The disclosure relates to a process for making titanium dioxide, comprising: reacting titanium tetrachloride with oxygen by contacting the titanium tetrachloride with the oxygen in a vapor phase reactor under mixing conditions and at an elevated temperature to form a gaseous product stream containing titanium dioxide; separating the titanium dioxide from the gaseous product stream to form a process stream; analyzing the process stream to detect a concentration of titanium tetrachloride in the process stream; comparing the concentration of titanium tetrachloride detected in the process stream to an aim point concentration; and modifying the oxidation conditions to restore or maintain the concentration of titanium tetrachloride in the process stream at the aim point. In one embodiment, the process further comprises contacting the gaseous product stream with silicon tetrachloride under mixing conditions and at an elevated temperature to at least partially encapsulate the titanium dioxide with a silicon-containing compound and separating the at least partially encapsulated titanium dioxide from the gaseous product stream and analyzing the process stream to detect a concentration silicon tetrachloride for comparison to a silicon tetrachloride aim point concentration so that the conditions for silicon tetrachloride contacting can be modified to restore or maintain the concentration of silicon tetrachloride in the process stream.