Firstly - to make it very clear at the beginning - I am not another blogger that has decided to start their own indie line! I've said all along, I just don't have time to do that. Work, husband, 2 kids and blog is enough for me.
So what are these you ask? Just like I've been doing for several years, these are some custom polishes (or frankens if you want to call them that, but I prefer custom, as they are all made from scratch without mixing in other polishes). I decided I wanted my custom polishes to look pretty because of the effort I put into them. Paws polishes will not be available for purchase, but I may provide them to friends in swaps or RAOKs.
I've decided to call my 'brand' Paws. I'm a huge cat lover, and have five little purry paws ourselves, plus my original blogger ID and an ID I use on most online groups is 'kitties26'. Plus, we are painting our nails after all, which are our human equivalent of paws and claws :)
Today I'm showing you four new polishes I created, and I have to say I've been ever so lazy with regards to the pigments I've used in these. You see I purchased these pigments nearly two years ago, I mixed a bit of pigment up at the time to test for color solvency etc, but other than that, they sat there neglected for nearly two years.
You may have seen some indie brands coming out with various colour changing polishes recently. Well today I'm sharing with you my colour changing polishes and at the end of the post will share where you can buy the pigments to make your own.
Three of these are thermal polishes which change with temperature, I'm super happy with them and love them all. The remaining one is a solar polish that changes in the sun. I'm not at all happy with it, and I'll share why, but I thought I would show you that fail too. Shall we get started?
Sylvan - this one is a light silvery blue polish with a scattered holo effect which changes at 86°F (30°C) to a teal blue. The colour change isn't too strong on this one, but it can still be seen on my very shorty nails here.
Here I have two cold fingers (darker blue) and two warm fingers (light blue/silver)
This one was after I was wearing the polish for a while. As you can see the tips were an obvious different colour (and they matched my pajama pants perfectly)
Smite - This one is a bright pink magenta jelly. This is the same pigment as I used above, but just in a different colour and without the holo pigment added. For this mani I decided to try something different. I painted a black base and then stamped in white using a dotted bubble pattern. On top of that I applied Paws Smite. At warm temperatures above 86°F (30°C) the polish is basically clear. In these photo I have two coats of Smite on over my stamping.
When cold, it turns to a dark magenta jelly.
Here it is in transition from cold getting warmer...
... and warmer.
You get the idea now right?
OK, so here are the pigments I used for these. There are 24 colours, and I clearly have only used two in the two polishes above. I used the Teal Blue in Sylvan and Magenta in Smite. All of these pigments change to a white powder 86°F (30°C), which when suspended in nail polish is basically clear.
Icky Pink - Moving on to my fail polish now and I'll share how this ended up being a fail. This one is a solar changing polish which means it changes colour in the sun. There are six pigments in this range to choose from. I was sitting there at night playing with pigments and suspension base and I grabbed all six solar pigments.
In their 'indoor' form, they are all white powders. I wanted to see what the pigments would look like in the sun, so I put them all under my UV nail lamp. Four of them changed colour, but two didn't. I assumed this was just because they had been sitting there for two years and had gone 'off'. The other thing I noticed was that the pigment labelled 'green' turned blue, and the one labelled 'blue' turned green. I figured the labels must have been mixed up.
I continued with my little creation. My plan was to use the blue solar changing pigment, mixed with a pink glass fleck pigment and a drop of pink polish tint. Then indoors, it would be a very soft pink, and in the sun it would blurple with a pink shimmer. Mix and swatch, all looking good at 11pm at night.
The next day when I went to swatch and photograph my polishes, I was hugely disappointed. First pic is indoors, next two pics are in the sun.
So what went wrong? Well you see, it turns out the pigments were labelled correctly, and that putting them under my UV lamp showed totally incorrect colours compared to when the were in the sun. Instead of using the blue pigment, I had used the green. Pink + green = brown. I created an icky pink to brown polish. I do plan to make this again correctly with the blue pigment, and I will share that when I do.
Here are the solar pigments indoors, and then in the sun.
Hydrangea - My last polish tonight is another polish that changes with temperature, but this one changes from one colour to another, unlike the first lot of pigments that go from colour to a white power /clear polish.
