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Imagine a foundation that stays flawlessly in place from morning meetings to evening events, without flaking or fading. Picture an eyeshadow that maintains its vibrant color throughout the day, without streaking or settling. Envision a lipstick that feels as good as it looks, without compromising on comfort or performance. These are not distant dreams, but achievable goals with the right formulation solutions and techniques.
When it comes to incorporating powder-format pigments into cosmetic products, we can break down the key challenges into four main categories:
In order to overcome these challenges, incorporating pigments into cosmetic formulations requires a careful balancing act between maintaining the product's aesthetic qualities, stability, and sensory attributes, as well as selecting the right ingredients.
What do we mean by balancing act? Colored formulations typically require a Dispersion process, which is a "process by which a dry ingredient (the powder pigment) is mixed into a liquid until the dry particles are completely and homogeneously distributed throughout the liquid medium". A well-dispersed pigment product results in an even, consistent, and long-lasting color. These liquid mediums can be wetting agents (surfactants), dispersant aids, and others. The various types of products can make it tricky to understand and identify which ones to use. Oftentimes, this "cocktail" of various ingredients that are blended with powders in the Dispersion process can make it harder to strike the right balance.
One ingredient line in particular, presents an "all-in-one" solution for tackling these challenges, while improving the function and behavior of powders and pigments. Ajinomoto, renowned for creating amino acid-based ingredients for the beauty industry, has developed the Amiaura™ treatment, which is setting a new standard for how pigments are integrated into pigmented cosmetic products. The Amiaura™ aqueous solutions, consisting of TK-01A and TK-01B kits, promise to elevate your formulations, ensuring exceptional performance and a superior user experience. In addition to these benefits, it provides an easy-to-use solution for formulators, offering pre-optimized formulations that simplify the development process. It can be applied to any type of powder or powder mixture, offering flexibility and versatility. Let's discover together how Amiaura™ is your hero ingredient in any upcoming pigment formulations.
In the next section, we'll go into each of the four main challenges, and outline how Amiaura™ can help solve these challenges, with just one solution.
Did you know? Ajinomoto is a leader in amino acids, the fundamental building blocks of life. Their innovative ingredient Amiaura™ harnesses the power of amino acids to enhance the performance and behavior of powders and pigments, revolutionizing the way they function in your formulations.
There are many factors that contribute to the difficulties that are faced when formulating with pigments. Natural oils, sweat, and movement of the skin can cause pigments to lift or separate from the skin’s surface; at the same time, external elements such as humidity, temperature and exposure to UV light can affect the stability of pigments in makeup products.
Ensuring that pigments adhere well to the skin for long-lasting wear, withstanding sweat, oils, and environmental factors, is a significant hurdle. This requires a careful balance of film-forming agents, binders, and other ingredients that can help anchor the pigments without compromising the feel or look of the product. Amiaura™ can single-handedly enhance the adhesion of pigments to the skin, creating a strong, flexible film that ensures long-lasting wear. This works by forming an “amino acid gel” on the particle surface, improving the powder’s affinity for the skin. See graph below that shows the adhesion level to the skin:
By helping to maintain the integrity of the makeup product, there is reduced risk of flaking and fading, while preserving a natural look. This results in a makeup product that has a moisturized, “skincare” effect, as well as high coverage.
Many powders, while effective at absorbing oil and controlling shine, can also lead to dryness, leading to a chalky appearance or discomfort on the skin. This can disrupt the skin’s natural moisture balance, creating a formulation challenge as it’s essential to maintain hydration without making the skin look oily. On the other hand, overly moisturizing formulations might cause pigments to migrate or fade quickly. Formulators must balance emollients and humectants with pigment dispersion to ensure that the product is neither too drying, nor too greasy.
Studies have shown that Amiaura™-treated powder has a moisturizing effect on the skin, in both powder formulations and liquid foundations, ensuring balanced water content on the skin:
By integrating moisture-retaining properties into the formulation, Amiaura™ allows products to balance oil absorption with hydration. This ensures that the skin remains comfortable and hydrated, while still controlling shine and providing a long-lasting, matte finish with high coverage.
As mentioned previously, dispersing pigments evenly to avoid agglomeration and streaking is essential for consistent color application. This becomes particularly challenging with dark or vibrant pigments, which can easily become patchy or uneven. As cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos explains in this article, “[P]igments cannot be simply stirred in, dispersion is extremely important in getting the full value out of a pigment in formulation. [...] These pigments must be fully extended or dispersed in a vehicle to get as close as possible to primary particle size to see the full development of color.”
Amiaura™-treated powder exhibits high dispersion stability in an emulsion system, resulting in an even, consistent texture. This is true in terms of compatibility with both oils and water, showing great dispersibility in various oils with different polarity, such as esters, vegetable oils, hydrocarbons, and silicones. Essentially, with Amiaura™, the dispersion of pigments is improved, ensuring a consistent and uniform color application across the skin. By preventing agglomeration, it maintains the vibrancy and clarity of pigments, even in challenging formulations. Due to the even dispersion, the in-vitro SPF value of liquid foundation formulations using Amiaura™ also significantly improved – clearly achieving more than just color uniformity, but also boosting SPF, stability, and creating a well-balanced formulation.
The feel of a product on the skin is just as important as its visual appearance. Powders and pigments that feel heavy or gritty can negatively impact the user experience, leading to dissatisfaction and reduced product usage. Amiaura™ helps deliver a smooth, silky, desirable feel that keeps consumers coming back for more. It was also designed with flexibility in mind, offering formulators the freedom to either combine various emollients and humectants, or to rely on the multi-functional and effective Amiaura™ solution to do most of the heavy lifting. This adaptability opens the door to a range of innovative sensory experiences, allowing for the creation of unique and customized textures in their formulations.
There are now innovative solutions for offering moisturizing, long-lasting, and well-balanced pigment products to consumers. Using the power of amino acids, Amiaura™ tackles several key challenges in pigment makeup formulation, such as ensuring makeup retention, balancing skin moisture, achieving consistent color, and improving sensory experience. By incorporating Amiaura™ into your pigment formulations, you’ll be able to address these common issues, enhancing the overall performance and user experience of your products.
👉 Experience the benefits of Amiaura™