Red Iron Oxide ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is an inorganic colorant used to give makeup, skin care, hair products, and personal care formulas a warm earthy pigment. It also adds opacity and helps adjust shade depth in powders, creams, sticks, and emulsions.
What does Red Iron Oxide do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is an inorganic colorant used to give makeup, skin care, hair products, and personal care formulas a warm earthy pigment. It also adds opacity and helps adjust shade depth in powders, creams, sticks, and emulsions.
Is Red Iron Oxide clean?
This ingredient is broadly accepted in clean-beauty standards as a low-reactivity mineral colorant with low irritation potential. The main quality watchpoint is trace heavy-metal impurities, which are controlled by cosmetic-grade specifications.
Is Red Iron Oxide sustainable?
This material is mineral-derived or manufactured from mineral feedstocks, so it is not renewable in the agricultural sense. It is insoluble and environmentally stable, with a lower biodegradation relevance than organic ingredients because it is an inorganic pigment.
Is Red Iron Oxide COSMOS-approved?
It is permitted under COSMOS-natural and COSMOS-organic frameworks when it meets purity and cosmetic-grade requirements for mineral colorants. From a Green Chemistry view, it scores well for stability and low reactivity, but less strongly on renewable sourcing and biodegradability because it is inorganic.
How does Red Iron Oxide work chemically?
The molecule is an inorganic pigment built from trivalent metal centers in an oxygen lattice, which gives strong color, opacity, and high resistance to light and heat. Typical use can range from below 1% for shade adjustment to much higher levels in color cosmetics, and it requires good dispersion because it is insoluble rather than dissolved.
Last updated 2026-05-13