VOKAL JOURNAL / At the pigment shelf
The shade name helps you find a bottle. The ingredient label helps you ask better questions about it.
“Warm brown”, “natural black” and “cool ash” are useful descriptions, but they do not identify a complete formula. Two products with similar names can contain different colorants. CI numbers provide a shared way to identify those colorants; they are not a forecast of exactly how a brow will heal, fade or respond to laser.
You can make a useful first pass in about a minute. The point is not to memorise a catalogue of chemicals. It is to separate what the label tells you from what still needs verification.
The 60-second pass
- Identify the product. Read the brand, shade, intended use and manufacturer details. Make sure you are looking at the actual bottle and its packaging, rather than only a cropped marketing photograph.
- Find the colorants. Look for entries such as CI 77491, CI 77492 and CI 77499. Ingredient names may also appear. An unfamiliar name is a question to resolve, not proof that an ingredient is absent.
- Read beyond the colour. Check other ingredients, directions, batch information and dates. Note any restrictions on mixing or dilution.
- Mark the unknowns. If a number, ingredient or intended use is unclear, verify it with a reliable reference or the manufacturer before making a claim about the product.
That first pass should end with a short statement you can defend: “This label lists these colorants, these other ingredients and these instructions.” It should not end with “This will stay brown for two years” or “This will be easy to remove”. Those are different questions.
Packaging rules differ by market. For example, IARC’s tattoo-ink FAQ describes European label information including an intended-use statement and batch identification, while also noting the limitations of label accuracy. A label is an important source, but it is not an independent composition test.
A useful number range, with limits
The Colour Index range 77000–77999 covers inorganic colorants. It is a useful clue, not a complete sorting rule for every possible entry. The Australian regulator’s investigation of PMU inks also lists other Colour Index ranges, including naturally occurring dyes. Do not reduce the whole system to “everything outside 77000 is organic” without checking the specific entry.
In colour chemistry, “organic” does not mean organically farmed, automatically safer or easier to remove. Likewise, “mineral” is not a guarantee of stable healing or predictable laser clearance. These descriptions cannot replace the identity and documentation of the actual product.
Carbon black and titanium dioxide illustrate the problem with treating a family name as a performance rating: both sit within the inorganic number range, yet one is black and the other is a white opacifier. Their classification alone cannot answer the practical question in front of you.
Eight CI entries worth recognising
These are useful examples, not an exhaustive list of PMU ingredients. Read suffixes and full names where supplied, and verify unfamiliar entries. Identification does not by itself establish that a colorant is permitted for a particular use in your market.
| CI number | Colorant | Basic colour reference |
|---|---|---|
| 77891 | Titanium dioxide | White; commonly used for opacity. |
| 77491 | Red iron oxide | Red to red-brown colour direction. |
| 77492 | Yellow iron oxide | Yellow or ochre colour direction. |
| 77499 | Black iron oxide | Black colour component. |
| 77266 | Carbon black | Black colour component, chemically distinct from iron oxide. |
| 77288 | Chromium oxide green | Green colour component. |
| 77007 | Ultramarines | A family including blue and violet shades. |
| 74160 | Copper phthalocyanine blue | Blue colorant; check the exact form and product documentation. |
The table identifies materials. It intentionally does not assign a guaranteed fading order, a number of sessions or a laser wavelength to each row. Material properties and the outcome of a finished formula implanted in a particular person are not interchangeable. The regulator’s PMU composition report provides further background on ingredient identification.
What CI numbers cannot tell you
A colorant identifier is only one layer of information. On its own, it does not give you:
- Exact proportions. Several products can share the same colorant list while using different amounts.
- Particle characteristics. A bare CI number does not report the finished product’s particle-size distribution or full surface-treatment specification.
- The complete carrier system. Those ingredients may be listed elsewhere; they are not encoded in the colorant number.
- Sterility or handling history. Familiar colorants do not demonstrate that a bottle has been manufactured, stored and used appropriately.
- A personal outcome. The list cannot predict an individual’s healed hue, long-term change or removal response.
