Mica Colors

When you purchase mica colors for use in a soap or cosmetic product it is VERY IMPORTANT that you know exactly what you are getting and that it is safe to use in a product applied to body. Not all mica colors are suitable or approved for use in cosmetics or soap.

Mica

Mica is a clear or translucent mineral with minimal coloration. It is naturally occurring and is mined. It is often used to add shimmer or sparkle to a color; it has very little color on its own.

© James St. John

In addition to being used in cosmetics, mica is used in vehicle and building paints, house paints, oil and acrylic artist paints, and resin epoxy art. It is also used in automobile parts, drywall, insulation, plastics, heating elements, electronics and more.

When used to add color, the mica is combined with one or more colorants. It’s not the MICA that provides the color, it’s the other colorants that it is combined with.

In Cosmetics

In the United States, mica (by itself, without any additional color) is approved for use in cosmetics as a color additive. It adds shimmer, but not much color. For cosmetic use it must be no larger than 149 microns (.0058 inches or 0.149 mm).

Mica is not approved as a color additive in the EU. There it is treated as a cosmetic ingredient.

Mica should be identified in a cosmetic ingredient declaration as mica.

Synthetic Mica

Synthetic or artificial mica is made up of crystals that are synthetically “grown”; it is not naturally occurring. It has different qualities for use in non-color applications, but when it comes to colors it is used similarly to natural mineral mica.

In Cosmetics

Synthetic mica is not approved as a color additive in the United States or the EU. In both it is treated as a cosmetic ingredient. There are no regulatory limitations on particle size, so it is often used when more sparkle or shimmer is desired.

Synthetic mica should be identified in a cosmetic ingredient declaration as synthetic fluorophlogopite.

Mica Colors

Colored mica is created by combining mica or synthetic mica with other colorants. Depending on the process, the colorants may be just mixed with the mica or the may be bonded or attached to the mica. Either way the result is a colored powder that can be added to another medium to provide color.

There are many different colorants that can be added and combined with mica to make a colored mica powder. The colorants may be dyes or pigments, or a combination of the two.

If you are making cosmetics, you MUST determine exactly what dyes or pigments are being used in the colored mica. A reputable supplier will give you the exact names of the dyes or pigments, either directly in their website descriptions or in a downloadable SDS which should contain all of the ingredients.

In Cosmetics

There are restrictions on the color additives that may be used in cosmetics. Only the color additives that the FDA has approved for use in cosmetic may be used in cosmetic products, and they may only be used in the manner for which they’ve been approved. Some are allowed in the eye area or on the lips, and some are not. See also Color Additives.

In addition, many of the approved color additives require that the manufacturer submit samples from each batch to the FDA for testing and certification before it can be sold for use in cosmetics. The same chemical compound has a name before it is batch certified and a different FDA name after it is certified. For example, Pigment Red 64:1 becomes D&C Red 31 when it is certified. Pigment Red 64:1 is NOT allowed in cosmetics, but D&C Red 31 IS allowed.

When using a colored mica powder in cosmetics, all of the component colorants must be approved for use in cosmetic and also for that particular type of use (eyes, lips, etc).

All the component colorants must be individually listed in the ingredient declaration. Color additives may all be placed at the end of the ingredient declaration, regardless of the amount.

Sometimes additional ingredients, such as tin oxide or tin dioxide, are used to help combine or stabilize the finished product. When these non-color ingredients are in the color blend, they are treated as regular cosmetic ingredients in the ingredient declaration and are listed before the color additives.

In Soap

Soap that is exempt from the definition of a cosmetic does not have the same regulatory restrictions on which color additives that may be used. That said, the color additives must still be SAFE.

When you intend to use a colored mica that contains color additives that are not approved for cosmetic use, do your homework to ensure that the color additive is, in fact, safe. There is a reason why there are a limited number of color additives on the FDA’s approved list.

Warning

There are vendors of colored micas selling on-line and through Amazon. Many appear to have originally catered to epoxy resin artists and are now marketing their colored micas as “cosmetic grade” or “skin safe” and say that they can be used in soap, candles, lip gloss or bath bombs.¹

In quick review of 10 colored mica products on Amazon that claimed they could be used in cosmetics found:

• 1 had “mica” listed as the only ingredient
• 5 had no ingredients listed on Amazon and no other website
• 1 had no ingredients listed on Amazon or their regular website
• 2 had no ingredients on the Amazon website; their regular website product listings had SDSs which showed the products contained color additives not approved for cosmetics
• 1 had no ingredients on the Amazon website and claimed “FDA Approved”; their regular website had ingredients listed and the color additives were approved for use in cosmetics.

Bottom Line

In choosing mica colors for use in making cosmetics for sale, purchase from vendors who provide all the information you need to ensure your products are safe and compliant and your labels can be complete and correct.

The HSCG has vendor members who cater to the handcrafted soap and cosmetic industry and who can be relied on to provide safe ingredients will full information.