by matt | Apr 6, 2015 | Articles
Our definition of Candy Color Pearls ® Paint as compared to our other custom paints…At Pearls and Pigment, we pride ourselves on the quality of our Candy Color Pearls ® pigments.
These are quality metallic Iron Mica colored pigments known as Candy Color Pearls ® that have a good deal of their own iridescence built right in. The mixture, however, of our Candy Color Pearls ® pigments will never be truly transparent, due to the fact that they are solid particles of mica and iron. This does not mean that you can’t acheive a good degree of transparency from the candy pearls® paint pigments, it’s just that you will acheive total coverage after several coats, being unable to see whatever is underneath. We suggest using about 1/2 of one of our bags per quart of base clear or intercoat clear. Using a full bag per quart would basically make a colored metallic pearl paint. Our Candy Color Pearls ® paints can also be used to make your own chameleon paint pigments, by mixing them with different ghost pearl paint pigments. This is usually done by a 3 to 1 ghost Pearls to candy pearl paint ratio, sprayed in about 5 coats. This is not something for the apprentice to try, but more for a skilled pro with the common sense to spray out test panels before attempting to paint an entire project. As we have said in other articles on this site, there are literally millions of possibilities of what you can acheive in the custom paint realm by mixing and matching our products.
If you must have a completely transparent candy paint job, there are other methods to doing it. Candy Color Pearls® paints have typically been a dye-based paint. Solvent-based dyes can be added to clear coats to create the identical candy paints that you will see being sold by the major manufacturers. The typical problem with true candies is that dyes will never hold up as long as pigments, and are very fragile to UV degradation. If you must have a true candy paint, go and get a small bottle of solvent based dye from a local reseller of dyes and make your own candy paint.
Remember, if you want your paint to take on the actual color of the candy pearl, we suggest painting it over a black base coat. If you already have a black car, then it can be scuffed up to make a good surface to paint on.
We have seen our candy paint pigment used in many industries, including powder coating, plastic manufacturing, custom airbrush art, and gel coating. They work just as well for beginners as they do for professionals. One common mistake that beginners make is that they buy our candy pearls when they want to create a paint that changes in the sun, or as we call it, a “ghost” pearl paint job. These candies will change the overall color of your project, so please keep that in mind! Remember to visit our tips pages for other useful information.
If you are still confused over which products would look good over your existing paint, or want to discuss your options, contact us! Or visit our FAQ page for more information. As always, we will try to answer any of your questions and hope to serve our customers in any way that we can! We thank you for your business.
-Matt
by matt | Apr 6, 2015 | Articles
Phantom Pearls are made from transparent Mica Particles (like glass) that reflect one color, while letting you see the color underneath. In shade, they have no reflectivity, but in sun, they can have a wide array of different reflective properties.
Creating Phantom Pearl paint is as easy as doing any other type of paint, with the exception of adding a few steps to the process. When we describe Phantom Pearls on our site, we are speaking of the type of pearlescent pigments that can be used to create ghost flames, entire iridescent pearl paint jobs, or other ghost effects. Our ghost pearls are what custom painters use to create those beautiful pearlescent effects that people see on many custom paint and even factory paint jobs. Newer cars and motorcycles can be seen with ghost pearl effects done in the factory, such as the Lamborghini orange paint with the beautiful gold pearl that we see at the auto shows, or simpler pearlescent white paints that we see on new Cadillacs or Infiniti cars, which can be achieved with a simple silver ghost pearl or gold ghost pearl applied over a white base coat. Turning a two-stage paint job into a three-stage paint job is the basic step in creating a quality pearl paint.
With this thought in mind, anyone can make an ordinary paint job into a pearl paint job. Instead of doing a base-coat clear-coat paint job, we add the pearl paint into the middle of the mix. Base-coat, ghost pearl paint, clear-coat. We always recommend that people make their own mixes and spray a test panel before doing the entire project, and it is always wise to use a base clear, or a binder to mix the pearls with before adding the final clears. The final clear step is only recommended for custom paint, and not for powder coating, gel coating, or faux finish. If you are looking to do a project using these beautiful ghost pearls, we have a few suggestions on which colors look good over which base coats…
White base coat: Use any of the ghost pearls, but keep in mind that the red ghost pearl will give you a iridescent pink look in the sun. Blue, violet, orange, gold and silver are the most popular colors for white base coats.
