Sunday 31 July 2011

Colour morphing frankens

An exciting post today ladies...

Today I'm showing you three new franken polishes that I made using colour shifting pigments. As you will soon see, these are just short of amazing.  Its my opinion that these are the pigments that are/were used in polishes such as Clarins 230 and the old Liquid Euphoria.  One of them is also identical to my Avon colour morphing top coat. So please ensure your tray tables are in the upright position and lets go...

First up is the green to violet blue pigment.  This shows two coats over black with photos taken in the sun.  This one starts off green.


The below shot was taken indoors and shows the polish being a very strong duochrome with blue on the sides and green in the centre.


Back in the sun at a different angle you see the green shifting to blue.



Now here is my first ever youtube video.  It's not edited so there is ambient background noise and maybe a cat meowing, but you get the idea!  But I just wanted to try show the colours changing in real life.


Next up gold to green - This one looks exactly like my Avon Colour Morphing top coat.  Exactly I tell you.  Not just distant cousins, or sisters, these two are twins! 

It starts off a bronzey gold with mossy green undertones.

Spinning on the spot it gets greener and greener (and I get dizzier and dizzier).


And finally the turquoise blue flash at the end.


Another video in attempt to display the colour changing in real time.


Finally Copper Red to green

Now just like Kang I say "we must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling".  Cause when I'm twirling, that's when the red goes green.


Holy crapola, I can't believe it went from that red, to the below green.  This is the kind of pigment I believe is used in Clarins 230 and Liquid Euphoria Bliss.  Now I made my franken really saturated because I wanted a full nail colour, whereas those polishes have a much more subtle colour changing sparkle, but that just depends on how much powder you put in.


Another spectacular video demonstrating my outstanding videography skills.


Here are my bottles pics of each of these frankens.  All I did was add less than a quarter of a gram of pigment to a bottle of regular clear nail polish.  As you can see these end up being a milky translucent polish.  If using regular clear nail polish (and not a suspension base) then it will settle to the bottom after about 3-4 days.  However I have found that these mix up a lot easier than glitter or spectraflair and you only need to re shake the bottle for a few minutes to use it again.


Ok, so now the fun bit about how you can get your hands on some of this pigment.  I was only able to buy this stuff in fairly large quantities, so I'm on selling the stuff I don't need.


What is it?

Its chameleon colour changing pigment, used in the automotive industry for car paints as well as manufacturing of plastics etc.  The particle size is 90 microns, which is larger than spectraflair, but smaller than ultra fine .004" glitter.  Mixed in nail polish it is totally smooth, no top coat required.

Where did I get it from?

I purchased two different brands from two places.

All three colours, Gold to Green, Copper Red to Green and Violet Blue to green, are Konfusion brand.  You can buy a half ounce tub from The coating store in the US for $45. But a half ounce is a lot of pigment when you talking a few bottles of nail polish.  That’s why I’m keeping some for myself to continue frankening with, but splitting up the rest to sell to you guys. 

Before I bought the Konfusion brand pigments, I actually bought a two ounce tub of House of Kolor chameleon powder in Gold to green from an Australian seller on ebay who had bought it to paint their car, and changed their mind.  This tub retails on the House of Kolor Australian website for $755.92!! 

Is it safe to use car pigment in nail polish?

First, I’m no scientist or chemist, so I have no definitive answer to that. When handling these powders you must use gloves and a mask because it is a very fine powder that will remain suspended in the air very easily, thus can be easily inhaled if you spill it.  Here are the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for the KonFusion pigment and the House of Kolor pigment

It is not cosmetic grade for use in other makeup, however suspended in nail polish it all seems fine.   I have had mine mixed for several weeks and they are still perfect.  No cracked bottles, no explosions, no fingers or nails falling off.  All nail polish contains pigments etc, and these colour changing pigments can only be created a specific way.  Given that these types of effects have been seen in nail polishes before (eg Clarins 230, Liquid Euphoria etc) I suspect these pigments have been used in the manufacturing process before.

However, if you have any concerns, do not purchase it. And I also don't want to hear from people bitching that I am using it and selling what I wont use.

How much is it?

