What is Difference Between Lake Colours & Pigments?

A wide variety of colorants are used for manufacturing cosmetics, drugs, foods and other products. As a result pigment manufacturers in India are emphasizing on producing high quality pigment and lake colours to meet the ever growing demands of the food, pharmaceutical, clothing, plastic, cosmetic and other industries. Read on to find out some of the prominent differences between lake colours and pigments.

Lake Colours Defined

A lake color or lake pigment is basically insoluble in nature and colors through dispersion. Lakes are produced through precipitation of soluble dyes with some metallic salt. Thus, lake colors are manufactured with the help of FD&C dyes and can thus be easily mixed with fats, sugars and oils. Lake colours are also used for dispersing in glycerin, sucrose and propylene glycol. Today, an increasing number of companies use aluminum lake colours, which is essentially a blue colored additive used for coating drugs, foods, eye makeup items and products in blue colour. Aluminum lake colours are extensively used for coating cosmetics and tablets, as they’re very stable by nature. Lake colours are available in powder and liquid forms and are used for coloring edible items and products such as lipsticks, lips balms, cupcakes, chocolates, frosting.

Advantages of Lake Colors

• Lake colors are stable and do not bleed easily, especially when compared to the dye colours the easily dissolve in water.
• Lakes are extremely versatile and adapt easily.
• They are used for coloring a wide variety of items and products including pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.
• They can be easily combined and mixed with fats, vegetable oils, cosmetic oils and other products.
• Lake colours can be found in different colour concentrations.

Pigments

Pigments, on the other hand are essentially those substances that are used for coloring different types of materials including bath and body products. Pigment colours are usually Ultra-Violet stable and aren’t soluble. They can further be classified as organic and inorganic pigment colours. In fact, soap pigments are basically oxides and were once extracted naturally for safety and consistency but are now being synthetically replicated in the labs, after the FDA’s enforcement. The FDA found that most of the pigments that were gathered naturally consisted of toxic or harmful materials and were extremely unsafe. Pigments are widely used for manufacturing soaps and are also inexpensive as well as available in a wide range of colours. They are ideal for coloring melt and pour soaps, cold processed soaps and hot processed soaps. In fact, pigment colours are also used for producing bathing crystals, liquid soaps and bath fizzies.

Benefits of Pigment Colours

• Pigment colours are used for producing a wide varitey of textiles, fashion products and other special or specific applications.
• Pigment colours when used for dyeing are extremely cheap and inexpensive.
• Pigment colours when synthetically produced are not only environment friendly 1`but also safe, less toxic and cause minimal pollution.
• Pigments are better in comparison to dyes as they can easily retain colour for several years and are also capable of withstanding intense heat, light and different weather conditions.

Heavy Metals & Its Growing Significance in Cosmetic Industry

The need for women to appear beautiful and desirable is universal and it has been the case since dawn of civilization. However, it is just not enough to buy and use various skincare and cosmetics products for that need. It is equally important for users of color cosmetics products to ensure stuffs they are using are made with skin friendly and safe ingredients. Along with companies making such grooming and skincare products, the buyers also need to be aware of importance of using skin friendly ingredient based products. This is applicable for literally any colors cosmetics stuffs that you use on your skin and hair, including makeup powder, hair color or lipsticks and eyeliner.

The Risk Factors You Need to Understand

Using OTC skincare and cosmetic products randomly is quite risky for you and the long term repercussion cannot be overlooked. Presence of heavy metals used in pigments in the colours cosmetics products can pose serious health risk to you in long run. While the damages to health may not be visible initially when they are detected it can be too late. Studies have revealed continuous usage of cosmetic dye and other cosmetic products laden with specific heavy metals can cause major diseases. Apart from dermatological disorders, you can get afflicted with ailments affecting eyes, scalp and internal organs of body. Some of these ingredients have proven carcinogenic properties.

Rise of Cosmetic and skincare products with safer ingredients

Owing to the risk posed by color cosmetics products containing heavy metals, consumer safety groups have become vocal about the need for using safer ingredients in such products. The role played by entities like FDA deserve applauds in this context. Ingredients like mercury,cadmiumand lead which were used a lot in making grooming products are no longer used by major companies belonging to this sector. The companies serving as suppliers of pigments for use in cosmetic dye and related products have taken note of this development. KoelColours has taken major initiatives in this regard.

The countries like Canada, Japan and China have deployed stringent legal measures for limiting usage of such heavy metals in making skincare and cosmetic products. The same is true of the USA where the FDA has made it near impossible for skincare giants to use such heavy metals in their product range. While Indian government is yet to adopt similar strict measures on usage of these substances in cosmetic stuffs, the cosmetics manufacturers in India have become aware. Contenders like KoelColours have already started using safer and organic pigments for use in their products.

What you should do as a consumer?

To be on safe side, you should be careful when shopping for color cosmetics products. Before buying any such product, spend some time in reading the product label and find out type and amount of pigments and chemical ingredients present in the product. You should also look out for any warning published on any of the ingredients. It would be better if you buy and use the cosmetic products made with safer natural pigments and herbal ingredients.

What is an Organic Pigment for Cosmetics?

Cosmetics are an integral part of both male and female lifestyle. Hence, it is important to know the ingredients used in the products. In the makeup items, two types of pigments are used, organic and inorganic. Both the types of pigments are used in the makeup as it doesn’t cause allergy and are available in different colors. The color of the makeup carries a high importance as it is the prime activity of the makeup. Iron oxide is a type of inorganic pigment and is available in black iron oxide, yellow iron oxide and much more. Whereas lakes, which is the organic pigment, is obtained from the reaction of soluble dye and metallic salts. These are certified pigment colors that are safe for cosmetics.

The Properties of Organic & Inorganic Pigments

Let’s have a look at the various properties of the organic and inorganic pigments:

• Organic pigments are derived from carbon rings and chains. But might also contain traces of metallic elements, which are inorganic in nature, in order to stabilize the component. Inorganic pigments can be readily used in the manufacturing process of the makeup as it is a dry form of aprecipitated pigment.
• Organic pigments for cosmetics are transparent whereas the inorganic pigments are opaque as the approximate particle size of the inorganic color is larger than the organic one.
• The viscosity of the products completely depends on the personnel who mix the makeup. The cosmetic pigments can be divided into oil painting makeup and sumi painting makeup. The oil painting is used mainly for the purpose of permanent makeup whereas the sumi painting is meant for the people who don’t require permanent makeup.
• Due to the chemical composition, the inorganic pigments remain stable even in the presence of the organic solvents whereas various organic pigments tend to dissolve and have the tendency to resist from pigment migration and bleeding.

Dyes Used in Cosmetics

The most commonly used synthetic colors in hair dyes and cosmetics are known as FD&C colors. It is obtained from coal tar that is also a byproduct of petroleum. Dyes in cosmetics are safe on the skin and can be used without any hindrance. The basic difference between the dyes and pigments is that the dyes are soluble in any media they are introduced in whereas pigments are not.

Cosmetic Colors

Cosmetic color is a fantastic way to fill the life with colors and positivity. The cosmetics include eye shadows, lipsticks, nail paints and much more. The cosmetic colorants are produced from the cosmetic pigments and dyes. The renowned companies abide all the safety rules in the process of production of the cosmetics in India. The personal care products are prepared with utmost care to offer the customer safety along with style.

Conclusion

The high-quality pigment manufacturers are in high demand as they are the key to safe fashion. The safe and high-quality colors and pigments used in any product increases the value of the brand, which accentuates the business in a great way.