Natural Color: The Sustainable Solution for Vibrancy

The cosmetic industry is filled to the brim with colorful, eye-catching products that are practically irresistible to any beauty enthusiast. However, many skincare products include harmful, synthetic dyes to achieve their colorful hue. Don’t worry–giving love to our planet and enjoying colorful skincare are not mutually exclusive. Natural colors in skincare are the eco-friendly solution to adding color to your product line!

Let’s do a deep dive into natural colors, their benefits, and natural color skincare inspiration to get you started. Let’s get into it!

P.S.

Check out the link below to get the juicy details on clean beauty!

How Do We Color Cosmetics Anyway?

The Ways to Color Cosmetics

There are a number of ways to color cosmetics, but of course, natural color is the most sustainable and skin-friendly. The main ways are:

• FD&C dyes (derived from petroleum)

• Iron Oxides (natural minerals)

• Animal products + by-products

• Natural plant pigments

Historically, cosmetics and skincare are typically colored with dyes (FD&C). Dyes are known to be harmful to the skin barrier and can lead to other serious health risks, but they are the most steadfast, vibrant, and offer the widest usable range of colors. This is why many beauty brands seeking a colorful hue for their product opt for synthetic dyes when choosing colorants. The following are the different types of synthetic dyes you could potentially find in skincare or cosmetic products:

• Organic Dyes

  • Typically labeled as FD&C certified (Food, Drugs, & Cosmetics)

  • Made from coal tar and petroleum oil

  • Bright & intense color

• Lakes

  • Created by reacting a dye with a non-reactive binding agent

  • No color bleeding

  • Vibrant color

  • Derived from FD&C dyes

• Azo Dyes & Pigments

  • Compound with nitrogen double bond

  • Typically used for textiles

(Source)

Synthetic dyes are the most common form of harmful additives, but there are a couple more ways to color skincare and cosmetics without going the sustainable route. Iron oxides from natural minerals are also used to create colored cosmetics and skincare despite being limited to natural tones like red, yellow, white, and black - which are mostly mixed to create skin tones.

Vibrant color can be derived from non-vegan animal sources like the brilliant red of carmine - which is literally crushed beetles. Finally, we can derive pigments - albeit, with stability or color limitations - from plants, including leaves, stems, roots, flowers, and bark.

Great, So Where Do Natural Colors Come From?

Now that we’ve covered the severe risk of creating and using cosmetics with synthetic color, let’s talk more about the real sustainable superstar - natural color. Here’s the great news - natural color comes from our beautiful, green Earth!

There are a variety of natural color origins to consider when choosing a hue for your skincare product. It’s important to remember that depending on which natural color you opt for, there are a number of unique skincare benefits to choose from. 

Natural color is derived from organic ingredients such as essential oil, fruits, veggies, and flowers through juicing or grinding (Source). There are a wide variety of extraction methods, depending on what type of plant or herb is being used (Source).

The color is then saturated or diluted to obtain the desired hue (Source). We know that natural color is taken directly from the source–natural plants and herbs–but the cool part is that the color molecule from the plant (AKA chromophore) also carries the essential vitamins necessary to achieve the skincare benefits. The colors of nature are at your fingertips with the use of natural color!

Consider the possibilities of the extra benefits that a natural color base will give a skincare product, then imagine the perfect hue to elevate your brand aesthetic. For example, if you’re dreaming of a brightening sunflower-yellow skincare serum, a perfect natural color option would be turmeric!

Overall, implementing natural colors in skincare allows brands to excite consumers with vibrant color, keep the planet happy, and provide that extra oomph to your product. It’s a win-win!

Natural Color Limitations: pH Compatibility

Despite the seemingly endless possibilities of natural color, there are limitations to which types of natural colorants that would work the best for your product. Natural colors are either water or oil compatible and come in various forms.

The three common forms of soluble bases are powder, liquid, and oil. Another crucial consideration would be the pH levels of the overall formula. From the jump, you – or at least your chemist – will  need an understanding of your formula’s base before choosing the perfect natural color for your formula. 

Anything that has a water phase in manufacturing has a pH level and oil-based products have no pH level to account for. Make sure that when you’re choosing a natural color, the pH levels are not prone to chemical reactions that lead to the degradation of the natural color.

