How to custom paint over existing paint. Prepping your existing paint job.

The “Scuff and Shoot” custom paint job:

This article tells you basically what you need to do if your paint is already in good condition, but you want to add a special effect pigment custom paint over existing paint.

Since prepping your existing paint is so important, we will cover it in some detail. The very first step is to remove as much of the vehicle’s hardware as you can (i.e. taillights, mirrors, side marker lights. Don’t remove something you want to paint, though. You must then mask areas that could potentially be damaged by sandpaper or scuff marks (grilles, door handles, chrome trim, rubber trim).

You must prep the entire surface of what you are painting. Use a wet-sand paper in a 600 grit or a red Scotch-Brite scrubbing pad. Remove all shine from the surface you are going to custom paint. Make the entire surface look dull. Those micro-scratches give the paint a good rough surface to adhere to.

Mask the entire project for paint. Anything that could be effected by overspray should be covered. After masking, use a cleaner to remove any wax and grease (like PPG’s dt-330) so that the project will be ready for paint. Always follow manufacturer’s instructions for use of their products. It is vital that YOU DO NOT TOUCH THE PROJECT AFTER CLEANING. If you are not painting immediately, repeat the cleaning process before paint.

Pick the products that you plan on using. Which product you use will determine the rest of the paint job. Our instructions will tell you how to custom paint with the product you have chosen. The remaining directions will differ depending on the product you have chosen.

Ghost Pearl (transparent irridecent pearls) paint job

Candy “metallic” Pearl paint job

Metal Flake paint job

Temperature change (thermochromic paint) paint job

Our Old Web Site

Glow in The Dark Paint Pigment – Luminescent Paint pigments

We have may glow in the dark pigments. The most expensive by far, is the white to white glow.  This one glows white for hours and is the perfect custom paint job for a white vehicle, or white graphics. It tends to glow for several hours. Our other pigment which is more expensive is a white pigment that glows red. Imagine having a white car that glows red all night! That is the stuff! But we also offer a wide variety of of other glows.

Remember that Glows have a color all on their own. We sell some glow in the dark pigments that have a color to them, but don’t plan on being able to spray over some other color and not get it washed out or milky. Glow in the dark pigments are not transparent, and they will cover up your base color.

It is really up to the user what they do with it, but we recommend having the glow on the top coat. Some people talk about covering it up with Phantom Pearls or white chameleons, but we have yet to see that. If it does get a glow underneath ghost pigments, then we can’t wait to see it. Try some glow in the dark, and see what you think of it.

Each 25 gram bag is a heavy pigment, so it needs to be agitated inside the hopper/gun, and should be sprayed out of a gun with a siphon feed hopper, and not a gravity feed hopper. In a gravity feed hopper or paint gun, the pigment will sink fairly quickly, and may clog up the gun. Some custom painters will actually put marbles into their paint guns to keep things agitated while they spray the heavier pigments in their custom paint jobs. The end results have been amazing, and it is always good to see that.

-Matt

We at Paint With Pearl appreciate all of our customers who take the time to send us pictures and feedback on all of our products. Our Candy Pearls, Metal Flakes, True Chameleon pigments, Thermochromics, Glow In The Darks and all other paint pigments are truly custom paints and can be used in almost any application. There are so many options with our products! Photos, Videos and testimonials are a great way to show off the capabilities of our additives. If you find the opportunity, send us some great pics and a small testimonial about what you did with our products and we will send you a gift card for the website. We love to show off the work that our wonderful customers are doing. Contact us and send us your work!

Candy and Ghost Pearl powders are great for creating incredible interior decorating FAUX FINISH effects in your home or business.

Bronze Copper Used in Faux Finish Glaze and Sponged on Wall.

TIP#1: Faux finish glaze with Ghost Pearl or Candy powdered pearl pigments is super-hot right now. It is achieved by mixing pigment into clear glaze or water-based polyurethane, and applying it to the existing latex paint on the wall with a brush. USING A ROLLER OR A SPRAYER DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF FAUX FINISH, SO use sponges, rags, brushes or any other faux finish technique that you are familiar with.

