Realize the color you see, regardless of skin color!

Pearl pigments are formulated in eye shadows and lipsticks to give a glittering, pearly shine with a different angle of light. They were used in many cosmetic products of the 1980s when this award was received, and still are today. Pearl pigments usually consist of mica surrounded by a layer of white titanium dioxide. These are often formulated with colorants in colored eye shadows.

This award-winning technology is a development of special pearl pigments that give off color without colorants. Pearl pigments can emit color on their own due to a phenomenon called light interference, where the light becomes more or less intense from the net effect of light waves. However, with the use of light interference alone, the intensity of color changes depending on the color underneath the pearl pigments, which is the color of the skin in the case of cosmetics, creating different appearance depending on the person. By processing the titanium dioxide around mica with black color, we could generate pearl pigments that give off a stable color regardless of the color of skin.

Light normally reflects off white objects. This is why the glare from sunlight reflecting off snow is so strong. Meanwhile, black absorbs light, which is why black clothes feel warmer from the sunlight outdoors. By using these characteristics of color and light, this award-winning technology processed titanium dioxide, the outermost layer of the pearl pigments, to have a black color. Light is easier to control through absorption, and this method made the color resistant to the differences in skin color, with an added shadow effect. The light entering diagonally is tinged with black, which creates three-dimensional appearance when applied on the eyelids.

In addition, another layer of titanium dioxide was placed on top of the black layer. By changing the thickness of the outer layer, we could adjust the angle at which light enters, resulting in a range of colors without any need of colorant. This was a pioneer technique for creating color with pearl pigments alone. These technologies were applied later to various makeup products, and then in the metallic paint pigments for cars, colorants for furniture, and pigments for printing ink.