Loose pigment

Loose pigment is eyeshadow before it has been pressed. A pressed shadow is powder mixed with a binder and compressed into a pan; a loose one is sold as the powder itself, in a small jar with a sifter, with little or no binder in it. Most loose pigments are built on pearl — flat platelets of mica coated with titanium dioxide or other pigments, whose lustre comes from light reflected and refracted through the plate^[1] — and because nothing dilutes them, a loose pigment gives a stronger, more metallic shine than the same colour pressed.

The trade-off is control. Loose powder travels: it falls onto the cheek, it spills, and it needs a brush and a steady hand. Loose pigment is also not glitter. Glitter is a flake that sits on the skin as a separate point of light; pigment is a fine powder that lies down as a continuous film of colour and sheen. Many pigments are sold for the cheeks, lips and body as well as the eyes, which is why the label deserves a careful reading.

Loose pigments differ most in the size of their particles. Fine particles give a smooth sheen, from satin to metal, that blends like a powder shadow; coarser ones sparkle, and edge towards glitter. Duochrome pigments shift colour with the angle of the light, and a few matte loose shadows exist, mostly from mineral brands, which behave much like pressed ones. For a first jar, choose a metallic neutral — champagne, bronze or copper — that works alone, pressed over a cream base, or tapped over powder shadow as a topper.

On deep skin, gold, copper and bronze pigments show their full shine, where pale, sheer ones can look ashy. On fair skin, a champagne or rose-gold reads as light rather than colour. Most pigments are sold by weight rather than volume, and a jar that looks half-empty on arrival has usually settled in the post.

Tap a little pigment into the lid of the jar rather than dipping a brush into the jar itself, and tap the brush on the rim before it reaches the eye. Press the colour onto the lid with a small, flat, dense brush: pressing rather than sweeping keeps the powder where it lands and keeps fallout down. Do the eyes before the rest of the face, or hold a tissue under the eye to catch what falls, and brush the stray grains away afterwards.

Worn dry over a primer, a loose pigment gives a soft, luminous sheen. Worn damp — the brush misted with a setting spray or a mixing medium, or the pigment pressed over a cream base — it gives a dense, foiled finish, so that one jar does the work of two shadows; MAC and bareMinerals both sell theirs for wet or dry use. A little goes a long way, since a jar holds only a few grams. Keep water out of the jar itself, where it makes the powder clump, and close the sifter before closing the lid.

Not every pigment in a jar is made for the eyes, and the reason is regulatory. In the United States a colour additive may be used in the area of the eye only if the regulation that lists it permits that use, and the area is drawn widely: the brows, the lids and lashes, and the skin within the bony ridges of the eye socket.^[2] The FDA’s table shows how much that narrows the palette. Mica, iron oxides, titanium dioxide, bismuth oxychloride, ultramarines, chromium oxide greens, manganese violet, carmine, and aluminium, bronze and copper powders are listed for the eye area; most of the certified synthetic reds, oranges and yellows are not.^[3] Only seven fluorescent colours are approved for cosmetics at all,^[2] and none of them is listed for use around the eye.^[3]

That is why a neon or very bright pigment can be legal on the cheek and not on the lid. Read the label, and the directions on the maker’s page, before the brush goes near the lashes, and keep pigments sold only for the face, lips or body away from the eyes. Theatrical pigments are held to the same colour rules as everyday make-up.^[2]

Loose powders for the eyes are old, but in the West they long stayed a curiosity. Elizabeth Arden’s Kôhl-Arabia of 1955 was a superfine powder in brown, blue, grey-black and green, in small urn-shaped glass flacons with a wand.^[4] James Bennett, the historian behind Cosmetics and Skin, argues that powders of this kind never came into wide use in the West partly for practical reasons: a powder needs more skill, a bottle and a separate applicator, and it can spill. The pencil, in his account, was simpler and safer to carry.^[4]

The shine came from chemistry. Pearl essence, the fish-scale extract that gave the first pearly cosmetics their lustre, could not be dried without clumping, so it could not go into powders; laboratory-made bismuth oxychloride gave a dry pearl from the 1930s, and mica coated with titanium dioxide, described in 1942, became widely available in the 1960s.^[5] MAC made the loose form a line of its own. In the United States the name “MÄC Pigment” was registered as a trademark in 2000 for “colored powder for use on the face, eyes, cheeks and lips”, with its first use given as September 1996.^[6] The description still fits the kind: loose pigment is sold for everywhere, and read carefully for the eyes.