TIP#2: One bag of our Candy Pearls or Ghost Pearl pigment will treat up to a gallon of glaze or clear poly, but it is advisable to mix it about a quart at a time to get your desired consistency.

TIP#3: Pick a base color that your pearled Candy FAUX FINISH will look good over. A flattering base color makes all the difference. For instance, a blue ghost pearl would look nice over a light blue or grey paint. A gold pearl looks nice over reds, greens, oranges, or browns. Experimentation is the key.

TIP#4: Applying a little pearl faux finish over white or black latex paint can create a great custom paint effect! Our flip colors are designed to paint over black, so getting color changing results depends on applying several coats over a black base. Our Carribean Gold chameleon pearl has been used in theater to create backgrounds that resemble realistic water. We have also seen our silver Phantom Pearls on home theatre walls and screens to boost the light distribution on the surface that makes for a brighter picture quality.

Making your white walls look like pearl is simple by using a white or silver pearl in glaze over your paint. We plan on releasing many more pictures soon displaying the uses of pearls in your home finishes.

-Matt

We love using yall’s stuff, and are doing some Japanese dragon artwork using the new lime green pearl and bright yellow metallic candy pearl to highlight the brushwork.

Well check this out :)
This car has electric blue candy pearl in the blue side of the car base coat, Bronze copper candy tint pigment in the clear on the wheels (the blue side is over silver base, the gray side is over black base), more Bronze copper candy tint pigment highlighting the fish scales that was mixed with 1 shot clear and brushed straight on, Deep pink pearl in the highlights on the cherry blossoms that was also mixed with 1 shot clear and brushed straight on, there is also some Silver crystal pearl mixed in with the white 1 shot highlights on the blue side of the car.
in all I think we used 2 full bags of Bronze copper candy tint pigment and 1 full bag of the electric blue pearl.
The entire car took about 720 hours to do, the artist is Cindy Raschke (www.cindyraschke.com ) and the technical paint and body was all performed by us here at Sideways AutoSalon.

We at Paint With Pearl appreciate all of our customers who take the time to send us pictures and feedback on all of our products. Our Candy Pearls, Metal Flakes, True Chameleon pigments, Thermochromics, Glow In The Darks and all other paint pigments are truly custom paints and can be used in almost any application. There are so many options with our products! Photos, Videos and testimonials are a great way to show off the capabilities of our additives. If you find the opportunity, send us some great pics and a small testimonial about what you did with our products and we will send you a gift card for the website. We love to show off the work that our wonderful customers are doing. Contact us and send us your work!

-Matt

Thermochromic paints are paints that change color at a given temperature. Although there are color change paints for a wide array of temperatures, we have decided to start our inventory off with those that change at 30 Degrees C, or at 86 Degrees F. They are very effective at changing to a clear as the temperature goes up to reveal the graphics or base color underneath.

Warning: Thermochromics are very sensitive to UV light, and will fade without proper protection.

We have excellent luck spraying our pearl paint, candy paint, chameleon paint, metal flakes, and temperature change pigments in products such as PPG’s DBC-500 color blender, but we understand that many of our customers are using Dupont’s color blender or just any old clear binder. Using these Color Blenders, you can make over a mixed quart of temperature changing paint for less than 1/4 what you will pay anywhere else.

Thermochromic paints have been known to have issues with UV Tolerance if not top-coated with an appropriate UV inhibitor clear coat. Many of these clears are priced above $200 per gallon. If you are going to use the color change pigments for outdoor use, check out alsacorp.com for their “Sunscreen Clear”, or look for a high-end Dupont clear. We now have a clear coat of our own to provide excellent UV tolerance as well. It is called All Kandy Wet Wet Plus with extra UV. protection. Using these high-UV tolerance clears has been shown to last over a year in full UV. Keeping your project garaged when not in use will increase the longevity of the paint as well. A few extra coats of quality UV clear never hurts either.

Tips:

Paint at a temperature under 86 Degrees when using the 86 degree F paint. That way you can see what kind of coverage you are getting. Make sure the surface you are painting is also cool.

