Did YouKnow... All About Red Dyes?

Call it scarlet, carmine or crimson - red is a color that positively grabs your attention and stands out in the crowd! It's a hue that has been with us since the dawn of time and has many different shades and tones associated with it. It represents love, passion, fire! It is the star of many themes in February! Let's look into what makes a red dye work...

Why do so many red dyes have pink in them?

When it comes to mixing and working with Fiber Reactive dyes, you may find that a lot of the red dye tends to have a magenta or pink hue to the dye. The reason for this is that dyes use the CMY color wheel (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) and red is actually a mixed color of magenta dye particles and yellow dye particles. In the image below you can see how yellow and magenta combine together to create red:

Because of this with some dye techniques, like ice dyeing or tie-dye, you may see those magenta particles in the mix. We have a few pure color red dyes which are only one color in the mix (more on that below!), but in general most red dyes will be some combination of yellow and magenta.

Molecules Matter - the science of red dye and why am I getting a "halo" of color around the edges of my tie-dye?

Since red tends to be a mixed color, you may find that you'll get splits with ice dyeing or "halos" of color when the dye is used in tie-dye. The reason for this is that because reds are made up of both yellow and magenta particles, they will have different characteristics with how they will attach and move on fibers. Each dye particle will have a different attribute associated with it. For example, our Fuschia Red #13 is one dye particle that reacts the fastest to bond with fabric when in the presence of soda ash. This means that oftentimes the Fuschia dye components tend to stay put where the dye has been placed, bonding where it attaches. Yellow, by contrast, tends to bond a little slower, and because of this you may find that the yellow has time to travel further onto your fabric before completing its bond. The end result can give a slight halo around the edge of your reds in tie-dye.

Pro-Tip - Here are some tips on how to reduce that "halo" effect for tie-dye:

*You can use a temporary thickener. Many tie-dye artists will opt to use a product called Sodium Alginate. This stuff gets pre-mixed up and forms a kind of thick, pourable medium. You can experiment by adding a teaspoon or so to your mixed up dyes to help thicken them and help slow down their traveling on fibers. You may find that you like it thicker or thinner, so testing would be key to get what you like.

*Try out a pure red dye color instead. We have two reds that are pure colors, meaning that they are not a mix of magenta and yellow dye components but a single dye color. Our two pure reds are: #190 Atomic Fireball and #194 Dye-namite

What is warm vs. cool red?

It can be tough to describe what colors you see! Everyone perceives color differently and sometimes using the name of a color can be ambiguous. If someone says "The color of an apple" that could mean red, green or yellow to a person!

In the world of color, one way to describe what you are looking for is to ask if the color is warm or cool. This helps determine where that color might be in the spectrum of perception. Cooler colors are colors that travel towards the blue end of the color spectrum. Warmer colors are colors that travel closer to yellow in the spectrum. So if someone were to say "I need a warm red" that would be a red with more yellow mixed into it, making it start to warm up and travel closer to orange in tone.

However, if someone were to ask "I need a cool red" that would be a red with more magenta or even blue mixed into it to cause it to travel closer to the pink/ purple side of things. In the image below you can see how red travels warmer going clockwise as it gets closer to yellow, and gets cooler by traveling counterclockwise towards the magenta and purple side of things.

It's a lot to take in for just one color!

Below we showcase our five most popular reds and how they perform so you can see how each of them is different.

*For reference, we tested our samples using #CJ60 - 6 oz Cotton Jersey and also #CPC - 3.1 oz Mercerized Cotton Print Cloth

#9 Scarlet Red

A very popular red pick for our tie-dyers who are looking for a clear, but warm red for really adding a bit of heat and pop to their creations!

#10 Fire Red

This is our best selling go-to color for folks looking for a nice, clear bright cooler toned red. It's very popular and is the color we choose for use when making our Patriotic Tie-Dye Kits.

#10A Chinese Red

Chinese Red is similar to Fire Red, but it is more warm in tone and is our second best selling red.

#13 Fuchsia

Fuchsia - a pure "mixing red" - like Magenta when mixing light, and also transparent dyes. Used to mix "reds". For Ice Dyers, this dye will not have any splits of color as it's pure - instead it will be just lighter and darker versions of the same color.

#194 Dye-namite

This is one of our pure reds that we carry. It will not be a mix of magenta and yellow dye particles, but instead is just a single dye particle. It is a very warm red. This is an option for folks who want to avoid a "halo" effect when doing tie-dye or folks who do not want to have their dye have splits when doing ice dye.