Diamonds and Lipgloss

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but a good lip gloss isn’t bad either.  In fact, lip glosses and diamonds have something in common. They both reflect the light in that uniquely female pleasing way for the same reason.  Both possess a high refractive index.  Diamond in fact has one of the highest known refractive indexes.  A material with a high refractive index has a lot of internal reflections so it captures and reflects light very efficiently.

It isn’t really practical to use diamonds in lip glosses. Instead a polymer with a high refractive index called polybutene is used.  This isn’t ideal either, it is a bit sticky and unmanageable.  But thanks to its high refractive index it is shiny, and that is the important thing.

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1 thought on “Diamonds and Lipgloss”

  1. Awww, so those lip glosses and lipsticks that say they contain diamond or have a diamond shine really don’t have diamonds?! Sigh…(hehe)

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