Remember, you can use color changing paints over any basecoats, including graphics. You can have a black car that changes to a yellow car with flames during the daylight. You can have graphics that dissapear when the car warms up, if you paint the graphics with the color changing paint.

You can add any pearls, candy paint pigments, or metal flakes right into the mix of color-change pigments, or topcoated over the color-change paintpigments. The good thing about that is the extra protection you get for UV, as our pearls contain Titanium Oxide, a principle ingredient in sunscreen.

Do yourself a favor, don’t let your project sit around too long before you top-coat it with a high quality UV clear coat. Giving yourself a few extra coats of clear never hurts.

As far as quality goes, we are proud to offer you this product, as we have heard many people complain about the cost that other paint manufacurers are charging for this exact same product, pre-mixed into a binder. Smart painters know that all paints are basically binders + pigments. So why pay someone an extra 300 dollars out of your pocket for the same thing?

Custom Paint made easy | How do we define Custom Paint

Custom paint can be defined in many ways. In the simplest, most easily definable way, it is one-of-a-kind paint that is different than anyone else’s paint. That can be the same for cars, buildings, interiors, or toys and knick-knacks. It is a way of expression that defines regular, normal color as no longer good enough to be pleasing to the eye, unless of course you are looking at a tree or the sky. One extra step adds new dimension and depth to paint, and the more you look at it, the more it reveals to you. We have seen this in so many different forms, not just cars and motorcycles, but in faux-finish, powder coating, pottery glaze, and in basic arts and crafts. It is limited only by the imagination. Literally millions of combinations of colors can be made.

Red Ghost Pearl on Blue Chevy Fender

Rose Red Candy painted over a silver base coat.

Red Ghost Pearl on Blue Chevy and Mauve Red Candy over black base coat.

The products we sell here at Paint With Pearl will make millions of colors, because any of them can be mixed with each other, or in multiple colors. It is all up to the painter to decide. Like any smart custom paint sprayer, it is always wise to have some small test panels to spray out so that you know what you are trying to achieve. We believe that we sell a true custom paint. Not one that is pumped out in thousands of gallons from a huge manufacturer. That is not how one-of-a-kind colors are made.

Custom paint should also be available for everyone. That means that we should not be forced into spending thousands of dollars on a paint job when the paint companies themselves are buying the same pigment that we are and marking them up by thousands of percentage points. How does we afford to sell the pearl paint, candy paint, metal flakes, and especially chameleon paint at much lower prices? Have you seen the marketing behind those places? They have massive amounts of overhead, and the price get passed on to you, the consumer. Custom paint has been a passion of ours for quite a while, and the fact of the matter is that we are a small business run by Matt and Lyndi Donley, with get this, zero employees. Almost no marketing goes into this company, so we can keep our prices low, because we only need to make enough money to feed our kids and put them through school, like so many of our customers, we are getting by day to day. Our customer service feedback is incredible, and we have thousands of positive feedbacks on Ebay.

Remember, the dry pearl paint pigment, candy paint pigment, and the metal flake we sell can be used in any type of medium, not just paint. We have many clients involved in concrete finishing, plastics, interior decorating, and powder coating industries. We have resellers all over the world (Australia, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, and right here in the United States), and we pride ourselves on our ability to help our resellers in any way that we can to make more money. See our reseller’s page for more details.

We are always available to help those in need, either by email or by phone. We can also process orders over the phone if we need to, so don’t hesitate to contact us! We do not mind giving some advise on custom paint, but please refrain from calling us if you need painting lessons!.We get a lot of calls from people not knowing how to prep a car for painting. There are hundreds of newsgroups and forums out there that can teach you what you need to know about custom painting. Check out our user’s pages for ideas on what you can do to create your custom paint job!

Metal Flake – Metallic Flakes

Classically, metal flake paint is a staple in the custom painting world. The problem has always been the tons of extra work involved when painting with standard sized flakes. In most of the older flake jobs, the amount of extra knockdown and sanding involved with doing the overall paint job makes metal flake the lesser desirable option when using custom paint. We have seen some metal flake paint jobs that were such a disaster because the flakes were too large to go around the edges of doors, hoods, etc. The fact of the matter is that painters can still get big sparkle out of small flakes, so we choose to sell mainly the smallest metal flake, although we can get larger flake sizes for those who insist upon larger flakes. See our user’s pictures for a good idea of what these beautiful flakes can do for your custom paint job. Our flakes are so small, they give perfect coverage to even the smallest edges you can find in any applications. We order flakes in the .004″ size (that’s 4 thousandths of an inch).

