X-Rite Incorporated is offering a free webinar on Aug. 10 from 9 to 10 a.m. EDT to help manufacturers of cosmetics and health and beauty products to use the newest technologies in color measurement to control quality in their processes.

The new webinar called Color Management for the Cosmetics Industry is geared to provide practical information on the latest advances in managing and controlling the color of health and beauty products. Anyone interested in these cosmetics applications can sign up for the webinar by visiting http://www.xrite.com/cosmetics. The webinar also will be archived on the X-Rite website so individuals can view the information repeatedly and at their convenience.

The webinar will cover an array of optical instruments and software applications to provide relatively inexpensive, quick and easy means by which cosmetics companies can accurately measure and communicate the subtle hues, colors, shimmer and sparkle of their products.

Kenneth Phillips, X-Rite’s product manager for Non Contact Industrial Markets, says cosmetics manufacturers may be particularly interested in X-Rite’s proprietary non-contact technology that measures the color of wet, powdered and paste samples from a distance. Measuring a sample from a distance more closely represents the way the human eye perceives color and ultimately how the consumer will view the finished product when it is demonstrated by sales associates in stores or used, he says.

“Tests currently performed by many cosmetics manufacturers don’t accurately replicate what the eye sees because samples are placed on cuvettes or slides for measurements,” says Phillips. “When you add a transparent barrier between the sample and instrument, it immediately imparts errors such as depth of field issues and ambient light piped in from the surroundings.”

To eliminate those errors, X-Rite’s VS450 spectrophotometer can take precise color measurements from a distance of approximately 38 mm. The VS450 also can accurately measure the color of nondrying, oil-based products including foundations and lip glosses–products that normally would foul the port of a conventional benchtop spectrophotometer.

In addition to the VS450, X-Rite has just introduced its family of MA94, 96 and 98 multi-angle spectrophotometers that can measure cosmetics without contacting test surfaces. The MA98 spectrophotometer is designed specifically to address the challenge of accurately measuring shimmery foundations or sparkling eye shadows that can confuse conventional spectrophotometers.