Chromaversity© | Endangered Colors

We all know about endangered species of plants and animals, but did you know colors can become endangered too? Certain pigments that people have used as the coloring agent in foods, paints, clothing dyes, and other things used to be all too common, and many now are going extinct (and some for good reason!). Here are a few pigments that you might have some trouble finding these days. We definitely won’t be using any of these colors in our products anytime ever!

Endangered Colors: 4 Hues You Can't See Anymore

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Ultramarine - Lapis Lazuli Stones

Lapis Lazuli is a semi-precious gemstone that is found in pockets all over the world, but was historically mined primarily from regions in and around Afghanistan and Pakistan. Lapis Lazuli was ground into a fine powder which resulted in the pigment known as Ultramarine. Lapis itself was used in ancient sculptures like the funeral mask of King Tut, and its powdered pigment Ultramarine was used to color the paint in some of the world’s most renowned works of art, like Johannes Vermeer’s painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. Natural ultramarine is probably the most expensive pigment ever made, and at the peak of its trade rivaled even gold in value. In 1824, a synthetic ultramarine was produced in France by Christian Gmelin, which, in turn, made the mining of Lapis and the production of natural ultramarine far less profitable. These days, Lapis Lazuli can still be found in jewelry and in sculptures, but it is only sought out by collectors in its powdered form as ultramarine.

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Carmine - Cochineal Beetles

Cochineal beetles are a type of immobile parasitic insect that feeds on prickly pear cactuses throughout South and Central America and can even reach as far north as Arizona. Female cochineals are collected by hand, dried, and then the insects are crushed into powder to make cochineal extract. This powder is then treated through a chemical process with ammonia and alum to produce the coloring known as Carmine. Traditionally, Carmine has been used predominantly to dye fabrics, but in modern times it has been used to color everything from toys to food, to lipstick and other red-colored cosmetics. Dyes like Carmine that made with cochineal beetles sometimes go by other names like Crimson Lake and Red 4. But don’t worry! Although it might sound gross, these dyes are completely non-toxic, and relatively harmless. There have still been a few cases of allergic reactions to carmine in the last 20 years, and because of this, most of the companies that have historically used carmine in food products have substituted synthetic alternatives.

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Emerald Green - Copper Acetate

Emerald Green, sometimes known as “Paris Green” and “Veronese Green”, was made from a chemical compound called copper-acetoarsenite. Painters like Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne used Emerald Green in their paints often, as it had a very peculiar bluish tint to the light green color. However, artists were not the only ones to use this in their palettes. House paint and patterned wall paper also used this coloring agent in their products, as well as in fabrics and clothing. The important thing to remember about copper-acetoarsenite is that it is is lethally toxic. When exposed to dampness it produces an arsenic gas, which would result in some deaths-by-poison when people would have their bedrooms painted in Emerald Green on warm, humid days. Luckily, this pigment hasn’t been used in anything since the early 1900’s.

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Indian Yellow - Urine from Mango Leaf-fed Cows

Indian Yellow is an ancient pigment, but rose in popularity in the 1400s in Europe being widely used by artists. For hundreds of years, Europeans didn’t know how it was produced until in 1883 when an investigator from the Journal of the Society of Arts in London found his way to a small group of cattle owners who fed their cattle a strict diet of mango leaves and water. The urine from these cows was collected, heated, strained, pressed into balls by hand, and then dried and sold as “Indian Yellow” pigment to Europeans. The production of the color was declared inhumane in 1908, since the cows were very clearly malnourished and wouldn’t live long on this diet. Since then, Indian Yellow cakes can only be found as relics in museums or as collector’s items from the past, since no one has made any since the early 1900’s.

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In modern days, all of the above colors have been safely and renewably recreated in labs as synthetic pigments and replaced in today’s color market. Some, like ultramarine, are still available to purchase for collectors (or very wealthy painters), but unsafe compounds like Emerald Green are nearly impossible to find anymore, unless you can find it in some long lost great great grandmother’s attic. Natural Indian Yellow is an increasingly rare collector’s item, since none has been made since the early 1900’s, and hopefully never will be again. But if you look for it, you might find carmine as an ingredient in some lipsticks. Just imagine knowing your lips being the same color as an ancient Aztec princess!