Red 7/CI 15850 ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is a synthetic pigment used to give red to pink color in lip, cheek, nail, and complexion products. Its role is shade, opacity, and tint strength rather than skin-care performance.
What does Red 7/CI 15850 do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is a synthetic pigment used to give red to pink color in lip, cheek, nail, and complexion products. Its role is shade, opacity, and tint strength rather than skin-care performance.
Is Red 7/CI 15850 clean?
Clean-beauty frameworks often flag it because it is a synthetic, petroleum-derived azo pigment, with attention to batch certification and trace metals or aromatic amine impurities. When purity specifications are met, it is generally low in skin-sensitization concern, but it has more clean-standard friction than mineral or plant-based colorants.
Is Red 7/CI 15850 sustainable?
It is made from petrochemical aromatic intermediates and mineral salt chemistry rather than renewable feedstocks. As an insoluble pigment, it is expected to have limited biodegradability and some environmental persistence, although finished-product use levels are usually modest.
Is Red 7/CI 15850 COSMOS-approved?
It is not permitted under COSMOS-natural or COSMOS-organic because synthetic organic colorants are outside the allowed colorant set. From a Green Chemistry view, it scores weakly on renewable sourcing and biodegradability, though strong tint strength means small amounts can deliver color.
How does Red 7/CI 15850 work chemically?
The molecule is an insoluble calcium salt of a sulfonated monoazo naphthol pigment, designed to disperse as solid color particles rather than dissolve like a dye. Typical use is often below a few percent, with higher levels possible in intensely colored sticks and powders, and performance depends on particle dispersion, oil-phase wetting, and regulatory color-additive purity specifications.
Last updated 2026-05-13