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Issue with UV Stability
Hey there! I own a nail polish brand where I purchase our base by the drum and we mix the pigments and dispense. I am using a few new bright and beautiful pigments, but they are extremely sensitive to both artificial light and sunlight… to the point where I have to keep my studio lights off and pull some colors from wholesale because I know they will fade quickly under the store lights. Even with our polish boxes (which have only a small cutout to see the color), I’m still having issues.
The base formula does have benozophenone-1 in it, but I’m wondering if it doesn’t have enough. I’ve contacted the manufacturer of our base, but they are unwilling to change the base or provide any other information than “not our problem; it’s the pigment.”
I’m considering not using those pigments anymore, but that would mean reformulating half my entire collection. The alternative is to hire a chemist, I think, to work with the formula, but I’m worried about that being cost prohibitive.
I’d love to hear some advice here if you have any and thank you so much in advance for it!
Here is the current base formula I’m using if that helps provide a bit more context: Butyl Acetate, Ethyl Acetate, Nitrocellulose, Adipic Acid/Neopentyl Glycol/Trimellitic Anhydride Copolymer, Acetyl Tributyl Citrate, Isopropyl Alcohol, Acrylates Copolymer, Stearalkonium Bentonite, N-Butyl Alcohol, Styrene/Acrylates Copolymer, Benzophenone-1, Silica, Alumina, Trimethylpentanediyl Dibenzoate
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2 Replies
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what are the pigments made from?
also: are the pigments powders themselves this sensitive, or do they just fade in the finished product?
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What Bill asked is critical information. Also, pigments that are that unstable to light don’t sound like any FDA-approved pigments I know of - can you disclose what you’re using?
There are Toll Processors who can custom-coat pigments, and one option would be to coat the pigments with a UV blocker before dispersing them in your formula. This would add significant costs, though.
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