Colour & Dispersion FAQ

1–5%, with the effect becoming obvious around 2–3%.

Below 1% the shifted colour is too diffuse to read as a deliberate effect, and it looks like an off-shade rather than a colour change. Above 5% the particle starts to affect the texture and, in a pressed product, the press behaviour.

The loading also depends on how much colour contrast you want: a white-to-red shift at 1% reads clearly, while white-to-skin-tone needs a higher loading because the shift is subtle by design.

It is permitted in most markets but with different conditions, and in some customer specifications it is excluded outright regardless of law.

Carmine (CI 75470) is a natural colorant derived from cochineal, so it carries two separate issues: a regulatory one, where the permitted product categories and any labelling requirements differ by market, and a consumer one, where a meaningful share of the public wants to avoid it for dietary, religious or vegan reasons. Some brands exclude it by policy, and some markets require specific labelling.

Practically: confirm the destination market's permitted categories before you specify it, and keep a carmine-free alternative qualified if you supply anyone with a vegan or halal claim. Our lake range includes both, so the swap is a grade change rather than a reformulation.

Yes, for a production quantity. The standard carrier is chosen because it is a good general-purpose emollient with a dry feel and wide compatibility.

Common alternatives are caprylic/capric triglyceride for a richer feel, C12-15 alkyl benzoate for a lighter one, and dimethicone for a silicone-continuous system. The pigment content has to be re-optimised for each carrier, and the MOQ for a custom carrier is typically 100–200 kg.

If your formula is already fixed, check the carrier against your emollient system before ordering — swapping carriers changes the skin feel more than the colour.

It is an aqueous graphene dispersion positioned as a black colourant alternative, not as an additive for conductivity or strength.

The datasheet lists its use as a replacement for bamboo charcoal, carbon black, black iron oxide and water-based black dyes in appearance applications, and as an addition to light-protection products. The appeal is the story as much as the optics — a carbon-based black with a different consumer narrative from carbon black.

If you are evaluating it, test it as a colourant first: check the black point, the dispersion stability in your base, and the regulatory position in your market, because graphene is a newer material and its permitted status is not uniform.

Stable in a properly formulated base, but they are the most process-sensitive material in our range — handle them accordingly.

The shell is the functional part, so anything that damages it also kills the effect: high shear during incorporation, prolonged high temperature, and aggressive solvents all reduce performance. Add them at the end of the process, at low shear, and keep the temperature down.

Request a sample and run an accelerated stability test in your own base before committing to production. That is not a formality with this product family — it is the only way to know whether your process is gentle enough.

They are the same pigment held to two different market specifications, which is a documentation difference, not a performance one.

980B FDA is released against US requirements; 970B is released against the Chinese safety and technical standard for cosmetics. Both are CI 77266 and both are the same base material. If you sell into both markets you need both grades, or a grade that has been released against both.

The reason to care is that carbon black attracts more regulatory attention than most pigments, so a questionnaire about it is common. Quote the grade that matches the destination and the paperwork follows.

As the pigment plus the carrier plus the treatment, which means the CI number alone is not the whole declaration.

On an INCI list, the dispersion appears as the pigment's CI number together with the carrier and the treatment agent, not as a single trade name. That matters for labelling and for any permitted-list check, because the carrier is an ingredient in its own right and has to be permitted and declared separately.

We supply an INCI breakdown with each grade for that reason. If your regulatory team works from CI numbers only, give them the full breakdown as well — the carrier is where the surprises are.

The slurry is preserved as supplied, but the preservation margin in your finished product is yours to establish.

A water-based dispersion is an aqueous system with a carbon source in it, so microbial growth is a real risk if the container is opened and left. Keep containers closed, use clean utensils, and do not return unused material to the drum.

In the finished formula, run a challenge test as you would for any aqueous product. The slurry's own preservative is sized for the slurry, not for a dilution of it in your base.

As cosmetics containing colourants, which means the colourant inside the particle has to be permitted for the product category in the destination market — the encapsulation does not exempt it.

In practice the questions are: which colourant is inside, is it permitted for that category in that market, and how is it declared on the label. Because the effect is visual rather than functional, the product is normally assessed as a cosmetic, but some markets have asked for additional justification for the colour-change claim.

Tell us the destination and the product category at enquiry. This is one family where getting the documentation right before the first order saves a lot of time later.

Check the market's permitted list by CI number and by product category — that is the only reliable test, because the answer differs between the EU, the US and China for the same lake.

As a starting point, the Red 6 / Red 7 / Red 27 / Red 28 / Red 30 / Red 33 family and the Yellow 5 / Yellow 6 lakes are the workhorses of lip colour, and our 150R through 390Y series covers them. What you must not do is assume that a lake permitted in the EU is permitted for lips in the US, or the reverse; some are permitted for lips in one and only for external use in the other.

Send us the destination market and product category and we will tell you which of our grades carries the corresponding release.

Settling is normal for a high-loading dispersion; hard caking is not, and the difference is usually storage temperature and time.

A soft sediment that redisperses with a paddle is expected and harmless. A hard cake that needs a mill means the dispersion has been stored too warm or too long, or has been through a freeze-thaw cycle. Store between 15 and 30 °C, out of direct light, and use within the shelf life on the COA.

Before use, roll or stir the container rather than pouring off the top — the top layer is carrier-rich and the bottom is pigment-rich, so pouring without mixing gives you the wrong colour.

They are the same dispersion technology tuned for two applications with unusual demands.

The high-waterproof eyeliner series is built for films that stay on a wet lash line without smearing, so the dispersion is matched to the film former and the water resistance requirement. The nail polish series is matched to the solvent and resin system of a nail lacquer, where a standard water-based dispersion would not be compatible.

Both are listed separately because the compatibility matters more than the colour — using the general-purpose grade in either application usually fails at the film stage, not at the colour stage.

In use, the shift is intended to be a one-way visual effect within the application — the product changes as it is applied and does not return to the original colour on the skin.

That is the point of the effect in makeup: the visible change happens during application. It is not designed as a reversible indicator, so do not specify it as one in a product claim.

If you need a reversible effect for a demonstration or a sample, tell us — that is a different specification and it is not what the standard grades are built for.

Test them in your own base under your own conditions — a light fastness rating on a datasheet is a starting filter, not a result.

The published ratings in our water-soluble dye series (the star ratings against pH stability) are meant for exactly that: ranking candidates before you test. Actual performance depends on the base, the film thickness, the packaging and the light exposure, and a dye that scores well in a thick cream can fail in a thin lip gloss.

The practical protocol is a xenon-arc or QUV exposure on a drawdown in the finished base, with a colour measurement before and after. If you do not have the equipment, ask us for the closest application data we have for that grade.

MOQ is 5 kg for a stock grade and 25 kg for a production quantity; a custom carrier is 100–200 kg. Shelf life is typically 24 months from production in an unopened container.

Lead time is 7–15 working days for stock, longer for custom. Samples are 1 kg.

Because the carrier is an oil, shelf life is affected by storage more than by the pigment. Keep it closed, keep it cool, and record the lot on your batch record so a colour issue can be traced back.