Skin Whitening, Skin Lightening

Skin Whitening Product Efficacy Testing Examined

As the consumer’s expectation is the reduction in skin coloration of overly pigmented areas, such as age spots and blotches, the most appropriate measurement is associated with defining colour change.

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Switch On The Lights

It was the world's first Formula One race under the night sky, and Asia's maiden F1 grand prix on public streets. And now, the SingTel Singapore GP is set to record another milestone on Friday - it will be the first time F1 cars are driven from day into night. While last year's first practice session lasted from 7pm to 8.30pm at the Marina Bay street circuit, this year's is scheduled to start at 6pm and end at 7.30pm.

This is according to the tentative timetable issued by the sport's governing body, the International Automobile Federation (FIA). As dusk will fall shortly after 7pm, championship leader Jenson Button of Brawn and the other 19 drivers will start lapping the circuit in full daylight, stay on as it turns to dusk, and return to the pits for good only when the session ends after nightfall.

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The level of lighting quality increases the well-being of drivers, resulting in traffic safety. Roads must be uniformly lit to ensure safety and driving at 240 mph from full daylight to dusk is a challenge. A big change in illuminance can cause our eyes to shut for a second or two due to our scopotic and photopic vision. This momentarily blindness can be fatal for drivers on high speed.

The next time you travel into and out of a tunnel, check out the lighting. When entering the tunnel, you would probably have extra lighting to balance the illuminance outside and inside the tunnel, and the extra lighting gradually dims as you continue your journery in the tunnel. Before exiting, the lighting is increased to prepare your eyes to the brightness outside the tunnel. This is done to prevent your eyes from shutting momentarily due to sudden change in brightness.

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FORMULA 1™ SingTel Singapore Grand Prix Lighting System
Lighting System
· Horizontal aluminium truss (10m high) supported by vertical steel pylons (32m apart) supported by a footing system with steel plates
· Truss to carry power cables, fibre optic cables, light projectors and DigiColor units
· Centrally controlled by DigiLux System

Light projectors
· Placed 4m apart on the truss
· 2,000 Watt metal Halide lamp
· 4,200 Kelvin degrees

Luminosity
3,000lux levels (four times brighter than the lights at sports stadiums)

Power Supply
12 sets of twin generators
· One generator can produce the energy required for the entire system in the assigned area
· Each generator can take the load of both generators should its twin generator fail

Total power required: 3,180,000 Watts

Total length of aluminium truss: Approx. 6,300m
No. of Steel Pylons: Approx. 230
No. of Light Projectors: Approx. 1,500
Total length of power cables: Approx. 110,000m
Total length of optic cables: Approx. 27,000m
Lighting consultant: Valerio Maioli S.p.A

With a fresh take on contemporary and a passion for colour, Maria is known for creating warm, comfortable and inspired spaces for her clients. A member of the International Association of Colour Consultants/Designers and the Colour Marketing Group, Maria also teaches Colour Theory at the Vancouver Community College. In a review of this blog, Material Girls called it 'Colour Advice from a True Expert'.

Color Order Systems

Color Order System is a logical colour notation system to describes the colour visually.

NCS is a logical colour notation system which builds on how the human being sees colour. A notation represents a specific colour percept and describes the colour visually.

RAL colours are an international leading standard for all professional users of colour in industry, trade and design.

MUNSELL Munsell Color Atlas.

Color Instruments Metrology

• Repeatability
Repeatability is how well an instrument can repeat identical measurements.
Repeatability can be quantified in terms of short, medium, and long times between
measurements. These types of repeatability are taken over seconds or minutes (short); hours (medium); and days, weeks, or longer (long). Intuitively, repeatability can be thought of as the degree to which an instrument makes self-consistent measurements.

• Reproducibility
Reproducibility is similar to repeatability except that some aspect of the
measurement conditions have changed. This might be the operator, the instrument, or some
other condition. The intuitive understanding of reproducibility is the degree to which an
instrument makes consistent measurements even when conditions are slightly changed.

• Inter-instrument and Inter-model Reproducibility
These are special cases of repeatability where instruments of identical design (inter-instrument) or different design (inter-model) are compared.

• Accuracy
Accuracy is how closely an instrument can conform to the accepted value for a given sample. “Accepted” values are usually provided by a high-accuracy laboratory, such as a national standards body. From these samples, accuracy is independently determined for the wavelength scale and the radiometric scale.

http://www.color.org/ICC_white_paper_22_Precision_and_Bias_in_Measurement.pdf

Color Concerns in a Manufacturing Environment

There are two major color concerns in a manufacturing environment.

1. Color Standard Program
Is there a color standard program within the organization governing the control of colored materials? Are practices and procedures in place to govern the acceptance of color and color differences?

2. Human Resources
Is there a team in charge of managing color specifications? Is the team tested for color aptitude and trained in color theory? There is a need to identify and utilize personnel:

• to undergo color vision testing
• and training to understand
  a the basics of color theory
  a setting up standards
  a how to establish tolerances
  a how to measure and report the color

Implementing A Color Control and Managing Program
A good program requires the establishment, promotion and compliance of all involved in the supply chain. A color consultant will be able to conduct an audit to establish a framework to work towards a Color and Appearance Specification program.

