First I want to apologize for being absent in a very long time. It's a long story. So, how are doing ya'll?
I'd like to talk about carmine today. What is it? and why?
Let 's get started!
Carmine (noun), according to dictionary.com is
1. a crimson or purplish-red color.
2. a crimson pigment obtained from cochineal.
From these two explanations, we get the idea that carmine is crimson or purplish-red color which obtained from cochineal. Wait...what??!
Cochineal? Also known as Dactylopius coccus is "a scale insect that manufactures a deep maroon pigment and stores this pigment in body fluids and tissues. The pigmentation is a bitter, astringent chemical called carminic acid (10% total dry weight), which is extremely effective in repelling potential predators, such as ants; ants find this anthraquinone to be unpalatable."*
These are some pictures I got when I type "cochineal" using search engine.
Honestly, at first when I found out about this colorant, I felt uncomfortable almost disturbed. I bought a lipstick by "TheBalm" a long time ago and this brand claims to use natural ingredients. By all means, I didn't expect the products have to use carmine as their colorant. So, I started to do some research about that out of my curiosity. Not surprisingly, this type of dye has been used since hundreds of years ago even in the fifteenth century. Europeans, Australians, Native Americans had used them for textile industry to gain many recpectable red colors. And ever since, they've also used carminic acid as food and cosmetic colorant.
Interestingly, I found out that carminic acid is used by Starbucks co., one of my favorite coffee shop. I did check FDA regulations about this type of colorant and they approve the usage of cochineal as long as it is mentioned in the list of ingredients as carmine or cochineal extract. Hm, we might never knew we have been "eating some bugs" while drinking our beverage. Many foods are using cochineal extract, ice cream, yogurt, drinks, etc.
Compared to other cosmetic colorant which probably contains lead/minion, cadmium, manganese, chromium, carmine is more safe. It's been proven for many years that people have been using it over centuries for food and cosmetics. On the other hand, lead could become toxin when ingested. We (our body) can't even be exposed to lead AT ALL. Imagine putting on as your lipstick/lipgloss? Hell no!
Now these facts lead me to a different perpective. I am not worried too much about having carmine in my lipstick anymore. It's natural, indeed. If I have to choose between any kind of colorant (for example and I made these up: #23 pink petal or #213 red brick) and carmine or carminic acid or cochineal extract, I rather to go with carmine than those nasty unknown colorants. I think bugs are more edible than metals.
So, if you are against this non-Vegan colorant, you should carefully read all the ingredients on the product label information, where usually carmine also written as crimson lake, natural red 4, cochineal extract. FDA requires to put 'carmine' or 'cochineal extract' on the list.
Some of Qi Qi Naturals products use carmine as their colorant: Rose Lipbalm and Shimmer Peach Lipstick. However, owner Ki Ki offers to replace carmine to other ingredient as consideration for vegan customers. Again, I myself don't mind with cochineal extract in my products. It's natural after all which supposedly much less harms than chemical or synthetic colorants.
Keep our natural beauty!
-dora-
source: *http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Cochineal/
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