The invention relates to a process for the manufacture of a colored make-up cosmetic composition which makes it possible to produce a transparent or translucent colored coat on the skin, lips or superficial body growths, comprising the following successive steps: (1) selecting a cosmetically acceptable base having bulk opaqueness, translucency or transparency, (2) preparing at least one series of samples of this cosmetic base, each series comprising increasing amounts of a coloring agent dissolved or dispersed in the cosmetically acceptable base, (3) spreading each of the samples of the one or more series over a transparent slide having a recess with a depth of 10 .mu.m, (4) measuring, for each of the samples of the one or more series, the transmission of the layer thus formed at the wavelength corresponding to the maximum of one of the absorption or scattering peaks (.lamda..sub.max) of the coloring agent, (5) drawing a calibration curve by plotting the values of the transmission at .lamda..sub.max as a function of the concentration of the coloring agent, (6) selecting, from the calibration curve thus obtained, a concentration of the coloring agent corresponding to a transmission at .lamda..sub.max of between 20% and 80%, and (7) incorporating at least one coloring agent from at least one series, at the concentration selected in step (6), in a cosmetic base in the liquid state identical to or different from that used in step (1), and to the cosmetic compositions obtained according to this process.
