Mineral, Synthetic and Metallic Pigments

Stardust is the European specialist in Special Effect Pigments. Among these, formerly and still today of natural origin, a number of mineral pigments have been replaced by synthetic pigments, which are cheaper and purer.

The pigments mainly have a coloring role, after mixing in a resin, a binder.
Today they are used in painting techniques known as "whitewash", "lime", or for coatings.
Some modern pigments are metallic: they are made from pure metal and give very attractive reflective color effects. They can be used in waxes and gilding.

Metallic synthetic mineral pigments

Unlike pigment pastes or dispersions, pure pigments are in powder form. The particles are extremely fine and measure from 1 to 30 thousandths of a millimeter (microns) and are insoluble, unlike soluble coloring pigments.

StardustColors invites you to discover here a range of mineral pigments used for hundreds of years in the history of art and colors.

Light on ultramarine blue pigment

Ultramarine blue, resembling cobalt, is one of the most beautiful mineral pigments offered by Stardust, it gives a captivating and deep blue.
Before 1900, it was extracted from the grinding of precious stones (lapis) and imported "from overseas". So it was a very expensive pigment.
Difficult to imitate, it tends towards purple, and it has little coverage: you have to "sacrifice" a little of its beauty by mixing it with white to increase its opacity
It is used to make whitewash for example.
Today it has become very affordable with a synthetic manufacturing process which consists of baking clay, coal and soda at 700°C.

Aluminum pigments

It is made of pure aluminum and has many advantages, which have allowed it to become the most widely used pigment in the field of automotive paint.
Economical and abundant, very covering, very light with total resistance to heat and UVs, low oxidization, very covering, and finally very effective visually speaking, with its natural, shiny and sparkling metallic effect.
StardustColors offers this pigment in sizes from 5µm up to 80µm

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