Triadic color schemes comprise three colors that are evenly spaced out on the color wheel. The triadic colors of mauve are shades of green and orange. The combination creates a diverse palette that allows for contrast and harmony in a design.
Spectrophotometric Color Measurement Facilitates Formulation of Purple Eyeshadow
For Halloween this year, I need to find a bright, vibrant purple eyeshadow to match my costume. I thought a purple eyeshadow would be easy to find, but I quickly realized how finicky this color can be. I swatched sample shade after sample shade on the back of my hand, yet I still couldn’t find the perfect eyeshadow. Products that looked highly pigmented and intensely purple in the pan would become streaky and sheer against my skin or would turn a strange shade of chalky grey.
Cosmetics manufacturers understand this struggle well. Creating formulations for purple eyeshadow has always been notoriously difficult. Even if your formula appears richly-colored when it’s first mixed, this color might not translate well once it’s applied. Today’s modern spectrophotometers allow you to address your formulation challenges through instrumental color measurement, giving you the data you need to create the perfect blend.
Achieving color measurement accuracy for purple eyeshadow can be difficult because this color is rarely found in nature. Image Source: Pexels user kinkate
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Why Purple Hues Are So Challenging
Formulating purple eyeshadow is challenging because the color purple is rarely found in nature, limiting available sources of pigmentation. While other shades, like reds or blues, can come from a variety of different sources (both synthetic and natural), there are only a handful of ingredient options for purple shades. Some of these ingredients offer a greater pigment payoff than others.
One of the few skin-safe ingredients that give off a purple tone is ultramarine, made from a rare clay called lapis lazuli. However, this shade on its own is more of a blue-violet than a true purple, making it largely unsuitable for standalone use.1 To correct this problem, cosmetics manufacturers must turn to other pigment sources, such as carmine, a rich, red colorant made from the shells of the cochineal beetle.2 Mixing these two together creates a highly-pigmented purple shade. Unfortunately, these ingredients tend to be more expensive than cheaper alternatives, like iron oxide or synthetic ultramarine, which may not offer the same appealing hues. As such, creating economically viable and aesthetically pleasing purple formulations can be a laborious process of trial and error.
To test your purple eyeshadow formula, you need to swatch it on a variety of test strips using a spectrophotometer. Image Source: Wikimedia user FK1954
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Creating and Evaluating Formulations
Spectrophotometers are invaluable to the cosmetics industry as they allow you to test the color of your product in virtually every step of the development and manufacturing process, from ingredient selection to the final formula’s blend. In order to create the perfect purple eyeshadow, you’ll want to test your product in at least three steps.
Your first step to achieving your desired purple hue is to test your colorants before you create your final formula, determining which one offers the strongest and most appropriate pigment within your budget. For instance, you might have a choice between two different shades of bulk synthetic ultramarine, both similarly-priced. By testing these ingredients in advance, you might find that one shade is relatively pure, with rich blue undertones, whereas the other shade isn’t nearly as vibrant.
What Color Is Mauve?
Mauve color is a shade in the spectrum between purple and pink. It often appears as a grayish violet or a muted, purplish pink. Mauve is a blend of pigments that combine both red and blue undertones.
It often has a higher proportion of red than blue, making the color warmer than other shades of purple. The shade also contains gray, contributing to its lighter shade and subdued appearance.
A wide range of synthetic dyes and pigments create vibrant mauve shades. Mauve may appear purple or pink depending on the surrounding colors and lighting conditions.
Historical Significance and Symbolism of Mauve
Chemist Sir William Henry Perkin discovered the mauve color during the mid-19th century. It was the first synthetic colorant in the world of dyes to be produced on a mass scale. The color’s aesthetic appeal in art represents femininity, delicate beauty, and romance.
Mauve is often associated with feelings of purity, devotion, and renewal. Its symbolism extends to social movements such as the LGBTQ+ community, symbolizing non-conformity and pride.
Mauve in Color Science
Color theory helps determine shades that pair with mauve to achieve a specific visual effect. Mauve is unique in its properties, position on the color spectrum, and relationship with other colors.
Color Properties of Mauve
Mauve appears as pale, grayish violet, or a muted purplish pink. The combination of pigments and dyes often influences mauve’s saturation, hue, and brightness. These properties help discern the subtle differences between various shades of mauve.
Mauve’s Position in the Color Spectrum
The color spectrum comprises a wide range of colors, each occupying a specific position. Mauve sites between purple and pink, inclining more towards the purple side. It sits where the light wavelengths match its characteristic hue.
Mauve’s Relation to Other Colors
Mauve creates relationships with neighboring colors on the wheel via color harmony and contrast. A yellowish-green hue, for instance, is mauve’s complementary color since it’s on the opposite side of the color wheel.
