Red 40/Ci 16035 ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is a colorant used to give products a red to pink shade and to standardize batch-to-batch appearance. It is mainly used where a water-soluble dye is needed rather than an insoluble pigment.
What does Red 40/Ci 16035 do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is a colorant used to give products a red to pink shade and to standardize batch-to-batch appearance. It is mainly used where a water-soluble dye is needed rather than an insoluble pigment.
Is Red 40/Ci 16035 clean?
Clean-beauty frameworks often flag this ingredient because it is a synthetic color additive with regulated purity specifications, including limits for residual intermediates and metal impurities. It is generally tolerated at permitted cosmetic levels, but it carries more clean-standard friction than mineral or plant-derived colorants.
Is Red 40/Ci 16035 sustainable?
This material is generally made from petrochemical feedstocks and is not a renewable-input ingredient. As a water-soluble synthetic dye, it can be challenging in wastewater color removal and is not a strong biodegradability fit.
Is Red 40/Ci 16035 COSMOS-approved?
It is not permitted under COSMOS-natural or COSMOS-organic because it is a synthetic organic colorant outside the allowed colorant scope. Its Green Chemistry fit is weak due to nonrenewable feedstocks, multi-step synthesis, and limited biodegradability profile.
How does Red 40/Ci 16035 work chemically?
The molecule is a sulfonated synthetic colorant with an azo linkage, which makes it water-soluble and effective at very low use levels for visible tinting. It is typically used in trace amounts, often well below 1%, and shade performance depends on concentration, product pH, light exposure, and interaction with surfactants or polymers.
Last updated 2026-05-13