Dyes? Pigments? How to tell them apart

Hello everyone! I’m a star employee at CHROMÉCLAIR, a brand of hema free gel polish brands.Today, we will distinguish between dyes and pigments from four perspectives.

What is the difference between pigments and dyes?

Pigments and dyes are both referred to as coloring materials. Water-soluble colored substances primarily used to dye silk, wool, cotton, and other materials are called dyes. The other category, insoluble in water, mainly relies on oil or glue to adhere to the material surface and is called pigment, also known as paint.

Pigments: Primarily mineral-based, such as iron oxide red, ochre (iron oxide), cinnabar, vermilion (mercury sulfide), red lead (lead tetroxide), and verdigris (basic copper carbonate).

Dyes: Also known as pigments. They can be natural or synthetic.

Natural dyes are commonly encountered in daily life:

• When eating watermelon in summer, the red juice stains white clothes and is difficult to wash out—this is a type of dye.

• When dining at restaurants, gardenia-infused water yields a deep yellow hue—this too serves as a dye for fabric.
• Plants encountered in daily life, including their blossoms, can also be used for dyeing.

Distinction 1: Solubility

Dyes are soluble substances used to impart color to materials from a solvent. Pigments are insoluble particulate substances dispersed within the medium they color, producing scattering effects. While this simple distinction remains valid in most cases, numerous exceptions exist, necessitating additional criteria to differentiate these two colorants. No single definition is entirely satisfactory, as a given compound may be classified as either a dye or a pigment, often depending on its intended application.

For years, it has been commonly said that “dyes are soluble, pigments are insoluble.” This is generally true:

Most dyes are water-soluble at some stage when applied to fibers or fabrics. However, there are exceptions, or at least borderline cases. For example, reduction dyes, such as indigo used to dye blue jeans, are typically insoluble in water but “dissolve” through reduction during the dyeing process.

Unlike dyes, pigments are always insoluble in water within their application medium: any degree of solubility (termed “bleed” in the pigment industry) is considered a defect. To my knowledge, there are no exceptions. In other words, when a colorant typically used as an insoluble pigment is employed in solution, it is often simply called a dye!

Distinction Two: Organic and Inorganic

Another traditional distinction between dyes and pigments is that dyes are organic compounds, while pigments are inorganic compounds.

The number of inorganic dyes is virtually zero, but since the rise of the organic chemical industry, the number of organic pigments has steadily increased. Today, the distinction is one-sided:

Most dyes remain organic, but most colored pigments are no longer inorganic. Until recently, all white pigments were inorganic—such as titanium dioxide or zinc oxide—but plastic microspheres are now being used as highly efficient, lightweight white light-scattering pigments.

(e.g., water-based hollow microsphere plastic pigments, hollow microsphere white pigments)

Distinction Three: Coloring Process

The third distinction arises from the coloring process of dyes and pigments on materials such as coatings or plastics.

Coloring agents that dissolve in the medium and form transparent mixtures are called dyes, while pigments do not dissolve but scatter light, creating translucent or opaque formulations. Pigments are used when opacity is required, while dyes—typically divided into alcohol-soluble and oil-soluble types—are employed to color transparent media without compromising their transparency. Another method to achieve transparency involves using pigments with very small particle sizes or, if feasible, pigments with refractive indices similar to the medium.

Distinction Four: Binding Mechanism

The final distinction, which proves most effective and least exceptional for us, is based on the mechanism by which the colorant binds to the substrate.

If the colorant exhibits affinity for the substrate (textiles, paper, etc.) and becomes an integral part of the colored material without requiring an intermediate binder, we classify this colorant as a dye. This material affinity or affinity for the substrate clearly distinguishes dyes from pigments. Pigments lack affinity for the substrate and require a binder to fix them onto the substrate. Pigments cannot adhere to surfaces without a binder.

I hope this article helps you understand pigments more easily!

CHROMÉCLAIR offers Base coats, Top coats, solid color gel polish without HEMA, and hema free cat eye gel polish.

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