/syc-20354717
Many children eat paint chips.
Often paints on the shelf at your regular hardware store are full of undesirable chemicals and additives even if they do not contain lead.
Although adults would not eat paint chips unless they have pica many children do.
Small children put everything in their mouths, and grade school children often egg each other on to things they would never do by themselves.
I remember a game of ‘I Dare You’ with the neighborhood kids when I was seven and my brother five.
My brother would put almost anything in his mouth if someone dared him to eat! Thankfully there weren’t any paint chips or other harmful substances in the vicinity.
Adults and children living in old houses can inhale dust which is largely composed of broken-down paint chips.
Some researchers speculate that consuming small amounts of paint dust over long periods of time could cause cancer, lead poisoning, or ADHD.
Where is Lead Paint Banned?
Lead paint has been banned In Sweden since the 1920s and in The United States since the end of the ’70s I checked the stats on these countries because I am a citizen of both.
For a list of countries that have banned lead paint you can click below, but many of them do not enforce their own ban.
Unfortunately, many of these countries do not make it a priority to enforce their own laws, and many countries still have lead paint on the shelves at the local hardware stores.
When a child in South Africa with Pica (an eating disorder where clay, soil, and paint chips are consumed) was found to be severely affected by lead, this sparked an investigation.
It was found that approximately 50% of families in South Africa had lead paint on the walls. Families are still unknowingly buying lead paint even though lead in paint has been banned in South Africa for years.
(Source) https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829190-200-the-wests-toxic-hypocrisy-over-lead-paint/
It’s easy to make organic Egg Paint
Just like learning any other new skill, Mixing paint is not hard when you understand what to do.
Sometimes learning a new skill can be overwhelming, but I promise it is not hard to mix paint!
I asked a lot of questions when I first started mixing paint, but after doing it a couple of times I got the hang of it. You will too.
Egg paint is not hard to make.
You first put pigment in water overnight, then mix eggs and oil with a handheld mixer until they resemble mayonnaise.
(The eggs and oil should both be room temperature or both be in the fridge) The last step is mixing the pigment in water with the eggs and oil mixture to make the paint. That’s it in a nutshell.
Things you will need before you start making paint
1) A digital kitchen scale that shows weight in grams.
It will be easier if it’s the kind of scale that automatically saves the last weight you measured. These scales can be a bit more expensive than the average kitchen scale.
An expensive scale is not a requirement for making egg paint, but if your scale shows the last weight measured when you turn it on, it will be much easier to measure the ingredients.
Often kitchen scales are programmed to turn themselves off if they don’t sense any activity.
Because of this sometimes frustrating battery saving feature, a scale that saves the last weight ensures that you always have the latest weight even if the scale turns off in the midst of your cracking and weighing eggs or pouring oil.
When I first learned to mix egg paint my cheap scale kept turning itself off because I stopped to reread the instructions or paused to second guess myself.
If you have a cheap scale you’ll need to work faster than if you have the more expensive kind.
I have access to a high-quality scale at work, but when I am not able to borrow it, I make do with a cheap scale that does not save weight.
I find that I need several smaller plastic buckets of the same size and weight to make the cheap scale work well.
If the scale turns itself off in the middle of weighing something, I can get a new bucket, set the weight to zero, and pour the eggs over.
This gets tricky if you start measuring several things in the same bucket. If you measured your eggs, started pouring the oil on top of the eggs, and your scale turns itself off, it’s almost impossible to know how much oil you already poured!
If you saw the latest weight before it went black then you are lucky and you can continue working, but if you have no idea what you mixed you may need to start all over!
This is why I suggest having extra buckets if you have a cheap scale. I have found that it’s easiest to have several buckets of the same size and weight. It’s nice if they have lids, but plastic wrap will do for a bit in a pinch.
If you have several buckets then you can first measure everything separately in its own bucket.
Put eggs in one bucket and oil in one bucket. Once you’ve weighed the ingredients you can pour the contents of the eggs bucket over to the oil bucket and scrape the bucket out with a spatula.
You want to get all the ingredients out of the extra bucket.
This will keep you from making some of the same beginner’s mistakes that I did.
2) Several smaller buckets with lids of the same size and weight.
This is especially important if your scale doesn’t save the last weight. If you have a good expensive scale your buckets don’t all need to be the same size, but either way, I find it’s good to have 3 buckets on hand although most of the time I only use two.
It’s easiest if you have buckets that are tall, and not very wide. This keeps the paint from splattering when you mix it.
If you have a short fat bucket it’s best to go outside when you mix. No one wants paint flying around their house.
I use plastic wrap to keep the paint from splattering when I mix. These buckets are about as tall as they are wide.
If you can find a taller bucket it’ll be easier to mix without making a mess.
3) A hand held mixer.
