Tuesday, December 20, 2011

How to Color your Lip Products

Depending on your desired results, there are a couple different ways to color your lip products.   It was hard for me to find this information in one location so I thought I would try and share my findings in ONE location, lol.

There are basically three types of lip products you can make in regards to coloring, Opaque, Translucent, or Staining. 

First what is used to color lip products & their differences:
  • Pigments- color additives that don't dissolve in product and kind of coats the lips; think paint.
  • Mica- natural minerals that add shimmer and shine
  • Dyes- color additive that dissolve and stain lips
How can you obtain these results?

Opaque
  • add Zinc Oxide or Titanium Dioxide to your color formulations ( also provides UV protection)
    • come in powder and liquid forms, see here
  • Add more color:  add 10-20% of your lip product weight
    • See explanation of different coloring ingredients here
Translucent
  • just add mica
    • Mica will color the gloss but will only add shine and sparkle to your lips during application
Staining
  • add dyes, think Easter eggs or the current lip stain trend
When looking for your color additives please make sure they are lip safe and approved.  Also, look at the ingredients, some colors may very well be combinations of dyes, pigments and mica already. 
See below for suppliers!

Depending on the planned application method of your lip color will determine what color additives are needed.  According to TKB Tradings:

"Here's the bottom line: A liquid lip gloss will be colored only with dyes. A solid lip pencil will probably be colored only with pigments. Meanwhile, the typical lip balm/lip stick will usually be colored with a blend of dyes, pigments and micas so as to get the best of all worlds. In total, the color portion of a lip products recipe will usually be about 10-20%."  Source


Suppliers:  These are the only places I have ordered from
Other known Sources I've seen used
  • Mac Pigments
  • Eye shadows & Pigments 
    • The trick w/using store bought pigments is knowing if they are lip safe.

Sources- I do not take credit for this info, just wanted to share my findings all in one place
TKB Tradiing
SoapQueen

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