The Set-Up of a Foundation Colorant File for the Purpose of Color-Matching Foundations, With a View to Improving the Current Foundation Color-Matching Process in the Future

Abstract: The process of color-matching any color product is a process that can be quite complicated and requires great skill from a color analyst. As the name suggests color-matching is the process in which the color of a standard is obtained from a sample through careful inspection and precision in order for the colors to match up. It is a process that can vary in length dependent of the amount of pigments used.  Foundations are a type of liquid emulsion cosmetic and consist of five main pigments; white (titanium dioxide), red, brown, yellow and black iron oxides. These five pigments can when mixed together result in hundreds of shades. One of the greatest challenges for cosmetics companies is to successfully manufacture these shades often from a benchmark, a desired shade, as well as maintaining this same shade when the batch is scaled up from lab production to factory.  Oriflame is a direct-selling cosmetics company in which the Marketing department and Color Cosmetic department work closely in order to produce new products and shades for each catalogue. Liquid foundation shades are decided by the Marketing department and given to the Color Cosmetic department to color-match.  Currently the process of color-matching is carried out through the visual assessment by the color analyst. In order to improve the efficiency and lead - time of the current method, Oriflame has drawn inspiration from other sectors dealing with color and taken the decision to color-match with the use of a spectrophotometer coupled with color-appropriate software. The method was divided into four separate processes; confirming a sample method presentation to the spectrophotometer, colorant file set-up & process, color-matching process with the color-appropriate software and color match comparison. The results showed that with an adequate sized colorant file a method for color-matching with a spectrophotometer was established. The lead-time could be decreased by, as much as 66.6 % and providing strong evidence that this is a valuable tool for color analysts working at Oriflame.