You will need to wash the mixer directly after finishing if you want to get the paint off. Egg Paint won’t contaminate your mixer for food preparation, but it won’t continue looking nice if you don’t wash it right away.
You’ll need strong dish soap like yes. I bought a cheaper mixer that I only use for mixing paint. I mix a lot of paint, and even though I wash it every time it’s quite hard to get all the paint off.
If you plan to paint several rooms with egg paint or the exterior of a house it’s easier to have a mixer designated for paint.
4) Strong dish soap.
Yes works well.
5) Pigment.
You can buy dry pigment or make your own from clay or minerals if you have such things in the soil where you live. You can also use watercolors as a pigment.
I have not used watercolors as pigments myself because some watercolor pigments can be poisonous and they are often not organic, but I know people who use the liquid watercolors in tubes for pigments.
I would suggest using watercolors for pigments only if you are an artist.
There are plenty of organic pigments that can be used for artists’ paints, using watercolors is only necessary for certain colors that are not found naturally.
You can buy natural organic pigments here… A link will be here soon
6) Water from your kitchen sink.
I have hard water and it still works fine.
7) Eggs, If you want to have organic paint you will need to use organic eggs.
Regular eggs work fine if you don’t feel the need for your paint to be organic. Make sure you have a dozen eggs on hand.
Turn on the scale, press zero, and crack eggs into the bucket until you have slightly more eggs in the bucket than the recipe calls for.
You will need fewer eggs if you buy a big ones and more eggs if you buy small ones.
8) Flaxseed oil, or linseed oil.
Linseed oil can be bought at stores selling artists’ supplies, but it’s rather expensive. Despite what the name brands which make linseed oil would have you believe you can use flaxseed oil from the grocery store to make paint.
Read the label before you buy and make sure you’re buying 100% pure flaxseed oil.
You don’t want to buy flaxseed oil enriched with fiber from flax seeds or flaxseed oil that has other non-drying oils mixed in.
9) Spatula.
It’s easiest to buy one only for paint, but if you wash it as soon as you’re done you can get all the paint off.
10) Plastic wrap can be useful if you have a low bucket and must mix paint inside.
I sometimes put plastic wrap around the edge of the bucket and up to the handle of the mixer.
For this to work the wisps need to have plenty of room to move inside the plastic without touching it.
11) Space in your fridge if you can’t use up all the paint in one day.
How to make Egg Paint
There are a few general rules for making egg paint.
Eggs in grams = Flaxseed oil in grams.
You will always have the same amount of eggs as oil. (For example, If you have 90 grams eggs you will add 90 grams flaxseed oil to that and mix it up into a mayonnaise. If you have 250 grams eggs you will add 250 flaxseed oil to the eggs and mix it into mayonnaise.)
The amount of water is always 500 grams.
If you are making paint to paint an entire wall or an entire piece of furniture then you need an entire bucket of paint and you will need 500 grams of water.
Eggs and oil must both be cold or both be warm.
In other words, either put both in the fridge or both out on the counter when you mix your pigment with water. Let it sit in the fridge or on the counter for several hours before you start mixing.
If you want to make less paint for a small project or for making artists paints divide each part of the recipe by four.
If you were to divide the recipe for primer by 4 it would look like this.
410 grams pigment % 4 = 102 grams pigment
500 grams water % 4 = 125 grams water
190 grams eggs % 4 = 47 grams eggs
190 grams flaxseed oil = 47 grams flaxseed oil
Most of the time you need more eggs and flaxseed oil for light colors and less eggs and flaxseed oil for dark colors.
It can vary from around 70 g (70 grams eggs + 70 grams flaxseed oil) up to around 350 grams (350 grams eggs + 350 grams flaxseed oil). This is something to keep in mind if you are making your own pigment.
Pigment
In the picture above you can see a bag of pigment for primer or base coat paint. It looks darker in the bag than it does when it’s mixed. I bought this pigment in Sweden.
The weight of the pigment is 410 grams. The amount of pigment per color can vary depending on the color you are trying to mix.
Many of the pigments I use weigh slightly less or slightly more than 500 grams per bucket of paint. Paint pigments can weigh as little as 250 grams and as much as 560 grams per 500 grams of water which would make one bucket of paint.
In the picture above you can see the white pigment I used for painting our ceiling.
If you buy pigment most companies will tell you how to mix it although I find that in the USA usually they tell you how to mix thicker artists paint not paint for furniture or walls.
If you want to make your own pigment from dirt, clay, ground minerals, or water colors it will take a bit of experimenting to get the right consistency. I have given some general instructions for mixing your own paint from scratch under the heading Egg Paint Recipes.
If you make your own pigments, I would suggest that you try testing your paint on the same type of surface you are planning to use the paint on later.
