MSN

Kaitlin Cole on Instagram: "French Vermilion has a glamorous name, but its history is grim. The original vermilion wasn’t a pigment so much as a warning sign. It was made from mercury sulfide (cinnabar), prized for its intensity, feared for its toxicity. Artists handled it with bare hands. Some got sick. Some died. The colour stayed. Today’s PR242 is a synthetic, non-mercury replacement, created so we can have the drama without the death. Same visual punch. None of the poison. Still, the legacy