Coloring the Cosmetic World using Pigments in Decorative Cosmetic Formulations

Abstract

Most light sources produce a spectral color of various wavelenghts which the human eye cannot always distinguish from each other. In any way, it represents the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called, red, bleu, yellow, green and others, also if the physiological quantifications of color do not fully explain the psychophysical perception of its appearance. What it is interesting to underline, however, is that the shades of colors we distinguish, for example in the birds' plumage, are often on sequence on the optical phenomenon of diffraction. Thus the perceived blu-green color of the butterfly Papilio palinurus is not made from a green or blu color, but is a consequence of the light reflected from its wing scales that, covered by a hollow surface made of micrometric dimples of chitin, act as a selective mirror. And the perceived color is of great interest of the Coloring Cosmetic World also, reported by this book and organized in 12 Chapters, an Introduction, two Appendices and Bibliographic references.