The traditional way of making kumkum involves natural substances that you can get easily from the shops. The three main ingredients that are necessary for making kumkum are: lemon juice, turmeric powder and baking soda. The main ingredient is the turmeric powder. It is mainly the turmeric powder that gets converted into kumkum. For daily use; it is always better to buy & use natural products – which help you in feeling calm & great (once you put the kumkum at the forehead region). Kumkum is something that can be applied as a ‘bindi’ instead of the sticker ‘bindi’. You can gather superior quality kumkum from kumkum suppliers in India. Buy them & use them on a regular basis or make them yourself at your home (if you have enough time for the same).

Traditional way of making kumkum is given below.

1. Take enough amount of turmeric
2. Add baking soda to it
3. Mix lemon juice to it and form a fine paste (by mixing all of them together)

Take enough amount of turmeric

Take enough amount of turmeric. It is always better to use natural turmeric and crush it into fine turmeric powder instead of buying turmeric powder from the market. Most of the turmeric powder contains chemicals in it now a day. Therefore if you can grow turmeric plant at your home itself then it will be better. Grow turmeric and grind it into small powder and use it for making kumkum. It is always better to use the traditional grinding tools to grind the turmeric instead of using modern methods like ‘Mixie’.

Add baking soda to it

As mentioned above; the next step is adding baking soda to the turmeric powder (that you have already taken). Once you have gathered enough amount of turmeric powder, add half its amount of baking soda to it. The amount of turmeric can be more than the baking soda. Some people use equal amount of turmeric powder and baking soda too. The usual ratio of turmeric powder and baking soda is 2:1. That is: you can use two tablespoons of turmeric for one tablespoon of baking soda. Some use equal amounts too. That is 1:1 ratio. In some cases people use sweet orange oil also along with the mixture. (You can try the various varieties and come up with the best.) Baking soda is the part that acts as a catalyst for the reaction – once lemon juice is poured into the turmeric powder & baking soda mixture.

Mix lemon juice to it and form a fine paste (by mixing all of them together)

Pour lemon juice into the mixture of turmeric powder & baking soda. Now you will be able to see bubbles forming. Don’t worry! This is how you can understand whether the chemical reaction is happening or not. If the bubbles are forming, it means that the chemical reaction is happening properly and this proves the conversion of the turmeric powder into kumkum. Once the chemical reaction happens; you will be able to see the color of the turmeric getting changed into red and then slowly into maroon. The thick paste of the mixture made can be kept in sunlight. The color of the mixture changes much once the kumkum process gets completed (after getting dried up well).

Kumkum powder manufacturers in India provides you with fine kumkum powder. But if you want to make your own kumkum powder at home then you can do it with the help of the instructions given above. The three steps that have to be followed for manufacturing kumkum are: add half the amount or equal amount of baking soda to turmeric powder. Add lemon juice to the mixture in order to form a thick paste and dry the mixture with the help of sunlight. You will be able to see the color of the mixture getting changed gradually – in order to give you the final product called kumkum.