Buyers rarely fail because the powder looks wrong in a photograph. They fail because the grade, the batch or the paperwork does not match what was promised. These are the six checks we recommend before a first order — with any supplier, including us.
Manufacturing floor, not a trading desk
Ask whether the mica or glass flake is coated in-house. A supplier that only repacks has no control over coating thickness, and coating thickness is what sets lustre and batch consistency. We coat our own substrate in the GMP workshop.
Grade separation you can verify
Cosmetic, food-contact and industrial pearlescent pigments are not interchangeable, even when two swatches look identical. A supplier should be able to say which line each SKU belongs to — and decline to quote a cosmetic enquiry against an industrial grade.
Batch-to-batch colour control
Ask which instrument the colour is measured on and what tolerance applies. An uncontrolled batch drifts visibly once two lots sit side by side in the same production run. Get the tolerance figure in writing before the first order, not after the first complaint.
Documents shipped with the goods
COA, TDS and SDS should travel with the pallet, not arrive three weeks later on request. For EU-bound cosmetics or food-contact use, the packaging and substance declarations matter as much as the pigment itself.
MOQ and lead time that fit a trial
A 500 kg minimum makes a first evaluation impossible for a small brand. Stock items from 1 kg and free 5–10 g samples let you judge the effect before committing to a production quantity.
Traceable batch numbers
Every drum should carry a batch number that leads back to a production date and a retained sample. Without that trail, a complaint six months later cannot be investigated — only argued about.