If the paint doesn’t give a satisfactory result you could either add more pigment or add more egg/oil mixture.
It would probably be easiest to start by adding a little bit less pigment and a bit less egg/oil mixture than you think you need. Then you can add more till you get the right consistency.
It’s Not possible to remove ingredients after you have added them.
The paint is a bit runnier than a regular pot of paint at the hardware store, so don’t strive to have the same consistency as regular paint.
Eggs
If you want to have organic paint you’ll need to buy organic eggs.
Eggs are not all the same size and weight. One egg is approximately 50 grams.
You will always use the whole egg.
You probably won’t get your eggs to weigh the exact amount the recipe calls for. This is ok. Just add an extra egg so you have slightly more eggs than necessary. You will then check the weight of the eggs in grams and add the same amount of oil to the eggs.
Remember eggs and oil are always equal.
If you have less than 50 grams left when you are weighing eggs pick a small egg for the last egg.
If you have slightly more than 50 grams left when you are weighing eggs pick a big egg for your last egg. This will get you to almost exact measurements.
When you are weighing the eggs for your egg paint it’s better to have a bit extra eggs and oil in your paint then not enough.
You can mix all your eggs and oil mixture into the pigment and water even if it’s slightly more than in the recipe.
Oil
If you want your paint to be organic you’ll need to buy organic oil.
You can buy refined linseed oil. This means that the oil has been cleaned and filtered.
The difference between linseed oil and many other oils is that linseed oil will dry and form a hard surface while most other oils will remain wet.
Linseed oil can be bought at stores selling artists supplies, but it’s rather expensive.
Despite what the name brands of linseed oil would have you believe you can use flax seed oil from the grocery store to make paint.
Read the label before you buy and make sure you’re buying 100% pure, refined (cleaned and filtered) flaxseed oil. You don’t want to buy flaxseed oil enriched with fiber from flax seeds or flaxseed oil that has other non drying oils mixed in.
Water
Any tap water will work for making paint. I haven’t found any difference in the paint when using soft or hard water.
Egg Paint Recipes
Paint Recipe Primer
410 grams pigment
500 grams water
190 grams egg
190 grams Flaxseed oil
Paint Recipe for wall paint
515 gram pigment
500 gram water
250 gram egg
250 gram Flaxseed oil
Paint Recipe paint for wood
(This works well in kitchens, bathrooms, for wooden trim or wooden furniture)
515 gram pigment
500 gram water
325 gram egg
325 gram flaxseed oil
Mixing Egg Paint (Egg oil Paint) an illustrated guide
First put your bucket on your scale.
Then press the button to reset the weight to zero
Weigh the water. You need 500 grams
If you buy pigment you should receive a recipe for mixing paint. Some stores, especially in the USA, only have recipes for mixing artists paint, which is thicker and more expensive than paint you use on the walls or on furniture. If you don’t have a recipe for paint you can try one of the ones above.
After measuring the water push the button so the scale is reset to zero and measure the correct weight for your pigment.
If you are using bags of pigment from Av Jord a Swedish Paint Company, you don’t need to weigh the pigment. Just dump it into 500 grams of water.
When you’ve added the pigment mix it with your electric mixer.
This needs to sit overnight for the best results. If you are in a big hurry let it sit at least an hour.
When your pigment is done resting (This gives you a smoother paint) you can start mixing the eggs and oil.
Pigment and water can be mixed and left in buckets with tight lids for several years!
I just used pigment that I put in water two years ago and I had no problems with it. I mixed it a bit longer than normal and scraped the side with a spatula, but the paint turned out great.
It can be a good idea to keep the pigment and water out of direct sunlight. I put mine in a dark closet.
If the pigment mixture gets hot every day the water will evaporate faster, but it doesn’t need to sit in the fridge.
Put an empty bucket on the scale then reset the weight to zero. Start adding the eggs. They weigh around 50 grams each.
If you need 190 grams of eggs for your recipe that would be approximately 3.8 eggs.
One of the rules of egg paint is that you can’t divide eggs. If the recipe calls for 3.8 eggs you will use 4 eggs so you have slightly more grams of egg than what the recipe calls for.
If the weight of 4 eggs = 215 grams then you will use 215 grams of oil so that you have exactly the same amount of eggs and oil.
When you have a scale that remembers the last weight weighed it’s easy to check if you forgot how much your eggs weighed.
If you have a cheap scale it can be good to have a pen and paper nearby to write weights down so you don’t forget, or weigh the eggs and oil in two separate buckets and pour them together after you have the correct weights.
Above, a picture of eggs and oil.
After the eggs are weighed you can reset the scale to zero and add the same amount of oil as eggs, or weigh it in separate buckets and then mix together.
Mix the eggs and oil until it has the consistency of mayonnaise.