A carefully crafted color control and managing program can improve efficiency, productivity and quality leading to strong branding and healthy profits.

Coloring of Plastics

In the coloring of plastics, a plastic must be opaque before color pigments are used for shading and white pigments are generally used for white coloring and color pigments are added for shading.

Titanium dioxide is generally used because of its excellent hiding power - the ability to hide (make plastic opaque).

In using white pigment to make plastic opaque results in a fairly large amount of pigments and this raises the price of the colored plastic. Colorists are careful to maintain a low pigment loading in order to offer better pricing.

And it is common to have requests asking for a specific color and translucency. In plastics coloring, these are the two major concerns:

- optimum pigment loading
- matching translucency

If the colorists or chemists are able to offer the above, there will be happy customers.

Color Concern

C0ncern #1

"Does these two colors match?"

Concern #2

"What must I do to get the same color?"

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An understanding of color will help answer the first concern. The application of color knowledge and use of color measurement techniques will help provide objective answers. Color mathematics and science are complex and it need not be so for the applicator to understand the concept.

Color science can be easily picked up and learnt. And the second concern can be addressed with objectivity.

Color science encompassing basic color perception, light interaction with surfaces, the use of color order systems, light sources, color scale, color difference and use of color instrumentation can be covered in half a day.

Get the basics, it is the first step.

Books - Principles of Color Technology

Principles of Color Technology
Billmeyer and Saltzman

ISBN: 978-0-471-19459-0

Principles of Color Technology is a recommended read for newcomers to the world of color and it is also a valuable reference for experienced color technologists, color specialists, chemical and industrial engineers, research scientists and mathematicians interested in color.

Whiteness and Yellowness

Whiteness (WI) is a measure of a visual rating of whiteness for white and near-white surfaces. Some common WI are:

• ASTM
• CIE
• Ganz-Griesser
• Hunter

WI is used in textile, plastics and paint industries for near white samples.

Color has three parameters but manufacturers of white colored products find it easier to use a single index scale when qualifying their products. There are many whiteness indices and it is important to note that for a WI to be valid, the correct WI must be used and the materials must be in similar gloss, texture, opacity and other physical properties.

Yellowness Index (YI) is an indication of the degree of deviation from white to yellow. The yellowness of ideal white is almost zero. The more it deviates from the ideal white, the larger the yellowness value.

YI is most commonly used to evaluate color changes in a material caused by wear and tear, degradation through prolonged use or exposure to environment. YI is widely used as an indication of deterioration.

Why do newspapers turn yellow over time?
Why is my white shirt glowing?

Making Sense of Colorimeter, Densitometer and Spectrophotometer

Colorimeter
A light sensitive device for measuring color by filtering the red, green and blue components as like the human eye.

Densitometer
A measuring instrument that registers the density of transparent or reflective materials. Colors are read as tonal information.

Spectrophotometer
An highly accurate color measurement device using diffraction grating to split light into component wavelengths which are then measured by multiple light sensors.

Metallic Effects - More Than Just Colors

Color exults and arouses emotions.

In recent years, there has been an increase in preference for colors with a metallic finish. The car industry understands this trend and uses metallic pigments to enhance appearance and quality of surfaces.

Conventional pigments interacts with light by absorption and scattering. Metallic pigments consists of small metallic flakes which acts like small mirrors to reflect light.

When light strikes a metallic color surface
- specular light is reflected in the opposite direction by the top coat
- light is scattered by pigments
- light is reflected by flakes

Metallic paint with low transparent pigments scatter some of the brightness to other viewing angles and the brightness of the paint does not change much when viewing angles change. This color is described as having low flop.


Metallic paint with high transparent pigments absorb light, reducing the amount reflected outward and when viewing in the specular angle, the brightness is highest than when viewed from other angles, the brightness decrease rapidly. This color is described as high flop.

Solid colors does not exhibit flop as the pigments scatters the light.

Brilliance or glitter is one of the desired feature of metallic colors. This characteristic is influenced by the distribution of metallic flakes. Flop index expresses the distribution characteristic of metal flakes.

Flop Index = L*Highlight / L*Shade

When flakes are poorly oriented, there is little effect in coating appearance as viewing angle is changed. To achieve a desired flop, the flakes must oriented in a desired pattern within the coating. Techniques to improve orientation includes selecting the right pigment, maximising the film shrinkage and using the right additives to enhance flake orientation.

Learning Labs - On Light and Color

Are you keen to learn about color?

These links will bring you to a world of light and color.

Precise Color Communication

The Language of Light

Enjoy the journey.

Hide the Wall - Paint Opacity

When you paint over a surface, you want a highly opaque paint that will hide the previous color. Paint are tested for opacity by spreading a coat over a black and white test card. A highly opaque paint (high opacity) will hide both black and white surfaces.

In this situation, equal amounts of light will be reflected from the coated black and white areas and consequently an opacity value of 100% will be obtained.

The test is done by doing a draw down of a wet paint over a black and white substrate. After the film has dried, a colorimeter or spectrophotometer is used to measure the amount of reflected light from the coated black and white area of the substrate. This ratio expressed as a percentage of the amount of light reflected from the coated black to white area is opacity.

Opacity = R (black) / R (white)