In some cases, the colours of the illuminations was already decided before the illumination began. They could be made from various ingredients, from animals or plants, or from more surprising ingredients such as urine or earwax.

Black pigment: can be made of coal, squid ink, soot, vitriol.
White pigment: can be made of af chalk, plaster, chinese clay, bone powder, white lead. 
Yellow pigment: can be made of saffron, turmeric, ochre, orpiment.
Red pigment: can be made of alkanna (plant), orseille (lichen), Tyrian purple (from mollusks), cochineal.
Green pigment: can be made of blackberry, sloe bush, iris, malachite.
Blue pigment: can be made of woad, leaves from the indigo plant, extract from sunflower seeds, azurite.