Purpose The purpose of this paper is to enhance the limited fluorescence of mica titania (MT) effect pigments by coating them with peripherally substituted zinc phthalocyanines (ZnPc). Design/methodology/approach The effects of deposition medium, temperature, time, initial organic pigment/MT ratio on deposition behaviour and efficiencies were investigated separately for ZnPc, nitro (TNZnPc) and amino (TAZnPc) substituted ZnPc’s. Findings TNZnPc could be deposited in the form of well-defined crystals on MT with per cent 64 ± 5 efficiency in chloroform at 50°C within 5 h and the amount deposited was linearly dependent on the initial TNZnPc concentration. TNZnPc fluorescence emissions, which appear mainly at 460 and 685 nm in pure pigments, could be observed in combination with MT (MT-TNZnPc) as well. A spectral analysis on the non-overlapping region of the spectrum with two different excitations (385 and 630 nm) revealed that, respectively, up to threefold to sixfold increase is possible to attain, depending on the excitation wavelengths. Research limitations/implications Efficiency of deposition could not be taken above per cent 11 ± 4 with TAZnPc. Although ZnPc could be deposited with per cent 57 ± 3 efficiency, the pigment was not effective in imposing its fluorescence characteristics over MT. Originality/value Combining inorganic effect pigments with organic dye molecules is an idea that has been elaborated mainly for producing different colour effects and stabilization of dye molecules against agglomeration. Here, for the first time, it is used to enhance the fluorescence of the effect pigments.