I followed the Gram Staining tutorial from this video to prepare a sample of my cheek cells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMoT-FmhS6A

For preparing the staining solutions I purchased crystal violet, ethanol, potassium iodide, iodine, and an already prepared safranin solution from laboratorium discounter.

The slight 3D effect is achieved by displacing the filter holder to block the light coming from one direction and achieve oblique illumination to cast a shadow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9btIpf5mjyA).

The image is post-processed using Rawtherapee to increase the contrast.

Here is another photo without using the oblique illumination trick, also post-processed with rawtherapee: