Database/Hair Conditioning/Basic Blue 99
Mostly petroleum · ISO 16128

Is Basic Blue 99 natural?

Mostly not. Synthetic naphthoquinone-imine (the ring bromine is covalent and not credited) hair dye supplied as a salt. Only the chloride counter-ion counts as natural origin under the site's mineral counter-ion convention; every carbon in the coloured cation is petrochemical.

INCI nameBasic Blue 99
CAS68123-13-7
FunctionHair Conditioning · Hair Dyeing
FeedstockPetrochemical aromatic amines and couplers assembled into the…

How we scored it

Basic Blue 99 C21H20BrClN4O2 475.8 Da: chloride counter-ion Cl 35.5 Da is mineral-derived (natural); the naphthoquinone-imine (the ring bromine is covalent and not credited) dye cation 440.3 Da is built entirely from petrochemical aromatic intermediates → 35.5/475.8 = 0.07.
What counts. ISO 16128-2 scores the atoms that remain in the final ingredient. Reagents, solvents, catalysts and protecting groups used during manufacture leave no mass behind and are not counted.

Where it comes from

Petrochemical aromatic amines and couplers assembled into the dye cation, isolated as its salt.

In plain English

A synthetic blue dye used in hair colouring to tint hair. It's built entirely from petrochemical aromatic compounds in a factory process; there's no plant-based version.

CosIng definition: Basic Blue 99 is the naphthoquinoneimine color that conforms to the formula:

Natural alternatives with the same function

Structure

References

  1. 1ISO 16128-1:2016 and ISO 16128-2:2017 — Guidelines on technical definitions and criteria for natural and organic cosmetic ingredients and products. ISO, Geneva.
  2. 2Basic Blue 99. PubChem CID 93377. National Center for Biotechnology Information. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ↗
  3. 3BASIC BLUE 99. CosIng — European Commission cosmetic ingredient database. ec.europa.eu/cosing ↗
  4. 4BASIC BLUE 99. CosIng u2014 European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/search?search=BASIC%20BLUE%2099