AUD $6.50 per 1 gram pot

AUD $2.50 postage (to anywhere in the world)

I will combine up to three pots (one of each colour) for the same postage.

What will you get if you buy some?

I purchased some digital precision jewellery scales so I can accurately measure out one gram.  The scales measure down to .01 of a gram.

I also purchased some little 3 gram cosmetic pots to put the pigment in, rather than sending it to you in zip lock bags.  While placing the pigment in ziplock bags would be easier for me to do, I find it difficult to get  pigment out of them without creating a mess.  When you open the zip, powder often puffs up into the air.  I think this creates a greater risk on inhalation as well of being wasteful.  Whereas in the pots, you can leave it to settle, then gently open the pot, easily scoop some out and then do up the pot without powder going everywhere. 

So you will get one gram of your choice of pigment powder in a nice little cosmetic pot. Here is a picture of some I have packaged up already.



How many bottles of polish will one gram make?

Of course this depends on the size of your bottles and how saturated you want the pigment.  Do you want to make it a one coater or just a light flash of colour changing sparkle?  I made the above bottles up, which are 13.5ml, using less than a quarter of a gram.  I think mine are very saturated, but make your own mind up looking at the pictures.

How do you make a Franken polish with this?

If you just want a simple layering top coat, all you have to do is mix it with a clear polish.  Start with a little bit, then shake, and swatch it onto a black or dark base.  Keep adding pigment until you get the desired opacity.  Using a clear polish will mean it will settle after a few days.  If you use a very sheer French colour or other sheer shimmer polish as the base, it will generally hold the pigment in suspension. 

Of course you can add this pigment to other coloured polishes to franken up some awesome dupes of polishes such as:
  • Clarins 230 – A sheer maroon purple base with copper red to green pigment.
  • Liquid Euphoria Bliss – A sheer purpley/maroon base with copper red to green pigment. Check out a swatch here.
  • Liquid Euphoria Dreamy – A sheer greenish jelly with gold to green pigment. Check out a swatch here.
  • Liquid Euphoria Euphoric -  A sheer purple jelly base with Violet blue to green pigment. Check out a swatch here.
(Note: these are only my guesses at colour combinations and pigments – I don’t own any of those polishes and have based my ideas off pictures.  Please don’t take my word for it.  But I’m certainly going to start with these colour combos to try to dupe these elusive polishes and make easy to follow recipes.)

How to purchase?

I can only accept PayPal.

Send me an email to morenailpolish@iinet.net.au and tell me what colour/s you want.

I will then confirm that I have enough stock for your requested colour/s and send you all the details of how to pay in an email back to you.

Because of the outrageous PayPal fees, I will be asking you to send your PayPal payment as a "Personal" amount of "Payment owed", rather than sending money as "Purchase of goods". I will also ask people, where possible, to please use funds from a bank account or PayPal credit, rather than using their credit card.  I still get charged fees for all international transactions but doing the above two things helps to lower the percentage they take.

How much profit am I making?

After taking all costs into account (specifically PayPal fees) I’m making about a buck fifty for each lot, which I think is reasonable for the hours (upon hours) of time and effort involved in packaging and posting.

Why not sell through ebay?

It costs too much! I just want to share the awesomeness of these powders so others can have some fun like me.  If I were to sell through ebay I would have to pay insertion fees, final value fees and full commercial PayPal fees, plus spend more of my time to make eBay listings.

However if that is what people want (so they can receive PayPal buyer protection) I am happy to do it. But the eBay price will be AUD$8.00 per gram.  I will create individual custom listings for people who want this.  I'll then email you the ebay item listing.

I just want to do this as cheaply as possible for everyone, so you can experience this fun with nail polish.

What if it doesn’t arrive?

I will take photos of every order I send off to prove I have done it.  If the item is lost in the post (and I addressed the envelope correctly) I can’t take responsibility for that. Sorry.  If this is a concern for you, I’m happy to do registered post, although that costs $13.20 which you will have to pay.  If my photo shows I sent it to the wrong address, I will resend.

I'm happy for you to ask any questions in the comments, or if you would rather send them by email you can to morenailpolish@iinet.net.au.

WOW, so there you have it.  I'm exhausted.

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