Buy a full case and the price per unit drops automaticallyRequest a sample
AccountCart0
All ContainersBottlesJarsCaps & ClosuresPumps & SprayersTubs & PailsJugsDroppersTinsTubesAccessories
Industries
Learn
Beyond the tube

Tinted balm and gloss

Updated

On this page5

The obvious extension, the one customers ask for, and the one that adds a compliance dimension the plain balm did not have.

Two different products

A tinted balm is your existing stick with pigment in it, sold in the same tube.

A gloss is a different base entirely: softer, wetter, high in castor, sold in a squeeze tube or a wand pot.

The first is a line extension. The second is a new product with new packaging and a new process.

What tinting changes

Pigment stiffens the balm and dulls it, so the formula usually needs more castor to restore gloss and hold the dispersion.

It has to be dispersed rather than stirred in, or it shows as speckle on the lip.

It settles in the pouring pot, so a long run comes out as a color gradient unless you stir between rows.

And it multiplies SKUs. Four shades of one balm is four labels, four minimum orders and four times the stock, for a range that sells at the same price as the plain one.

Gloss is a different base

Very little wax, a great deal of castor, often a thickener. It is sticky by design, because stickiness is what reads as gloss.

It cannot go in a twist tube. It needs a squeeze tube, a wand applicator or a pot, and a wand pot raises the finger-and-applicator hygiene question the twist tube was avoiding.

The regulatory footnote

Color additives are the one cosmetic ingredient category approved in advance, and lips are the strictest use case because a small amount is ingested. Not every color permitted for external use is permitted here, and some require batch certification.

Buy from a supplier who states the approved uses and supplies the certification, and keep it with the batch record. This is the one part of a tinted range that is not a craft decision.

References

US Food and Drug Administration. Summary of Cosmetics Labeling Requirements. fda.gov
Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, and INCI nomenclature for cosmetic ingredient declaration in descending order of predominance. fda.gov
Written from the federal regulation and FDA guidance named on each page, not from a laboratory or a legal practice. Whether a particular formula and a particular label make a cosmetic or a drug is a determination about your product, and this is not that determination.