Getting started

From formula to jar

Updated October 2026

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One: for each color, which listing and which use?Two: is any of it going near the eye?Three: substantiate the safety Four: build the ingredient declaration Five: then find the format Batch certification, where it applies Keep the five answers together References

Three steps, and the third one is where this catalog runs out for some of these products.

One: for each color, which listing and which use?

Part 73, 74 or 82, and the specific uses that listing permits. Record the regulation and the use, not a supplier assurance that the colorant is cosmetic grade, which is not a defined term.

Two: is any of it going near the eye?

Using the regulation’s own definition rather than common sense. The eyebrow, the skin below it and the soft tissue inside the infra-orbital ridge are all named, so brow and under-eye products are inside the area even though they are not on the eye.

Three: substantiate the safety

Each ingredient and each finished product, before marketing. The alternative is a conspicuous warning on the principal display panel saying the safety has not been determined, which no business chooses.

Four: build the ingredient declaration

Either strict descending order, or the permitted grouping with color additives last and unordered. If it is a shade range, decide whether the "may contain" route applies and check all four of its conditions.

Five: then find the format

Loose powder in a jar, with the one sifter disc we stock if the neck matches. An emulsion in an airless pump. A pressed pan, a palette or a mascara is not available here and the honest answer is to go elsewhere for the component.

Batch certification, where it applies

Colors subject to certification carry a batch identity behind them, so the certification is a document to hold rather than a property of the name. Ask for it with the listing reference.

Keep the five answers together

Color listings and uses, the eye-area determination, the substantiation file, the declaration form and the format. A new shade reopens the first and usually the fourth.

References

21 CFR parts 73, 74 and 82, the listings of color additives exempt from certification, subject to certification, and provisionally listed. Each listing states the uses for which the color is permitted, and many exclude use in the area of the eye. law.cornell.edu

21 CFR 70.3(s), which defines the area of the eye as the area enclosed within the circumference of the supra-orbital ridge and the infra-orbital ridge, including the eyebrow, the skin below the eyebrow, the eyelids and the eyelashes, the conjunctival sac, the eyeball and the soft areolar tissue within the perimeter of the infra-orbital ridge. law.cornell.edu

21 CFR 740.10, which requires each ingredient and each finished cosmetic product to be adequately substantiated for safety before marketing, and makes an unsubstantiated one misbranded unless it bears "Warning - The safety of this product has not been determined" on the principal display panel. law.cornell.edu

21 CFR 701.3(f), the alternative to strict descending order: ingredients other than color additives above 1 percent in descending order, then those at not more than 1 percent without respect to order, then color additives without respect to order of predominance. law.cornell.edu

Written from federal regulation and from measured catalog data, not from a formulation bench. Whether a given color additive is listed for a given use, including use in the area of the eye, is a question about that listing in 21 CFR parts 73, 74 and 82. Nothing here is a determination about a specific colorant.