2004 Color Trends; Back to Basics
Back to Basics
Martha Graziano
The direction of color trends for 2004 lends itself to a bountiful range of comforting earth tones, a palette of blues from metallic to powdery to starlight shimmer, soft greens, an array of rich reds and innocent pinks in mid-tone hues and silvers tinted with violet, blue or red. The earth tones include an amazing multitude of different shades of the gold, copper, tan, bronze, red flamed copper and muted browns—evocative of a sun-drenched desert canyon.
“Earth tones complement the spa colors of blues and greens that are so prevalent in fashion,” said Melanie Wood, past president of the Color Marketing Group and color consultant. Earth-toned colors, enhanced by luminescence, give a chameleon effect as they take on a glow of the colors around them and complement the entire fashion ensemble. These tones seem to “come alive,” giving an aura of freshness and energy.
“The copper range will be expanded through 2005 and could not be more important,” added Sunny Maffeo, creative director, color and design marketing for Engelhard. In 2004, the range will include a sun-kissed golden copper with a glistening sheen, and the emerging family of copper with a pink cast, which can appear warm and glowing on the face. The coppers are being combined with pastel tones, part of a trend taking a juxtaposed position to the extreme, according to Maffeo. Copper will be part of a family of tone-on-tone, gem-like flashes inspired by unbaked terracotta, and warm tile tones. Powdery surfaces contrast with ultra glossy and iridescent or varnished reflections. The coppers and bronze-golds can add a sun-kissed or glistening look for face body or hair, Maffeo noted. These shades give luminosity and copper tones beyond a tanned appearance, giving a moist golden glow.
Special Effects
Effect pigments can enhance the looks of any personal care formulation in a full range from a subtle shimmer to a bold statement. Cosmetic chemists and marketers can produce a unique color play and new looks in formulations with these earth tone special effect pigments. The earth tones are going into new areas such as skin lotions, body washes and other personal care products beyond color cosmetics, as evidenced by products such as Nivea Silky Shimmer lotion or Jergen’s Soft Shimmer lotion.
As natural earth tone shades continue their strong popularity, Eckart recently launched four new earth tone metallic colors—Olive Gold, Maize Gold, Amber and Lava in the Visionaire® cosmetic metallic pigment line. This line covers the full range of effect pigments from majestic gold and copper shades to elegant silver to produce rich metallic hues—strikingly appealing in cosmetics. Metallic pigments, when mixed with other colorants such as organics, pearlescents or other special effect pigments, can create unique polychromatic effects and create new colors. Based on innovative silica encapsulation technology, the Visionaire pigments offer unique metallic luster combined with formulation flexibility, including improved stability in water-based formulations. The Visionaire copper, bronze and aluminum pigments have global approval for all applications within cosmetics, with the exception that aluminum is not approved for lip products in the United States.
Formulators have a wide choice in earth tone special effect pigments in gold, bronze, copper and red flamed copper pearlescent pigments. These earth tone pearlescent colors can be found particularly with the Prestige® line from Eckart, the Cloisonné™ and Desert Reflections™ lines from Engelhard, the SunShine line from Sun Chemical and the Colorona® and Timica® line from Rona. The Reflecks™ Colors from Engelhard are based on an innovative borosilicate substrate, providing exceptionally transparent and clean earth tone shades. All these rich-looking pearlescent pigments are available in a variety of particle sizes to provide silky to glittery color, with a concurrent range of coverage and translucency. Color travel special effect pigments, based on multi-layer technology, are available in earth tone ranges from BASF Sicopearls® Fantastico Gold Copper. There are earth tone shades in this technology that shift colors depending on the viewing angle. Rona, the Cosmetic Business Unit of EMD Chemicals Inc., also produces color travel pigments in its Xirona line.
Color Play
Although the cosmetic color additive regulations constrain the industry, cosmetic chemists and marketers can produce an endless color play of formulations with these earth tone special effect pigments for accents or overall new shades. Unique textures and depth of color can often be achieved by mixing two different shades in special effect pigments, especially of different particle sizes. By combining special effect pigments of different technologies with conventional organic pigments, the possibility for much more exciting and new colors, textures and looks arise.
Martha Graziano is the business development manager, Personal Care, for Eckart America.
Martha. "Graziano." Formulating. 30 12. 2003. The cosmetic Site. 23 03. 2004
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