Black base coat: You also may use any of the ghost pearls, but keep in mind that using too much will make the project take on the color of the pearl and overwhelm the black. To get a cool midnight color change effect, keep the ratio of pearl down to about a level teaspoon per quart in the clear base or binder. In powder coating, keep the ratio down to a tablespoon per pound and add onto that as needed.
Red, Burgundy, or Orange base coat: We highly recommend any of our Gold ghost pearls, including the shimmer gold or the satin gold. Also, Blue pearl red pearl, and violet pearls can make for great effects over the darker shades of red.
Blue base coats: For very light blues (like cornflower blue), we have seen excellent results using green ghost pearl, but for a cool color shift on any shades of blue, a violet ghost pearl will give you a cool purple color shift in the sun. Silver ghost pearl paint can also give a nice subtle effect to the darker blues. Green can give an awsome pearl effect over most blue bases as well.
Yellow base coat: We highly recommend that you try using green ghost pearl for the lemony yellows, and gold ghost pearl for the darker racing yellows.
Green base coat: Gold ghost pearl looks great on green base coats. We have also seen good results with orange and red ghost pearls.
Pink base coat: Believe it or not, you will find that silver ghost pearl looks awesome over pink, as does the red ghost pearl.
Purple base coat: Try our Red Phantom Pearl, Green Phantom Pearl, or Silver Ghost pearl.
If you are still confused over which products would look good over your existing paint, or want to discuss your options, contact us! Or visit our FAQ page for more information.
-Matt
by Lyndi Donley | Mar 19, 2015 | Articles
First in vehicle dip Pearls
Yes, it is true that we introduced pearls and pigments to the dip community. It has been a pleasure to see what people have done with our amazing products in the last couple of years. But make no mistake, when it comes to vehicle dip Pearls, and pearls for any other type of peelaable coatings, like vinyl wrap, or any other type of plasti wrap or liquid wrap pearls, the competitors have all copied us here at Pearls and Pigment. Our pearls were first introduced to the dip community back in 2012, when we were approached by dippers and dip companies alike. We introduced companies like DYC to our pearls. We showed the world what our pearls can do in dip and other removable coatings. They in turn, came up with some pretty crazy names for the colors we sell, and that is the market as we see it today.
Getting good vehicle dip Pearls or Pearls for any types of removable “dip” coatings like vinyl wrap, etc., is super inexpensive when you buy from Paint with Pearl. We can even customize packages and let you know which colors to buy when you ask us for another “dip” companies color match. The “colorshift” pearls they advertise are all colors that they carry, and when you buy our Chameleon Color Mix ‘n Match pack, you can have a whole variety of Colorshift or Chameleon pearls at your fingertips for about $20.00 per 25 gram quantity. So you can get your vehicle dip pearls at a huge discount off of what you would think you might spend at our competition. So when you search for vehicle dip Pearls, you should shop with us, because we are the original coatings pearl provider on the Internet, and we introduced pearls to the Dip community.
We have been around for 10 years and are on our second web site. Check out our old site if you like. Don’t forget to check out our Youtube Channel.
by matt | Jun 1, 2013 | Articles
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Use Pearls and Pigment along with your favorite brands of car paint, and save a lot of money.
No one is limited to using strictly our Paint with Pearl brand when mixing custom car paint. We love the quality of many paint brands out there, from PPG, House of Kolor, Dupont, BASF, All Kandy and many other brands. They all offer superior quality, but can cost a lot of money when the color or effect is added. When car paint is made to be chameleon, pearlescent, thermochromic, or even metallic, the prices are almost always multiplied and the profits go to those companies, while the consumer ends up paying a ton of money for their custom car paint.
