How to Make Neon Colors with Food Coloring

Want to make electrifying and vivid food art that makes use of the most eye-catching neon colors?

From funky colors and bold frosting, or icing, you will never run out of creative uses for these vibrant colors. Known for their intense and loud presence, these bright, vivid colors that appear to glow have long been used in art and business.

If you’re among the many currently aiming to create an alluring food art using these ultra-bright colors, there’s a good chance you want to know the ins and outs of how to replicate them using food coloring.

To help you with that, here is a brief guide on what colors you’ll need to prepare, and what steps you’ll need to remember, in order to create glowingly intense neon colors.

Read on…

What are Neon Colors?

Remember the glowing “24/7” sign that adorns your favorite café in the dead of the night? How about those stunning vests you’ve seen on the construction workers down the street?

You may not have realized it until just now, but neon has long been part of your day-to-day environment.

Also known by the name “fluorescent colors,” neon refers to the type of pigments that absorb and reflect more light than the remaining color.

Because of their ability to reactivate and convert light to a dominant wavelength or pigment, neon colors offer brighter, bolder, and livelier appearances that seem to magnetize the eyes of all who encounter them.

Types of Neon Colors

• Green—Neon (or “UFO”) Green, Electric Lime
• Red—Bright Red, Electric Orange
• Blue—Electric Blue, Electric Cyan
• Pink— Neon (or “Plastic”) Pink, Neon Magenta
• Purple—Bright (or “Proton”) Purple
• Yellow—Neon Yellow, Bright Chartreuse, or Absinthe

How to Make Neon Colors

Generally, making neon colors requires only a few ingredients. Here is how you can make neon colors with food coloring.

To prepare, you’ll need to get a bowl of flour, water, a mixing tool, and your preferred neon food coloring.

The first step is to pour a small amount of water into the bowl of flour. From there, simply blend the mixture until you reach your desired consistency. Once you’ve achieved your preferred thickness, you can proceed by putting the neon food coloring into the mixture.

Once you’re done, you can put the mixture in a locked or airtight jar and store it somewhere for future artistic use.

Neon Colors in Design

Given neon’s high visibility and attention-grabbing qualities, it is often used in art and design to highlight a particular message or captivate target audiences.

They are often used in places that are most alive at night or suggest possible dangers during after-dark hours. With this, neon colors are often associated with clubs, festivals, and urban settings that promote wild and lively night’s lives.

Meanwhile, in places such as construction zones or highways, these ultra-bright pigments are used to signal warnings or convey necessary pieces of information despite the absence of a sufficient light source.

In terms of fashion, since neon colors appear bright and bold, they are often used to suggest fun, experimentation, and even excessiveness; while in art, they are used to enliven or inject thrill into a particular work or presentation.

The Bottom Line

Bold, vivid, and beguiling, neon colors have long been considered important tools in art and design. Given their eye-catching presence and alluring glow, you’ll find many situations that call for their lively intensity.

Be sure to remember each of the steps provided above and experiment with the different ways to create the right shade and glow that will perfectly replicate your desired neon colors in your next recipe.

We hope this article helped you!