The Natural Crayon Company (powder paints and natural crayons)

The Natural Crayon Company is a nice little brand that makes vegan-friendly powder paints and crayons for children. Handmade in the UK, everything is sold in eco packaging.

All toys sold in the UK are legally required to be UKCA-marked, and crayons fall into this category, to ensure they are safe for use by children. All these crayons carry the mark and have undergone stringent safety testing.

Keep crayons out of reach of small children and pets. Supervise around older children.

The powdered paint kit for children contains a wood vegan paintbrush and six colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple). Each one makes up 100ml of paint. Sold in an easy-to-recycle aluminium tin, the paints are made from non-GMO cornflour, gum arabic and food grade pigments.

Just mix the powder with water (1 teaspoon of powder to half a teaspoon of water for thick tempura paint or 1 to 2 tablespoons of water for a watercolour-style paint.

You can store excess in the fridge for up to a few days (away from food) but it’s best freshly used. These are not fingerpaints (could cause skin staining, aprons recommended!)

Natural vegan crayons for children

The stick crayons are made from just three ingredients: sustaiable soy wax, candelilla wax and food-grade pigment powder. Sent in a plastic-free box and recycled cardboard bubble wrap, these are more muted in colours than paraffin wax.

Some people are unaware that most crayons for children are made from pork gelatine. Other crayons are made from paraffins wax (made from petroleum) so contributes to climate change, through drilling oil (which in turn helps to create wars).

Where to recycle old crayons

If you have a lot of old crayons lying about, send them off to this eco native recycling project, where they are melted down and made into new crayons. At least this stops more new pork gelatine crayons being made and sold.