Read ingredient order according to the applicable labelling rules and the manufacturer’s information. Do not turn the first colorant on a list into an invented percentage. Even when an order gives useful context, it is not the same as a quantitative formulation.
If a supplier makes a specific claim about sterility, particle size or performance, ask for evidence relevant to that claim. Repeating the CI list does not answer it. The FDA’s tattoo and permanent-makeup safety information also explains why infection and contamination concerns cannot be reduced to the choice of colour.
Three mixtures, the same three numbers
Imagine three formulas that all name red iron oxide, yellow iron oxide and black iron oxide. If the amounts differ, they are not identical formulas, even though the three CI entries match.
The bars above use invented proportions to illustrate that information gap. They are not VOKAL formulations, mixing instructions or simulated healed results. No bar is labelled “turns grey”, “turns pink” or “holds forever”, because those outcomes cannot be established from this drawing.
It also does not work reliably in reverse. A pink residue does not prove that the original bottle was red-dominant; a grey-looking brow does not prove a black-dominant formula. The original mix, placement, skin, layers, elapsed time, lighting and any later treatments all need context. A photograph cannot reconstruct missing percentages.
Use the label to recover known ingredients and the treatment record to recover what was actually used. For the appearance questions, read why old brow pigment can look pink and the factors worth checking when brows look grey. Those observations start an assessment; they do not complete a chemical analysis.
What to ask when you see CI 77891
CI 77891 identifies titanium dioxide, a white pigment that can contribute opacity. Its presence deserves attention when discussing pale modifiers, cover-ups and possible future removal. It does not reveal its exact concentration or make a product automatically inappropriate.
The important question is what role the finished product is intended to play and whether that role fits the treatment plan. Some white or flesh-coloured cosmetic tattoos can darken during laser treatment. That is a reason for informed assessment, not a guarantee that every formula containing this ingredient will react identically.
Our companion guide, Titanium Dioxide and Laser Removal, explains the optical distinction, the darkening reports and why neither easy clearance nor permanent failure should be promised from a label alone.
Read the other ingredients and instructions
A pigment bottle contains more than colorants. The surrounding formulation affects how the product disperses and handles. Matching CI numbers do not prove that two finished products are compatible for mixing, and a smooth-looking mixture does not demonstrate that it is safe or suitable.
Follow the manufacturer’s directions rather than improvising a dilution rule. A product may prohibit dilution entirely. Do not add water or another solution simply because the bottle looks thick, and do not treat tap water as a substitute for a permitted product-specific preparation.
A name is the beginning.
Sandalwood identifies the shade. The full packaging and directions supply the next layer of information.
The current V02 Sandalwood page, for example, separately lists base ingredients and says not to dilute with water or other solutions. That is a useful reminder to read beyond the shade name. The product photograph identifies V02; the surface swatch does not predict a healed colour or disclose an exact ratio.
If the website, packaging and an older leaflet disagree, ask for current, batch-relevant information before relying on any one of them. Save the answer with the product record. A confident assumption is still an assumption.
The short reference to keep by your shelf
- Identify the exact product, not only its shade name.
- Use CI numbers to identify colorants; verify unfamiliar entries.
- Treat ingredient families as classifications, not quality scores.
- Ask about CI 77891 without inventing its percentage.
- Read the other ingredients and product-specific instructions.
- Do not infer healed results or removal settings from the list.
Then make the record useful: brand, shade, batch, a readable label photograph, every modifier and amount used, treatment date and area, and dated photographs in consistent light. If something was not recorded, mark it as unknown rather than reconstructing it from the eventual colour.
Explore VOKAL brow pigments with those questions in mind. A good label-reading habit ends with clearer information and better questions—not a promise the label was never capable of making.
Visuals: original AI-generated editorial still lifes, VOKAL educational diagrams and an existing VOKAL product image. Generic bottles are illustrative; the teaching label and ratio bars are not real VOKAL formulas. No patient case or treatment outcome is depicted. Reviewed 27 October 2026.