Creating a great metal flake paint job is super simple with our flakes. Just choose your base coat (black is good if you want the paint to take on the color of the flakes), and add a heaping tablespoon of our flake to any clear coat (although we recommend a base clear for mixing the flake into, like PPG’s DBC-500, or HOK’s intercoat clear). Knockdown isn’t even an issue with our flake. We have seen full coverage with just 3 coats of clear on these flakes, and your door and hood edges will be as smooth as if you just rolled the car off the showroom floor. Keep in mind, that even though they are called “metal flake”, most of our flakes are made from special solvent-resistant polyesters that can withstand the chemicals in the clear coat. See our tips pages for more information, our download our instructional PDF. Remember, unlike some flakes that people dust onto wet clear-coat dry and spend about 400 bucks for 20 jars of flake to paint a single auto, our system is much more efficient. As we say around here, “One jar paints a car.”

We also sell an variety of chameleon flakes, which are doing great things in the color-changing and chameleon paint world. These flakes, when painted over a black surface, add an incredible overall color-chaging effect to your project.

Speaking of color-changing, we sell a full variety of hologram and prismatic flakes. These little beauties add holographic rainbow effects to any paint job, whether it be candy paint or pearl paint.

Powder coaters have also had great success with our products. Even mixing the flakes at 1/40 ratio with any color of powder coatings can give you an excellent flake effect. All of our flakes (except for the chameleons) have a 400 degree temperature threshold, so they can be used easily in powder coatings as well as paint and gel coat.

In addition to paint and powder coat, boat builders and fiberglass fabrictors have used our products in both the restoration of old fiberglass and the creation of new fiberglass products.

We have had great success with people in the world of interior decor and faux finish as well. Whether creating an underwater look using our peacock flake or just adding some glitz and glam to a storefront, our flakes have been doing great things in the world of faux finish and interior design. For tips on using flakes with faux finish, see our faux tips page.

We have seen our metal flake used in other applications as well, from custom toy builders to custom helicopter paint jobs, so the possibilities are endless! You can mix any of our pearl pigments and candies in with our flakes. Our metal flake has quickly gained popularity and notariety in the paint world, and a look at our user’s pictures can show you what your possibilites are. The fact is, we have discovered that our Metal flake, pearl paint, chameleon paint, and candy paint come from literally the same manufacturers as flakes you will pay 5 times as much for at your local paint shop with a fancy name on them. In today’s economy it’s time to be smart. Creating a custom paint that saves you money will equal more money in your pocket in the end, and gives your project a look like it cost a fortune.

If you are still confused over which products would look good over your existing paint, or want to discuss your options, contact us!  

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.

Our Chameleon Pearls ®  Colorshift paint has been gaining quite a bit of popularity, due to the great pricing and the cool colors that we have available. The Chameleon Pearls ® are a color shifting paint with angle and light, with usually several different colors involved with the shift.

The older Chameleon Pearls ®  were made by exact combinations of our Ghost Pearl ® paint and Candy Pearl ® paint . It is always important to paint over a BLACK base coat with our chameleon paint pearls , because black will not interfere with the true colors in the pigments . Painting over dark colors will make the chameleons stand out better. Although we have seen some white and red chameleon paint jobs that are simply awesome. With our products, it’s good to get a few coats down. It’s also always true that using a quality top-coat clear (like one that is over 100 bucks a gallon and has adequate UV protection) will keep the colors shifting and protect your paint job like it should be protected. Good quality clear coat is always a recommendation when custom painting.

