Iron Oxides in Mineral Makeup

Iron oxides are used as colorants in mineral makeup and other industries... Many colors exist, such as red, yellow, blue, black, maroon, tan, orange, etc....

Without them, your mineral makeup would be white.

The type mined from the earth would be too full of toxins to use on your skin. The kind used in cosmetics has been through a purification process.

The main colors used are red, yellow, blue and black. And each of those can come in various shades... blue/red, orange/red, yellow/red, etc.

If you manufacture your own minerals, you must use the exact same iron oxides as you did in your previous batches, or the color will turn out different. I learned this by accident, and created 66 lbs of "off" foundation once. Ah, the joys of manufacturing!

They can be combined in countless ways. Virtually any color of the rainbow can be created with these.

Iron oxides come in loose powder format, but must be ground to a smaller particle size during manufacture. If mineral makeup ingredients were not ground at all, but simply tossed together, the finished product would just look white and streaky and when you applied it to your face, you would end up with a rainbow of streaks.

Not too pretty! So they must all be ground together in cosmetic manufacturing equipment in order to reduce the particle size and blend all ingredients together. Large facilities leave their equipment running for hours to ensure perfectly blended formulas.

Quantity, timing and various other factors (industry secrets) are used to perfect the color each time and ensure consistent batches.

If even ONE aspect of the mixing process is modified, the color will turn out differently than the last batch.

Smaller companies often find it difficult to create consistent batches.

It is important to remember, though, that even if colors do turn out differently, they will appear the same once applied to the skin, IF the correct amount of each ingredient was included.

These are used in tiny, tiny amounts in most mineral powder formulas. Only a speck is required to tint an entire batch of powder.

Other similar ingredients that are used to color mineral makeup include: ultamarine blue/pink/or violet, manganese violet, ferric ferrocyanide, carmine (red pigment from beetles), etc.

Some companies choose to use synthetic FD&C dyes in their makeup. These are essential if you wish to create bold, bright colors, like hot pink, hot coral or neon yellow, as examples.

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