Product Review: Niji Pearlescent Watercolors

If you ever looked at certain cosmetics and thought “I could use that on an art piece” or wished you could paint with shimmering eyeshadow, Niji Pearlescent Watercolors are what you need.  The colors are a bit sheer and can be used in washes by themselves or over a regular flat wash of watercolor.  The big fun lies in the the pearly shimmer each color has, which is not like glitter but incredibly fine and lustrous.  These are really nifty and -I almost hate to say it- pretty.  The binder is pretty strong and does not work well if you want to run a wet or damp watercolor brush over the surface to pick up color then work with it.  I found it helps to put some clean water in the half pans you want to use them and let each color soak for a little while to moisten the paint first. 

I bought mine at Michael’s for about $5.00 USD for the set of 16 show above.  I had never seen these paints before and snapped them up to experiment with.  Blick online lists the 16 color set at $2.99 and the larger 21 color set at $4.29.  If this is interesting to you and you can buy a set, go for the biggie set at Blick.