The Ingredients In Colour Cosmetics - Make Up

I made it my mission to go through the ingredients of cosmetics, so I somewhat neglected to list a colour cosmetics ingredients. Why? You can say I was focusing more on the wild claims made by skincare brands on how different your life would be if you bought into some of those claims.

Colour cosmetics don’t make such claims, not the ones that will stop you from ageing and the like, they do some different ones which I’ll cover at a later date.  Mascara and foundation, I’ll be looking at you soon!

The colour pigments that are used in making the colour cosmetics are the most regulated in the world. Different countries have different rules, but generally you’ll find Japan to have the most stringent safety regulations for cosmetics. The EU and USA are behind and you’ll find that most breakthrough make up innovations come from Asia these days.

The colours come into two groups: organic and inorganic.

Inorganic are the mineral pigments (I bet this inorganic and organic matter confuses people) that are found around the Earth as compounds of transition metals. The inorganic colours are:

Iron oxides (reds, browns, black and yellows that can be mixed and blended together), chromium oxide, (green), ultramarine (blue, purple), titanium dioxide/zinc oxide (white and uv protection).

Organic pigments are organic molecules that start with N or S or similar (not the names but their chemical or dye name). They are anthraquinone (green), AZO colourants (red and yellow), Triarylmethane (blue and green), Xanthenes (red, orange), and some natural colourants such as caramel, caretonoids etc. The problem with these natural ones is that they very often stink and they are unstable.

Then we have fillers and finishers. Those are the ones that make the product “glide” and spread evenly. The most usual of those are talc (a widespread mineral) and mica (potassium aluminum silicate – another mineral).

Fillers and finishers also include emulsifiers, preservatives, fragrance, and so on.

In a nutshell, that’s it. I’ll come back later to discuss mascaras. If any of you want to experiment with making your own lipstick or eye shadow , please make sure that the pigments you use are safe to be used either around eyes or lips!

What makes mineral make up different?

 

After doing some research, apparently not much. 

Both the "mainstream" or regular make up and mineral ranges contain pretty much the same ingredients like titanium oxide, mica, zinc oxide, iron oxides, silica, talc, etc.

But what differs mineral make up from regular one is the lack certain allergens, like parabens, chemical dyes and mineral oil. And those are the reasons which make the mineral make up good for oily and acne prone skin. And sensitive skins. 

Oh and by the way, when I say mineral make up I mean foundation. 

People tend to think that mineral make up is more “natural”? Unfortunately that’s not quite the truth and there's nothing wrong with that. No one actually went to the mine, got your zinc oxide and titanium oxide, milled them and made make up out of them. It just doesn’t work like that. Both of those ingredients are processed in the lab as nothing in nature is that clean that can be used in cosmetics, especially zinc oxide has to be synthesised in the lab.

I wrote about zinc oxide in my previous post and indeed, its calming properties make it suitable for sensitive skins. Together with titanium oxide it also provides some sun protection.

One ingredient you should definitely scan the label for is bismuth oxychloride. While it gives the luminosity to the make up, it's also been reported that women would have acne flare ups and irritation when using make up with this ingredient.  

I’m not denying that mineral make up can look great, in fact some of my favourite products are products from the mineral ranges. But, the whole thing lost a bit of sheen for me when the cosmetics companies decided to jump on the bandwagon and brought up eyeshadows, lipsticks, liquid foundations and other things.

The beauty and the attraction of mineral make up was that the ingredient list was short. But now, once you start making liquid foundations, it became as long as the conventional foundation. Why? 

 

Well microbes love breeding in the water and without a suitable  preservative the product will not keep. Apart from going “off” it can also infect the skin. So in order to prevent the product being spoiled they put back the same ingredients that they got rid of in the beginning…. Confused?

So when picking mineral product read the ingredients. The shorter the list, the better the product for you, especially if you have sensitive skin. Especially look out for added mineral oil and fragrance. 

If you want to buy liquid foundation, eyeshadows, lipstick etc from the mineral range, by all means go for it, but be realistic. Chances are that you’re buying the normal stuff that is no different from your mainstream make up.While there's nothing wrong with those products, as long as you know you are buying into the hype, all is well.