Lynx Shower Gel

[minesapint]

Why does my son's Lynx shower gel have what appears to be a florescent glow. The shower Gel is yellow in colour with small blue spheres floating around in it. Is this anything to do with the CI Numbers printed on the ingredients label?

[theprof]

The fluorescent glow in the shower gel is almost certainly caused by the inclusion of tartrazine. This is the same substance that was included in food products for many years to give them a yellow or orange colour and has been outlawed in food products for children in many countries. Most people don’t realise is that tartrazine is fluorescent.
The blue spheres are probably a type of polymer dyed with another dye called Brilliant Blue, although it has quite a few other names too.
You are right to think that the CI Numbers you’ve seen are related to these dyes. The numbers simplify the identification of the dye for people in the industry all over the world. Tartrazine is CI 19140 and Brilliant Blue is CI 42090. Compare the label numbers with these numbers to verify.