an ion exchange resin as well as a method for preparing stable compositions of this type application_number US 4450298 A description the compositions of the invention comprise transparent magnetic particles low optical density and transparent particles are known having been used for example as a carrier for reagents u s pat no 4 534 961 and as part of a xerographic toner or ink compositions u s pat nos 5 358 659 4 474 866 4 238 558 4 150 173 4 199 614 5 160 725 and ep 699964 the contents of each of these is incorporated herein by reference however their use in cosmetic and pharmaceutical compositions has not previously been suggested generally speaking the particles are selected from cosmetically acceptable transition metals such as iron titanium barium nickel cobalt salts carbonyls or oxides thereof or inorganic or organometallic complexes thereof as well of mixtures of thereof bound to an ion exchange resin particularly preferred starting materials are iron salts or oxides the ion exchange resins to which the metals are bound should be selected from those which are cosmetically or pharmaceutically acceptable it is possible to use anion exchange resins for example when the metal species is a metal containing anion such as for example chloroplatinate chloropalladate or tetrachloroaurate however in most cases the preferred resin will be a cation exchange resin particularly preferred are dextran based resins suitable resins are for example commercially available types such as sephadex or amberlite the compounds are bound to the resin using standard.