Colours made from alum
6 colours that our sources say are made from alum.
Red
Carmine
A deep red pigment made from cochineal insects, once prized across continentsPigment · 🇫🇷 France +2
#E32636
Alizarin
A deep red dye first made from madder roots, later produced from coal tarDye · 🇹🇷 Turkey +1
Red
Sindoorसिन्दूर
A red or orange-red powder marking marriage for Hindu women in South AsiaTraditional colour · 🇮🇳 India +4
Red
Kermes
A deep red dye made from Mediterranean scale insects, once prized for scarlet clothDye · 🇪🇬 Egypt +5
#E32636
Rose madder
A traditional red pigment made from the roots of the madder plantPigment · 🇪🇬 Egypt +5
#A91101
Turkey red
A lasting bright red dye for cotton, made from madder root by a complex processNamed shade · 🇹🇷 Turkey +4
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Carmine: Stephhzz, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Kermes: MyName ( Gryffindor ) stitched by Marku1988 This panoramic image was c, Public domain, source
- Sindoor: Masum-al-hasan, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Alizarin: M. Girard - University of Kansas, CC BY-SA 4.0, source