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Iron oxide pigments can fade for various reasons, leaving clients with an unsatisfactory outcome.

Fading to red

If the client has warm undertones (i.e., lots of red in the skin) and uses a warm pigment (yellow, orange, red) there’s a chance it could fade to red because of the overwhelming amount of red pigment particles in both the skin and the pigment.

Fading to blue

Iron oxide pigments may fade to blue for two reasons:

  • The pigment has been inserted too deep into the skin. The deeper the pigment goes, the bluer it will appear under the skin. If this happens, there’ll be a blue shadow beside the original stroke after the incision heals.
  • The client’s undertone is cool (lots of blue/green), and the artist has used a cool tone pigment (blue/green).

Fading to grey

Iron oxide pigment only fades to grey if it contains the organic ingredients of charcoal or carbon.

Colour Wheel 

A colour wheel is a handy tool to help you through the process of mixing and correcting pigment. It illustrates the variety of colours that can be made when two colours are combined.

 

Primary Colours

Red, blue, and yellow are primary colours because they can’t be made by mixing other colours together. They form the base of every other colour on the colour wheel.

 

 Secondary Colours

When you mix primary colours together you get secondary colours. On the colour wheel, they’re located between the primary colours

 

 Tertiary Colours

Also known as intermediate colours, they’re made by mixing a primary colour with equal parts of a secondary colour. Brown is a tertiary colour.

 

There are three primary colours: yellow, red and blue. The order dominance of the primary colours will determine our pigment colour results.

Yellow is the lightest colour and is also a warm primary. It heals the lightest in the skin. Yellow is the only primary colour that has both cool and warm properties. Yellow will cool red and warm blue.

Red is a medium colour and a warm primary; red adds warmth.

Blue is the darkest colour and the only cool primary. It heals the darkest in the skin. Blue will cool any colour.

Types of colours

  • Warm colours – are red, yellow, and orange. They evoke warmth because they remind us of things like the sun.
  • Cool colours – are blue, green, purple (violet). These colours evoke a cool feeling because they remind us of things like water or grass.
  • Neutral colours – are grey and brown. These aren’t on most colour wheels, but they’re considered neutral because they don’t contrast with much of anything.

True primary colours can’t themselves be created from other colours but are used to mix other colours.

All three primaries are blended naturally in naturally pigmented hair. The three primaries can’t work together without browning out. All-natural hair pigment contains three primary colours.

Orange is the strongest warm colour and is made up of yellow and red. The red establishes the pigment depth. The yellow establishes the warm light reflection.

Violet is formed from the strongest cool and strongest warm primary colours, red and blue. Blue is the dominant colour and transforms red into its own class. It’s still considered to be warm.

When white light is reflected through a three-sided mirror, the visible spectrum of colour will separate into six colours:

Red – Orange – Yellow – Green – Blue – Violet

The primary colours are Red, Yellow, and Blue.

The secondary colours are Orange, Violet, and Green.

Intermediate colours are yellow-green, yellow-orange, red-orange, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet.

Mixing a primary and a secondary colour together will create an immediate colour.

Tertiary colours are created by mixing two secondary colours together. Tertiary colours are dull or low in intensity. This is the result of there being three primaries involved in the mixtures.

Most of the colours we use for permanent cosmetics are tertiary colours such as moss green, golden beige, burnt orange, and taupe.

Complimentary colours are located diametrically opposite from each other on the colour wheel. Example:

  • Red and Green
  • Violet and Yellow
  • Blue and Orange

Monochromatic colours are variations of any shade, tint, and tone of one colour. It counterbalances by eliminating an existing colour, or it may strengthen it by recreating a colour, making colours more apparent.

Triadic colours are three colours at the end of each point of an equal triangle on the colour wheel. 

Pigment Facts

TRUE

Pigment Colour + Skin Tones = The Result

  • The only way to tell what the final colour result will be is after the pigment has healed into the skin for at least 4-6 weeks.
  • Pigment colour should not change colour once it is inserted into the dermis and healed if the client follows their aftercare instructions exactly and there are no contraindications of the application.

TRUE

Common sense tells us that the pigment colour inserted into the skin will appear to change because we are looking at the pigment colour through the top layer of skin.

FALSE – Pigment smeared on the surface of the skin will give you an accurate colour diagnosis.

Taking into consideration the acidity and alkalinity (pH) of the skin, colours smeared directly on the skin will appear differently than if you were to insert them into the skin.

If the client is on medication, they may show more unusual colour results than anticipated. 

FALSE – Iron oxide pigments are not absorbed by the bloodstream

This rumour was started a few years ago, and it’s just that: a rumour.

Iron oxides have been used by tattoo artists and permanent cosmetic technicians for decades with very little or no complications.

You may still have an MRI scan if you have iron oxide in your eyeliner, lip liner, eyebrows, or other body tattoos.

Colour correction/removal key points

  • Brown is not a colour but is, in fact, a blend of colours.
  • A basic brown colour consists of black, red, yellow, or blue, yellow and red.
  • Colours do not fade equally over time, and therefore when black fades, first you are left with a typical orange or pink looking brow or a purple hue. Over time the yellow colours deplete, leaving red and blue, which makes pigment purple.
  • Red is opposite to green, so to correct a red or orange tone, you will need to balance it out with a green pigment.
  • Grey or blue brows are the hardest brows to correct long term as the ink used would have contained a carbon black ink that turns greenish or bluish over time and looks dull and dirty. This brow needs to be balanced out with an orange pigment and will need regular maintenance.

Needle depth can have a significant effect on the surface appearance of a cosmetic tattoo; pigment depth will affect both the apparent size and colour of the pigment. This is due to the unique spectral characteristic of the human skin.

If the pigment is not implanted at the correct depth within the dermis, then black/brown pigments may tend to appear blue/green/grey because of the depth-related changes to light reflectance.

The pigment can be removed from the skin using various techniques. These include dry needling, the use of saline, and lasers.

Colour changes

If your client complains that the pigment has changed colour, check the following with your client:

During the healing process, did the client:

  1. Follow the aftercare properly
  2. Pick off any of the scabs
  3. Use any form of lightning products such as AHAs
  4. Touch the area with their fingers while the area was healing
  5. Start taking any new medication
  6. Become ill
  7. Go in saltwater or chlorinated pools
  8. Expose the area to UV light either outside without proper protection, or use a sunbed

After the procedure had healed, did the client:

  1. Get a tan
  2. Change jobs and now work in different lighting conditions
  3. Take, add, or change any medications, including vitamins and herbs
  4. Use total sunblock on the area
  5. Use any lightening products on their skin or have IPL, laser, or Microdermabrasion treatments

What if the pigment has completely disappeared?

If the procedure was carried out less than four weeks ago,  it may be that the skin is still healing, and it’s not uncommon for the colour to reappear after four weeks.

Please refer to page 64 of your manual for neutralising techniques and recommended pigments.