Differences between Pearl-ex, Powdered Pearls, Radiant Pearls, and Lumiere/Neopaque and other such mica items
Pearl-Ex - essentially the same kind of product as Powdered Pearls, a pearlescent powdered product. Jacquard Pearl-Ex Pigments are non-toxic, inert, powdered pigments that exhibit extreme colorfastness and stability. Their temperature resistance allows them to be fired in a kiln up to 600 degrees. The first 16 colors of the 24 offered are pearlescent colors in various particle sizes. The different particle sizes produce different looks from a fine, smooth, pearly luster to a highly metallic sheen. The colors range from whites to gold, copper, silver and bronze. Traditional pigments or artist colors can be mixed with Pearl-Ex Pigments to further enhance the possibilities. The next five colors are interference pigments and the last three in the line are duo-colors, which display two-tone qualities depending on the light angle.
Powdered Pearls - A dry pearlescent mica pigment. They have many, many uses. They can be used wet or dry. Powdered Pearls are a pearlescent powdered mica pigment for artists
Radiant Pearls - A wet paint. Mostly very pearlescent or metallic. Radiant Pearls are transparent (like watercolors) pearlized paints, and emollients similar to oil paints. These properties allow for endless shading and blending techniques. Available in 80 brilliant colors, Paint, stipple, apply directly to the rubber stamps and even make background paper. Non-toxic acid free best of all tested safe to emboss for a pearlized enamel effect or air-dried to a soft satin luminescent sheen.
Lumiere and Neopaque - A liquid acrylic based paint. The palette is a lavish assortment of intermixable colors. They are truly opaque and bright, even on dark backgrounds and their high pigmentation provides excellent coverage with just one pass of the airbrush. The range of Lumiere colors can be expanded by mixing the Neopaque colors to create antique gold's and an extensive range of metallics. Add Hi-Lite colors for subtle, reflective, opalescent effects and super sparkle for extra glitter. Super smooth Lumiere and Neopaque colors glide onto any surface when airbrushed or hand painted with a soft brush, and may also be screened, stamped, stenciled, marbled or printed.
Information from Laura A/Sparkle
Powdered Pearls: Mica in many different wonderful colors. Claim to fame: cosmetic grade and more colors than Pearl Ex
Pearl Ex: the "original" pigmented mica. Not cosmetic quality, but wonderful pigmentation
Pearl Ex palettes: Pearl Ex mixed with gum arabic, very convenient to watercolor with so you don't have to mix your own
Perfect Pearls: new Ranger product. High pigmentation mica mixed with powdered binder. Won't need sealing for techniques you already do with Powdered Pearls or Pearl Ex powders that currently need sealed.
Fairie Dust/Moon Glow: pigments mixed with mica for shimmering powder. Looks a lot (to me) like chalk pastels when applied. Will need sealed for techniques where it is applied dry. Moon Glow claims all it's colors are duo toned. I haven't bought them all myself, but a color chart created for me by another stamper shows that in some cases, the duo tone-ness is *very* subtle in some of the colors.
Radiant Pearls: the original embossable translucent emollient paint. HUGE color palette and growing. Embossable, blendable
Fairie Myst: semi-sheer paints. Can be embossed. Dry on a wide range of materials.
Shimmering Pearls: I don't know what the PSX version is, but the first Shimmering Pearls were a pale, acrylic based pearlescent paint...they dried on anything acrylic paints will dry on. They have a wide color range, but very pale (in my opinion)
Lumiere paints: highly pigmented, richly colored acrylic paints. Designed for fabric paining, need to be heat set before washing when used on fabric.
Pearlescent Liquid Acrylics: a thin acrylic paint, richly colored. Dries on most everything
Pearlescent medium: acrylic-mix with any pigment (powdered or wet) to create a pearlized acrylic paint Pearlescent medium: watercolor-mix with any pigment (powdered or wet) to create pearlized watercolors.
Information from Adrienne
PSX introduced Shimmering Pearls at HIA, I was very skeptical, but ordered a few colors to test. Well, I'm sold. They are more luminescent than any of the other products. I guess the real word would be more shimmering!!! Shimmering Pearls also dry faster the Radiant Pearls and Faerie Myst. My product test was done on vellum and smooth cardstock. My PSX sales rep uses porcelain pieces a lot and she used Shimmering Pearls on them with excellent results. The product description says you can use them on glass, plastic or metal, however I haven't test them on those surfaces yet. I do believe the 1/4-ounce bottles are smaller than RP or FM, but they go a long way.
Information from Leslie D
Perfect Pearls by Ranger are GREAT!! I have had the good luck to be playing with them the last few weeks. Actually I look forward to trying all the colors as I have only about 6 now. I'm pretty sure that there will be at least 12 or 16 colors to start with when they arrive in the stores. They come with 2 really nice brushes and their own type of watermark pad, your all set to play! Did I mention the BEST thing about them? The binder (gum arabic) is in the powder; at first I didn't realize how helpful that would be!!!! I have been a big Pearl-ex fan so I have a bunch of things I like to do with mica powder, I put perfect pearls to the test by trying the same things with it. I like this product better, because it's easier, less mess!! When using mica powder and watermark ink you still need to wait and or spray fixative or the images get smeary, not with these!! That was the coolest to me! I added them to water to paint with, made a small pallet of colors to use with my water brush, painted baked Sculpey, brushed it onto unbaked Sculpey, even added some to acrylic medium to make some paint, it didn't disappoint me once!!!!!!! Having the binder in it works better than I thought it would all the way around. Perfect Pearls is a Fun product for new or old stampers! I will upload a few things I made using them to the shared files if anyone wants to see how they look!
Information from Suze
Perfect Pearls is new product from Ranger and a terrific one too. It is a wide variety of dry powdered pigments (like Pearl-Ex) but the binder is already included. Just add the water or whatever you wish to work with (glues, etc) and off you go. I experimented with it recently, mixing it with a drop of water and dipping a steel nib into it. I drew out a Calligraphic alphabet on back paper. The colors were super sharp, bright and will last permanently.
Information from Tyra
Perfect Pearls are a "new" product being offered by Ranger Industries. It is a powdered pigment (not a wet paint), much like Pearl Ex, with the difference being that the Perfect Pearls have a binder already included in the powder. (No need to use gum arabic when mixing to a paint or with dry applications) You can use it dry (sealant is not suppose to be necessary) in all the same ways you can use a powdered pigment, but you can also mix it to paint by adding water.
When mixed to paint, it can either be opaque (very little water added) or it can be translucent (the more water you add, the more translucent it becomes). When water is added, you are suppose to have a luminous ink, glaze, paint or wash (depending on the amount of water added) which suspends beautifully and equally within the water. It is suppose to dry quickly and stick to a wide range of surfaces. The Perfect Pearls powder can be intermixed with clay, UTEE, embossing powders, ink, paint (watercolor and acrylic), glue, etc. They will be sold in a kit, which contains four pots of dry powder (in different colors), two brushes and a little inkpad of "medium" that is very tacky and allows the powder to stick for a dry application on top of a stamped image.
The "inkpad of medium" is called "Perfect Medium" and they do sell a re-inker for the pad enclosed in the kit, and also in a larger pad. The Perfect Medium can be used as resist ink, staining watermark, embossing ink and embellishing ink. There will be 5 kits available for purchase: Metallics, Jewels, Naturals, Interference, and Pastels. The suggested retail price per kit will be: $14.99.
That's about all I know right now, as soon as I get my hands on them and do some experimenting with them, I'll post results to the list and share some scanned samples with you. I'll also post a product review of Perfect Pearls on my web site. I can't wait to play with it myself!!!