We at Pearls and Pigment believe we have a great solution to the expensive custom car paint problem, and the consumer can save a lot of money, even when using their favorite brands of car paint. The good thing is, our products are so inexpensive that any painter can afford to buy some and experiment on a few test panels.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”2196″][vc_column_text]When it comes to Custom Paint effects, we have it all…but check out our newest addition….
OEM pearls to replace the pearls of those other brands! Click here to view our compatibility matrix.
There are several schools of thought on which method to use, so I will give you a couple of ideas on how to spray our pigment with your car paint.
1. Try mixing our pigments directly with your favorite reducer, and spraying over your basecoat. If you are ready to lay a topcoat clear right away, you could save a lot of money.
2. Buy your favorite BINDER (a clear inter coat paint) and mix our pigment into it and reducer. This will make the pigment stick and it will be more permanent when sprayed in your car paint. Topcoat with your favorite brand of clear.
-Matt
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by matt | May 26, 2013 | Articles
[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Powder Coater’s Corner
You don’t have to be the world’s best powder coater to understand how to effectively use our products…
You can effectively use our products best in powder coat clears, because they are effect pigment powders, and are best when used in a base coat-clear coat scenario. The mixture of our pearls in colored powders is not recommended, since pearls may be drowned by the colors, but HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY sprayed with favorable results.
Since pearls are so versatile, you can achieve rich to subtle accents by adjusting the amount in your mixture. We recommend using 1 bag of our pearl in 1 to 5 lbs. of clear powder. You will have a very strong effect when using in 1lb. of powder, but a very faint pearl effect in a 5 lb. mixture.
REMEMBER, almost ALL OF OUR PRODUCTS WILL WORK WELL IN POWDER COATINGS!
Give us a try and you won’t go back…[/vc_column_text][vc_cta h2=”Metal Flake” style=”3d” color=”violet”]Remember, all of our quality Flake can be baked at 400 degrees without breaking down, and are so small .004″, they will require very little sanding (if any at all). They can be cleared over to create incredible effects![/vc_cta][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”2403″][vc_cta h2=”News”]
If you are thinking about painting a Chopper or any kind of piant job that may require powder-coat to paint matching, the same effects can acheived when using the same products in your paint as in your powder coatings. That is why Pearls and Pigment sells high quality, high temperature pigments and Flake that can perform in both paint and powder-coating applications.
[/vc_cta][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Need for Paint is Shrinking…
As powder coatings increase in quality and versatility, many good powder coatings actually rival the look of custom paint!
Using our products, you can acheive this look in your powder coatings and bring your work to a new level!
-Matt[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
by matt | Apr 27, 2013 | Articles
Making great fiberglass surfboard paint colors and graphics can be a real chore. So many glassers and color experts get tired of the same old products for Fiberglass. So we took our pigments to the North Shore of Oahu to get opinions from the guys who make the best surfboards in the world. They thought is was super cool to have something new to try. The diversity of our products allows them to be used in all stages of Fiberglass coloring and graphics. Our pigments can be used in airbrush water-based clears for really cool metallic graphics and bright colors. They can also be used in the resin to create an overall color that is unlike any other. Finally, as a last stage, our ghost pearls can be used in the final layers of glass or gelcoat to give your project iridescence like you wouldn’t believe. Using our pigments, now fiberglass can be color matched with paint, powder coat, and even screen printing!
Graphics people and glassers alike can all use our products. Even our Flake are resistant to solvents and resins if you want to give your project that extra bit of flash. We also have pigments that can make fiberglass look like metal. We have also had many clients that use our glow-in-the-dark pigments for safety purposes. Being able to see parts of your boat or surfboard at night could save your life. Our products are very easy to work with. They can be mixed together dry, to be added later to your resins, or you can add to your resin and simply stir it in. Our particles stay suspended very well and are super-easy to work with. Even our thermochromic color change pigment works, but it is very sensitive to U.V. light. I would suggest using it under the fiber for best protection. Think of us for your next custom fiberglass color project! Check out our products HERE.-Matt
