Red Iron Oxide, Natural, High Purity

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Please note this is a raw pigment intended to be dispersed into a liquid medium to make paints. Our raw pigments are not meant for use in cosmetics and are not cosmetic grade. Certain pigments disperse more easily than others in certain liquid mediums. For those difficult to disperse into a liquid of your choice, they will need to be ground by a muller or a mortar and pestle into the medium.

Safety note: Handle all dry pigments with care. Work slowly to avoid generating airborne dust and wear a dust mask for extra protection. Also avoid getting the dust all over your hands. Latex gloves are good at providing skin protection without "getting in the way".

This is a natural red iron oxide that has been refined to 98% pure red iron oxide (aka "ferric oxide", "Iron(III) oxide" or "Fe2O3"). Iron oxide is a very ancient pigment and there are many varieties. It finds applications in paint, ceramics, concrete, plastics, and cosmetics. Used for many things besides a pigment and filler. There are 3 main types (Fe2O3, FeO, and Fe3O4), and 3 main colors (although it is found in many shades of these): black, red, and yellow. Other well-known pigments based on or containing iron oxide are yellow ochre, burnt umber, and raw sienna, all of which we carry.

The CAMEO art materials database gives this information { http://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Iron_oxide_red } :
"Description
Iron oxides produce a wide variety of red shades ranging from light, bright red to a deep purplish red. They can be natural, earth pigments (hematite, Indian red, Venetian red) or synthetically prepared pigments (light red). All iron oxide reds are stable, permanent pigments with good tinting strength and are the primary colorant in ochers and siennas.
Synonyms and Related Terms
Pigment Red 101; CI 77491; red iron oxide; red ocher; red ochre, rouge; Persian red; Tuscan red; Pompeian red; light red; Venetian red; English red; angel red.
Composition Fe2O3
Mohs Hardness 5.5 - 6.5
Density 4.2-5.3
Refractive Index 2.78; 3.01"

Here's some excerpts from the Digital Fire ceramics materials database:
{ https://digitalfire.com/4sight/material/iron_oxide_red_874.html } :
"Red iron oxides are available in spheroidal, rhombohedral, and irregular particle shapes. Some high purity grades are specially controlled for heavy metals and are used in drugs, cosmetics, pet foods, and soft ferrites. Highly refined grades can have 98% Fe2O3 but typically red iron is about 95% pure and very fine (less than 1% 325 mesh). Some grades of red iron do have coarser specks in them, and this can result in unwanted specking in glaze and bodies (see picture).
High iron raw materials or alternate names: burnt sienna, crocus martis, Indian red, red ochre, red oxide, Spanish red. Iron is the principal contaminant in most clay materials. A low iron content, for example, is very important in kaolins used for porcelain."

The Wiki article is here:
{ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron(III)_oxide }
"Iron(III) oxide or ferric oxide is the inorganic compound with the formula Fe2O3. It is one of the three main oxides of iron, the other two being iron(II) oxide (FeO), which is rare, and iron(II,III) oxide (Fe3O4), which also occurs naturally as the mineral magnetite. As the mineral known as hematite, Fe2O3 is the main source of iron for the steel industry. Fe2O3 is ferromagnetic, dark red, and readily attacked by acids. Iron(III) oxide is often called rust, and to some extent this label is useful, because rust shares several properties and has a similar composition."
The article continues with some of the uses of red iron oxide:
"USES:
--Iron industry
The overwhelming application of iron(III) oxide is as the feedstock of the steel and iron industries, e.g. the production of iron, steel, and many alloys.
--Polishing
A very fine powder of ferric oxide is known as "jeweler's rouge", "red rouge", or simply rouge. It is used to put the final polish on metallic jewelry and lenses, and historically as a cosmetic. Rouge cuts more slowly than some modern polishes, such as cerium(IV) oxide, but is still used in optics fabrication and by jewelers for the superior finish it can produce. When polishing gold, the rouge slightly stains the gold, which contributes to the appearance of the finished piece. Rouge is sold as a powder, paste, laced on polishing cloths, or solid bar (with a wax or grease binder). Other polishing compounds are also often called "rouge", even when they do not contain iron oxide. Jewelers remove the residual rouge on jewelry by use of ultrasonic cleaning. Products sold as "stropping compound" are often applied to a leather strop to assist in getting a razor edge on knives, straight razors, or any other edged tool.
--Pigment
Iron(III) oxide is also used as a pigment, under names "Pigment Brown 6", "Pigment Brown 7", and "Pigment Red 101". Some of them, e.g. Pigment Red 101 and Pigment Brown 6, are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in cosmetics. Iron oxides are used as pigments in dental composites alongside titanium oxides.
Hematite is the characteristic component of the Swedish paint color Falu red.
---Magnetic recording
Iron(III) oxide was the most common magnetic particle used in all types of magnetic storage and recording media, including magnetic disks (for data storage) and magnetic tape (used in audio and video recording as well as data storage). Its use in computer disks was superseded by cobalt alloy, enabling thinner magnetic films with higher storage density.
---Medicine
Calamine lotion, used to treat mild itchiness, is chiefly composed of a combination of zinc oxide, acting as astringent, and about 0.5% iron(III) oxide, the product's active ingredient, acting as antipruritic. The red color of iron(III) oxide is also mainly responsible for the lotion's widely familiar pink color."

One last comment is the use of red iron oxide in prehistoric cave paintings going back millennia (as much as 28,000 years ago!):
{ http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/early.html } :
"The first paintings were cave paintings. Ancient peoples decorated walls of protected caves with paint made from dirt or charcoal mixed with spit or animal fat. In cave paintings, the pigments stuck to the wall partially because the pigment became trapped in the porous wall, and partially because the binding media dried and adhered the pigment to the wall....
Prehistoric painters used the pigments available in the vicinity. These pigments were the so-called earth pigments, (minerals limonite and hematite, red ochre, yellow ochre and umber), charcoal from the fire (carbon black), burnt bones (bone black) and white from grounded calcite (lime white)."
Note that "ochre" is a family of earth pigments, which includes yellow ochre, red ochre and others. The red ochre contains red iron oxide.-

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