An eye for dye

~ Southeast Missourian staffers test egg-dyeing kits

Paas Color Snaps

About the product: Q-tip like swabs that contain non-toxic dye in five colors: blue, red, purple, yellow and green. At 78 cents, this kit was the least expensive of those tested.

How it works: To activate the dye, snap one end of the swab. The dye runs down into the opposite end of the swab, and can then be applied to the egg.

Warnings: Snapping the end of swab can splatter a little of the dye, so make sure to work on a covered surface, as the product's directions advise. Also, the dye can stain skin. Even after soap and water washing, our tester's fingers were still colorful.

Summary: Overall, this was a fun, simple way to color Easter eggs. Using the wands, instead of dipping the eggs into dye, allowed the tester to "draw" designs on the egg. Prepartion was at a minimum, compared to mixing tablets, hot water and vinegar. The dye colors were fairly vibrant in comparison with more traditional egg dyeing methods. The messiness of this product was probably in line with that of any other egg dying kit though, because of splatters. Also, the product package claims the five wands will decorate "dozens" of eggs. The tester found the dye colors became less vibrant after decorating just three eggs.

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Easter Unlimited Color Puffs

About the product: The product touts itself as "traditional egg coloring plus puff paint fun" and cost $1.88. It comes with five coloring tablets, three tubes of puff paint (pink, purple, white), four egg stands and an egg dipper. Items needed that are NOT included in the kit: cups, warm water and vinegar.

How it works: Dissolve the color tablets in 1/2 a cup warm water with two tablespoons vinegar. Use the metal egg dipper to dip the eggs into the cups of dye. Allow the dye to dry, then apply puff paints.

Warnings: While the product instructions claim adding vinegar will make the eggs more vibrant, the dye was still uneven and splotchy in this case. Children should be monitored, especially when adding the vinegar. Another drawback: The three tubes of paint seemed to run out pretty quickly. If you have several children dying eggs it might be worth it to buy more than one kit. Also, the puff paints took at least 10 minutes to dry.

Summary: Puff paint is a fun and easy way to decorate Easter eggs. After dying the egg a base color of green, yellow, or red, the puff paint is applied. Puff paint allows for more precise designs than some of the other paints. The puff part means the egg has a cool, 3-D look that makes the "Happy Easter," message, bunny face, or whatever design the child chooses practically jump off the egg.

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Dudley's Speckled Eggs

About the product: This kit, which cost $1.42, included five color packets (blue, orange, yellow, green and purple), five sponges, a plastic sponging tray and 114 stickers.

How it works: The "color" comes in plastic packets (similar to condiments). Open each packet, then pour into the plastic tray. Use the sponges to apply the color to eggs, "speckling" the colors to form a tie-dye-like effect.

Warnings: The testers fingers were stained from holding the eggs, which also left finger prints on the eggs. But the dye washed off with soap and water. The dye also rubbed off when the eggs were laid on a paper towel to dry. After sitting in a refrigerator overnight, the dye on the eggs was still wet and sticky the next morning.

Summary: Instead of the traditional dipping the egg into dye, there were sponges on the end of wands allowing you to dab the color onto the egg. The dye colors were bright. The package came with clear stickers to decorate the eggs but some of the dye soaked underneath the stickers. Preparation was very easy, cutting open the packages and squirting them into trays.

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Dudley's Coloring Cups

About the product: This is a basic, no-frills egg decorating kit. Unlike some available kits, it did include five plastic cups. The kit cost $1.42 and also came with a wax crayon for decorating, a metal egg dipper and five dye tablets (pink, blue, green, yellow and purple).

How it works: Fill each of the provided cups with 1/2 cup of warm water, add color tablet and three tablespoons vinegar. Dip eggs in the cups. The longer the eggs soak, the brighter the color should be.

Warnings: The "magic crayon" -- basically a wax crayon -- that comes with this kit and allows you to "write" on the eggs is fragile and under the pressure of even the smallest fingers will break easily. Also be careful not to get the dye on your fingers because it stains.

Summary: Children 5 and older will probably have fun using the wire, bendable egg dipper to lower the eggs into the plastic cups . (But they won't like the pee-yew of the vinegar that you'll have to add to all of the colors except for pink.) Younger toddlers may find the task a bit difficult and messy.

The result is a bit dull for the work you'll have to do. Once you're done dippin', you get a plain, single-colored egg that isn't much to look at. (Dipping your eggs into more than one color only creates weird, drab color concoctions.) But, overall, it's pretty easy to use and if you want something quick and easy, this may be your best bet.