EDITORIAL INDEX
The rare colour index
Colour becomes rare for specific reasons: a scarce raw material, a difficult synthesis, a proprietary process, a regulatory restriction, or a production volume too small for ordinary distribution. This index groups genuinely scarce colour by family and states, in each case, whether the material can be obtained commercially.
Rare blues
FOUR MECHANISMS, FOUR PRICES
YInMn Blue
Indium content and small production volumes set the price. Stable, NIR-reflective, industrially relevant.
SOURCING ENQUIRY
Natural ultramarine
Historically the most expensive pigment in Europe. Scarcity is in the purification, not just the stone.
SOURCING ENQUIRY
Azurite
A mineral blue that behaves differently in every binder. Conservation work still specifies it deliberately.
SOURCING ENQUIRY
Structural blue
Colour from interference rather than pigment. Proprietary as an OEM finish; the physics is general.
TECHNICAL REFERENCE
Extreme blacks & rare reds
REFLECTANCE AT ONE END, TOXICITY AT THE OTHER
Ultra-black coatings
The lowest-reflectance technologies are grown on a part, not sprayed. Very effective sprayable blacks do exist.
SOURCING ENQUIRY
Candy red systems
Depth comes from transparent layers over a reflective base — and from spraying every pass identically.
SOURCING ENQUIRY
Historical reds
Several are mercury or lead compounds. Discussed for identification; modern equivalents supplied instead.
PROFESSIONAL ENQUIRY
Gold & bronze effects
Metal-flake and coated-mica golds. Appearance depends far more on orientation than on the pigment alone.
SOURCING ENQUIRY
Colour that moves
ANGLE, TEMPERATURE AND LIGHT AS VARIABLES
Interference & iridescent
Thin-film platelets whose reinforced wavelength changes with viewing angle.
SOURCING ENQUIRY
Colour-shift systems
Multi-layer platelets producing a deliberate travel between two named hues.
SOURCING ENQUIRY
Thermochromic
Temperature-activated change. Switch point and cycle life must be specified, not assumed.
SOURCING ENQUIRY
Phosphorescent
Afterglow pigments where particle size trades brightness against surface finish.
SOURCING ENQUIRY
Five reasons a colour becomes rare
Rarity is not one condition. Each cause has a different commercial consequence, and knowing which one applies tells you whether the material can be obtained at all.
1 · The raw material is scarce
A mineral that is hard to find or hard to purify, or a metal whose price moves with commodity markets. Price follows the input rather than sitting at a stable list level, which is why these are quoted per enquiry.
2 · The production volume is tiny
Made in campaigns rather than continuously. Lead time, not price, is usually the binding constraint, and a missed campaign can mean months.
3 · The process is proprietary
A finish that belongs to a manufacturer or a licensee rather than existing as a product anyone can buy. Here the honest answer is often that it cannot be sourced, and we give it.
4 · It is restricted
Several historically common colourants are controlled or prohibited for particular uses. The commercial question becomes substitution rather than supply. See historical pigments.
5 · It was discontinued
Withdrawn or reformulated while processes that depend on it are still running. Sometimes stock survives in the channel; more often the answer is the nearest equivalent, with its differences stated.
Using this index
This is a reference, not a catalogue. Inclusion here describes why a colour is difficult; it is not a statement that BADAR can supply it, and several entries exist precisely because they cannot be bought.
If a colour in this index is relevant to a real requirement, the useful next step is to say what you need it to do. The chemistry that makes a colour famous is rarely the property that decides whether it works in your system — binder compatibility, heat stability, particle size and lightfastness usually matter more, and they narrow the field faster than a name does.
Those properties come from the manufacturer’s technical data sheet for the specific grade, not from this page, and the safety data sheet governs how the material can be handled and shipped. Both are issued by the manufacturer for the product supplied and go out with the quotation. Where a colour on this page carries a regulatory restriction that rules it out for your use, we say so at the enquiry rather than after it.
Working with a colour that is hard to obtain?
Send the reference, the substrate and the quantity. We will say what is obtainable and what should be substituted.