Health & Safety
Material Safety Data Sheets
MSDS sheets for Derivan products are available for download here.
Common Questions
My child has just eaten some of the paint. Is it toxic?
Check the relevant Material Safety Data Sheets (above), making sure you match the product exactly with the correct MSDS.
Most Derivan products are non-toxic (although not edible). There are some exceptions, including:
The above contain turpentine, which should not be ingested. Seek medical advice immediately if ingestion has occured.
You should also be aware that some colours in the Matisse Structure and Flow ranges contain potentially harmful pigments. These are the cadmium colours. Again, details and precautions can be found in the relevant MSDS sheets.
- Matisse Structure/Flow Cadmium Yellow Light
- Matisse Structure/Flow Cadmium Yellow Medium
- Matisse Structure/Flow Cadmium Orange
- Matisse Structure/Flow Cadmium Red Medium
The above contain cadmium, which should not be ingested. Seek medical advice immediately if ingestion has occured.
The cadmium colours may be packed in 75ml tubes, 250ml jars, 500ml jars, or by arrangement in larger sizes. Cadmium Yellow Tint in the Derivan Artist range does not contain any cadmium pigment.
The rest of the Matisse and Derivan ranges are all made to relevant standards where they exist and are considered to be non toxic, however none of these products are designed to be consumed.
I've heard that acrylic paints can be harmful/carcinogenic when used on the skin.
This is not strictly true. Although some regular artist acrylics may contain pigments that are possibly carcinogenic, it is the pigment that poses the danger - not the acrylic. Potentially harmful pigments will usually have more obvious health warnings on them than a cigarette packet, so it will not be hard to work out which are the bad ones.
Keep in mind, though, that there are other reasons not to use artist paints on the skin: the same reasons that anything other than cosmetics should not be used on the skin. Only cosmetic products made to cosmetic standards (or other therapeutic goods that are designed to go on the skin) are made using materials that are proven to be safe on the skin and can be used for prolonged periods without any side effects. Derivan Face & Body Paint is one such cosmetic product.
As for other Derivan products, if they are labelled non-toxic then that’s what they are. However, being non-toxic does not mean that they are safe to eat, or, for that matter, go on the skin. They are designed to be safe for their intended use and if a person happens to consume a small amount ‘accidentally’ or get some on their skin, the average person will have no reaction. You should keep in mind that there are people who are not ‘average’ and are hyper-sensitive to some things. They may find that the paints cause them irritation or even cause them to become quite ill, and this can happen with many different things - even the humble peanut can quite literally be life threatening to some people. With that said, I can't remember a health complaint about our products (and I have been here since 1983). In short, "non-toxic" does not equal "cosmetic".
To summarise: Acrylics are not necessarily dangerous (many acrylics are approved and used in cosmetics worldwide) however it is certainly wrong to use a regular artist acrylic as a face paint. Only paints such as the Derivan Face & Body Paint or Tim Gratton’s Body & Face Paints, that are cosmetic products, should be used.