UV fading also poses a threat to the vibrance of natural color–oil-based products are especially prone to UV damage. Overall, every natural plant pigment has a pH environment that it prefers–if it’s combined with anything outside of that, you run the risk of losing your natural color. Skincare and cosmetics do not like to leave their comfort zone when it comes to pH level compatibility. 

The Color Conundrum: 

Why Dyes are Risky for Your Health + The Environment

Synthetic dyes are currently Public Enemy No. 1 in the color cosmetics conversation. They are separated into two categories: organic and inorganic (Source). When we mention “organic” regarding synthetic dyes, we’re referencing the carbon atoms present in the dye’s molecular structure (Source).

As you can imagine, this can be pretty confusing for the average beauty enthusiast since we usually associate the word “organic” with “eco-friendly” or other sustainability buzzwords. In reality, synthetic dyes are far from being kind to our Earth or our skin.

There are several synthetic dyes that – despite their FDA approval – contain lead or other harmful components (Source). Eventually, the heavy metals found in synthetic dyes accumulate and have been linked to health issues like cancer or reproductive disorders (Source). T

he risks of synthetic dyes don’t stop there. When cosmetic chemicals are produced, they are inevitably found in bodies of water close to their production site and evaporate into the air (Source). This leads to unnatural chemicals being scattered around the Earth and contributing to the destruction of ecosystems. Additionally, the chemicals used to create the synthetic dyes are often found in bodies of water close to their production site (Source). 

You may be thinking, Why add colorants if they’re so harmful? In a market as competitive as cosmetics, it’s easy to fade into the gray when a product lacks stand-out elements in its ingredients. 90% of consumer judgment comes from color alone (Source).

Adding a natural color could be the icing on the cake to your skincare power product. There are endless natural color possibilities that transform products from dull and boring to bright and exciting! 

The circulation of synthetic dyes and their chemicals contribute to growing issues of the cosmetic industry directly harming ecosystems and consumers’ skin. The use of natural color in skincare eliminates the harmful environmental impact of synthetic dyes and provides a sense of safety when you apply it to your skin. The benefits of natural color seem endless!

Regulating Color: The FDA’s Role

There are heavy regulations in place to govern the color additives that we find in cosmetics. Any ingredients added simply for color or aesthetic purposes must be approved by the FDA before they can be distributed (Source).

This is a one-time process for some colorants, but it is a batch approval process for FD&C (or D&C) dyes. Every batch has to be tested and approved, otherwise, it cannot be used in cosmetics for resale (so check your documentation before purchasing dyes!). Once colorants are approved, they are separated into two categories: exempt or subject to batch certification (Source). 

Ingredients subject to batch certification are typically derived from petroleum and “synthetic-organic” colors (Source). Ingredients that are deemed exempt from certification are commonly made from mineral, plant, or animal resources (Source).

Before choosing a natural color additive, it’s crucial to check the International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredient (INCI) to ensure that no synthetic dyes make their way into your product.

Playing with Nature: The Rainbow of Natural Pigments

Natural colors are created from a number of plants such as herbs, flowers, peels, fruits, vegetables, and more (Source). Mica powder is commonly combined with natural colors to create pigments used in color cosmetics and skincare (Source). However, be careful when using mica powder as it can sometimes be combined with harmful additives (Source).

It’s also important to remember that in nature, the color spectrum is practically infinite with a variety of hues and shades. The same is also true for natural colors in cosmetics and skincare.

A common misconception about natural colors is that you have to sacrifice vibrancy. However, with advancing technology, natural colors now come in shades ranging from pastel pink to electric blue.

Now that we know the regulations and background of natural colors in skincare, let’s ROYGBIV it up and get into a couple examples of natural resources that can be added as colorants!

• Red - hibiscus, red seaweed

• Orange - seabuckthorn, chinaberry 

• Yellow - holy basil leaf/flower, buriti oil

• Green - ivy gourd + chinaberry 

• Blue - blue chamomile, blue tansy

• Violet - beetroot, chinaberry

• Pink - beetroot, hibiscus, potato

Work With Us: How to Get Your Hands On Natural Color

Now that you know all the in’s and out’s of natural color, we’re sure you’re wondering how to get access to nature’s rainbow. Lucky for you, Genie Supply has a natural color catalog in the works for you to see all our sustainable colorant selections for your dream skincare product. At Genie Supply, we value the importance of keeping our planet green without sacrificing exciting tones and colors. Contact us or chat with your direct representative today to get started with natural color.