A paint composition of the present invention contains an aluminum pigment and a mica pigment. The content of the aluminum pigment is equal to or higher than the content of the mica pigment. The aluminum pigment has a specific surface area, determined by the BET method, of not more than 55000 cm.sup.2/g, an average thickness of not less than 0.3 μm, and an aspect ratio of not more than 50.

A new material efficiently attenuating transmission of near-infrared light is provided. A provided near-infrared-shielding material includes a plurality of flaky particles, wherein each of the plurality of flaky particles includes a flaky substrate and a single-layer film formed on a principal surface of the flaky substrate, and the near-infrared-shielding material has a light reflectance of 40% or more between wavelengths of 800 nm and 1400 nm. The flaky substrate is, for example, a glass flake. The glass flake has an average thickness of, for example, 0.6 pm or less. The single-layer film includes, for example, titanium oxide and has an average thickness of, for example, 80 nm to 165 nm.

A high chroma effect pigment includes a platelet substrate and an optical coating formed on the platelet substrate. The optical coating includes a first high refractive index layer, a second high refractive index layer on the first high refractive index layer, and a diffused third material having a range of diffusion between 100% to partial diffusion in the first high refractive index layer, the second high refractive index layer, or both the first and the second high refractive index layers. The first and second high refractive index layers independently have a refractive index of about >1.65. The diffused third material is SiO.sub.2 or a metal oxide is different than the first and second high refractive index layers.

The present invention relates to non-metallic interference pigments, in particular laminar interference pigments, which comprise a thin high-refractive layer and an outermost layer that contains crystalline carbon in the form of graphite and/or graphene. The invention also relates to a method for producing such pigments and the use of the thus produced pigments.

The present invention relates to electrically conductive, coloured interference pigments, in particular flake-form interference pigments, which have an outermost layer which comprises crystalline carbon in the form of graphite and/or graphene, to a process for the preparation of such pigments, and to the use of the pigments prepared in this way.

The invention relates to methods for producing coloured materials with the use of metal nanoparticles of gold, copper or silver, to said coloured materials, and to the uses of same in various applications.

The present invention relates to red effect pigments including a nonmetallic substrate in platelet form and a coating applied thereto, wherein the coating includes at least one of metal oxide, metal hydroxide or metal oxide hydrate, the metal ions of the metal oxide, metal hydroxide and/or metal oxide hydrate comprise at least two different metal ions selected from the group of metals consisting of Fe, Sn, Ti and Zr, and to a process for production thereof and to the use of the red effect pigments.

A coating composition includes a binder component (A), a flake-like aluminum pigment (B) having an average particle diameter (d50) of 18 μm to 25 μm, and a flake-like pigment (C) being a flake-like pigment other than flake-like aluminum pigments and having an average particle diameter (d50) of 8 μm to 30 μm. A content of the flake-like aluminum pigment (B) is 10 parts by mass to 50 parts by mass and a content of the flake-like pigment (C) is 0.5 parts by mass to 10 parts by mass, based on 100 parts by mass of the binder component (A). A content ratio (B)/(C) of the flake-like aluminum pigment (B) to the flake-like pigment (C) is 2/1 to 50/1 in terms of a solid content mass ratio.

The present invention relates to a technology for producing a black pearlescent pigment for cosmetics which is a human-friendly and nature-friendly by using a pigment including natural charcoal powder. The production method of the pearlescent pigment using natural charcoal according to the present invention includes (a) milling natural charcoal to produce a pigment including natural charcoal powder; and (b) coating a flake substrate with the produced pigment including the natural charcoal powder, wherein the milling is performed at 20 to 40 Hz for 24 to 72 hours, and an average particle size of the pigment including the natural charcoal powder is 100 to 300 nm.

The present invention provides a glitter pigment, including: a glass flake; a titanium oxide layer formed over the glass flake; and fine gold particles deposited on the titanium oxide layer, wherein the fine gold particles include fine gold particles P2 having a particle diameter of 20 nm or more and less than 50 nm, and in a square region 2 μm on a side on a surface of the titanium oxide layer on which the fine gold particles are deposited, the number of the fine gold particles P2 is 9 or more and less than 100 and an average of distances between the fine gold particles P2 is 130 nm or more and less than 500 nm, each of the distances being a distance from one of the fine gold particles P2 to another fine gold particle P2 nearest to the one.