Hydrangea is generally a cornflower blue shade on my nails most of the time. It also has a scattered holo effect. The cold colour that appears at temps below 86°F (30°C) is purple (like the bottle shows)
There are four pigments in this range. Purple to blue (which I used above), purple to red, green to yellow and orange to yellow.
All these pigments can be purchased from Solarcolourdust.com. I bought mine nearly two years ago, but it looks like they still have the same sets. They also have some cool looking Glow dust, if you want to create glow in the dark polishes, magnetic pigments and chameleon pigments.
I'm thinking we will be seeing a lot more colour changing polishes available soon.
Thanks for sticking around to the end of this post to read about me playing with Paws.
Love Hydrangea! If you start selling these one day, I'll grab that for sure!
ReplyDeleteI wish to buy..
DeleteHydrangea is amazing! You really should start selling that one :D
ReplyDeleteWhat fun! My husband and my brother live in fear that I will start a production line, ha. I love the color changes, especially when just the tip is another color.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fascinating and informative read. That hydrangea is so aptly named! They are all lovely and lucky ladies who end up with some of your creations. A nice touch for sure.
ReplyDeleteI have the same pigments, the colour to colour and the sun sensitive ones, not the first set. I haven't played with them in ages. When I first got them I mixed up a blue polish that changes to a lighter blue shade with heat and purple in the sun and has a bunch of glitter in it, then I forgot all about them :P
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me :)
Great idea to mix both the temp changing and sun changing ones in one polishes. Adding that to my list to try!
DeleteThey are all stunning ! Hydrangea is absolutely wonderful ! You did a great job ;)
ReplyDeletethese are gorgeous and I LOVE the name :)
ReplyDeleteI am smitten with Smite!! I think you should give up your day job and make polish!! Wow, you come up with the most amazing things, thank you for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteI loove Hydrangea! ♥ Great job Cathy!
ReplyDeleteHow cool and fun!! And I love the name Paws, as I am a huge dog lover! :)
ReplyDeleteHydrangea is beautiful both warm and cold - I'm impressed!
ReplyDeleteI don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but I have tested a few of the heat change powders and they tend to be very unstable once they are added to polish - i.e. they won't change for very long. What very long means can vary of course but with all these color change polishes coming out it's something people should keep in mind.
ReplyDeleteMy experience is completely different to yours. I mixed up three colours in July 2011 when I first got these powders, and mine still work fine. Different suspension bases may react differently. But I recommend everyone test their own mixes, especially if they plan to sell.
Deleteomg they look amazing! Prob a good thing you're not selling them or I would be a very poor woman right now ;)
ReplyDeleteI love how they look and I just love the name of your polishes!(a cat lover here too, hi-paw! hehe!)
ReplyDeleteif you would start selling these, sign me up! ^^
I hate that I love these polishes so much especially since you have no intention of selling them. Simply Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteHi there! It was really interesting to see the results of your experiences with pigments. And specially Hydrangea turned out sooo amazingly beautiful. If you don't mind my asking, what kind of holo pigment did you use for the scattered holo effect? I was just wondering if it should be a "regular" silvery one or rather something more leaning to a deep blue/purple tone. =)
ReplyDeleteThese are really pretty!
ReplyDeleteAll the Paws are gorgeous, my personal favourite is Hydrangea. You make everyone want to make their own custom polishes!
ReplyDeleteAre you suuuuuuure you won't ever make these to sell? They are so very pretty. I love how you explained your process too.
ReplyDeleteReally cool post! I love thes!
ReplyDeletehi,
ReplyDeletei was just wondering if you have tried or know anyone who has tried the chameleon pigments from solardust? i'm looking for swatches before i part with more money!! :)
I actually just bought some of the red/green chameleon pigment and got it last week. I'm planning to see how it compares to the other colour morphing pigment I have and I post about it.
DeleteWow these look incredible! i was wondering where did you get your labels printed? they look great!
ReplyDeleteOOOOOOH!!!!! I wish you would sell these. I'd buy some of them for sure, especially as you say they work well in water marbling. I love doing water marbles, and I can't wait for my nails to recover so I can do another one. Hopefully it won't be too long now. They are getting better, and starting to grow. :)
ReplyDelete