Above, the mayonnaise like eggs and oil mixture.
If you use organic eggs your mixture will usually have a brighter yellow color. This doesn’t seem to change the end result. The yellow color in the eggs and oil keep most pigments from feeling cold.
Pour the egg mixture into the pigment and water mixture and mix. You should mix for 2 minutes scraping the sides and bottom of the bucket.
If you can’t find a tall bucket and you need to mix the paint inside you may want to try putting plastic wrap around the bucket before mixing.
Be careful that the plastic wrap never touches the whip because it will be almost impossible to get the plastic off the machine after it gets tightly twisted around it.
This is the final result for the white paint I used on our ceiling.
This is what the ceiling looked like after I painted one layer of base coat under everything, one layer of white paint on the left, and two layers of white paint on the right.
I Painted the right side one more time before it was done.
The final result in our living room when I finished painting the ceiling and wallpapering.
This is the base paint I used as the final coat for the legs of my table. I painted this twice.
It’s rather runny paint so put paper down on the floor before you paint.
It’s a good idea not to dip your entire brush into the paint but just try to dip the end. The picture above has too much paint on the brush. Try to only dip the first third of the brush in the paint.
While painting on the ceiling I used a piece of plastic table mat which I cut into two pieces to catch drips.
You can hold it under your brush or if you’re painting around beams or other uneven parts of the house you can push it up against the beam or the trim to protect it from the paint.
The paint needs light and air to dry properly
Egg paint dries in two different stages.
- First the water in the paint evaporates.
This makes the paint basically dry and takes about 48 hours.
2. Second the eggs and oil in the paint need to oxidize.
After the initial 48 hours of drying if you rub your finger on the wall you will get paint on your hand. It’s a bit like chalk paint in this respect, but unlike chalk paint it will stop rubbing off as soon as it oxidizes.
Egg paint needs light and oxygen to complete the hardening process. When I painted our living room ceiling in the middle of winter this process took about a month.
We couldn’t open the windows to let in air because it was extremely cold outside and in Sweden we have very little light in the winter.
This prolonged the drying process. When I painted in the spring and could open a window this process went much faster. My bedroom, which was painted in April, was completely dry after about a week.
The great thing is that once it’s completely dry, agg paint is known for being long lasting and hard wearing.
it will look great through wear and tear.
Just make sure that your paint is completely dry before you start touching it. Egg paint is sensitive before it’s completely oxidized, but once it’s had time to completely harden Egg Paint is known for wearing well.
If you are painting around your windows and you plan to have plants on the window sills, wait at least a month preferably two before you actually put things on the newly painted sill.
This will prevent the paint from oxidizing differently because the spots under things will not get enough light and may have yellowish shading later.
If you are painting in areas where there is not as much direct sunlight on the paint, waiting to put things on shelves or on furniture is not as important.
I only noticed this on my window sills when I placed lamps there too soon.
Where to buy pigment for Egg Paint.
In Sweden you can buy pigment from a company called Av Jord. They will automatically give you instructions for mixing the paint with your order.
The instructions are in Swedish, but they have english instructions if you ask for them.
The link below will take you to Av Jord. If you purchase pigment or other paint supplies through this link I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
http://www.avjord.se/?affiliate=11185
Hopefully I will have links here soon. If you need help finding paint right away send me an email at babysnail2002@yahoo.com
Egg paint wears well
Besides the fact that it took a little bit longer because I decided to paint an extra layer of paint on the ceiling I enjoyed using this type of paint.
A friend of mine thinks I needed to paint an extra coat because I skimped on the base coat and only primed once. It’s recommended to paint two coats of base paint.
I didn’t have to worry about bad paint smells or opening the windows in the middle of winter. My kids can lick the walls if they want!
Painting worked really well in winter. I live in Sweden. We don’t have as many nice sunny days as some other parts of the world do and when it’s nice out we want to be outside!
Painting the ceiling in the middle of the summer was not an option for me, so products that allow us in the north to redecorate in winter are worth their weight in gold.
One difference between paint we have these days and paints that they used hundreds of years ago is that paints based on eggs or oil were sucked into the wood instead of just making a crusty layer on top of the wood.
Many old houses in Sweden still have beautiful paintings on the walls because they were painted with these high quality paints.
For more info and book tips check out our page Our Favourite Resources https://theadhdminimalist.com/our-favourite-resources/
To read Q and A about egg paint / Egg Tempra klick here https://theadhdminimalist.com/the-most-common-questions-about-toxin-free-egg-paint-q-and-a/
I included all the questions I had when I first started making egg paint in the post ‘The most common questions about toxin free egg paint Q and A’
To buy your own paint supplies the link below will take you to Av Jord. http://www.avjord.se/?affiliate=11185
Copyright Annie Eklöv