With our chameleon paint flakes we also ask that painters use a black base coat for overall color changing effects.. They are truly a color changing flake, with different color effects depending on the light and angle that you see them. Our chameleon paint flakes can be sprayed over a white base, but not to acheive a color-change paint effect, but to acheive more of an abalone shell sparke effect. We highly recommend these flakes and we recommend that people mix them at about 1 heaping tablespoon per quart of base clear, and use a quality clear top coat to spray over the flake, as our other chameleons. Our chameleon flakes are unfortunately the only product we sell that cannot be used in powder coating, because the heat threshold will not tolerate the powder coating ovens. In paint, however, these chameleon flakes can be mixed with our candy paint, pearl paint, or our other metal flakes.

Black base coat: You may mix any of the chameleon paint pigments into any of our Phantom Pearls or candy paint pearls, but keep in mind that using too much will make the project take on the color of the pearl and overwhelm the chameleon. The effects that you can acheive are endless.

Remember, creating a one-of-a-kind custom paint job isn’t buying it from a can. There are literally millions of make them yourself colors available at your fingertips with very little experimentation. At our prices, anyone could buy a few of our products and create never before seen colors.

If you are still confused over which products would look good over your existing paint, or want to discuss your options, contact us! We always try to make ourselves available to painters and powder coaters for extra advise. As with any paint project, paint test panels before you begin, so that you achieve the custom paint effect that you want!

Don’t forget to check out our Youtube Channel.

Our definition of Candy Pearls ® Paint as compared to our other custom paints…At Paint With Pearl, we pride ourselves on the quality of our Candy Pearls ® pigments.

These are quality metallic Iron Mica colored pigments known as Candy Pearls ® that have a good deal of their own iridescence built right in. The mixture, however, of our Candy 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 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 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

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 Ghost 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 Phantom 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 Phantom Pearls, we have a few suggestions on which colors look good over which base coats…

White base coat: Use any of the Phantom 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 Phantom 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 Phantom 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 Phantom 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 Ghost Pearl, Green Ghost 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

We sometimes get questions about Thermochromic in Plasti Dip and does it work? Here is a video of a test dome by Royal Dip. Their Facebook can be found at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Royal-Dip/167421640078755 .

We at Paint With Pearl appreciate all of our customers who take the time to send us pictures and feedback on all of our products. Our Candy Pearls, Metal Flakes, True Chameleon pigments, Thermochromics, Glow In The Darks and all other paint pigments are truly custom paints and can be used in almost any application. There are so many options with our products! Photos, Videos and testimonials are a great way to show off the capabilities of our additives. If you find the opportunity, send us some great pics and a small testimonial about what you did with our products and we will send you a gift card for the website. We love to show off the work that our wonderful customers are doing. Contact us and send us your work!

All of our products can be used in plasti dip, we were the first company to supply the dip community with pigments.  If you have any reservations about whether our products work in Plasti Dip, you should know that we were the pioneers who introduced Plasti Dip Pearls to the world.

Shop with us…the leader in paint and Pearl Pigments Since 2005

First in Plasti 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 Plasti 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 Pearl and Pigments. 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 Plasti 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 plasti dip pearls at a huge discount off of what you would think you might spend at our competition. So when you search for Plasti 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.

Pearl Pigments and how we discovered the stuff that just works in everything.

In the past 10 years, we at Pearl and Pigments have learned quite a lot about pearl pigments and metallic pigments, which we call Candy Pearls ®, along with pioneering the whole DIY mixing of pearl pigments and other pigments into many different kinds of coatings.  Knowing that the temperature threshold of the pearl pigments was about 1600 degrees and that the pigments were so stable and non-reactive opened ip the doors for us to try them in powder coat, Fiberglass, nail polish, and the Phantom Pearls ® would actually work in some pottery glaze and glass blowing applications.

It all began back in 2004, when I was painting my 1949 Buick Super. I painted it white, and wanted it to have an iridescent look of another color. I decided to go to our local paint store and find out more about these pearl pigments.  I was shocked that a very small amount pearl pigment (which was a Dupont ® product) was about 30 dollars for about 20 grams at my local paint store. It was then that I decided there had to be a better way to get pearl pigments.  10 years ago searching for the right manufacturers was tough, but we managed to find the right people. We started with a tax return check and bought our first shipment of pearl pigment, which we now call “Phantom Pearls“. We quickly learned by trial and error that we needed to package our pearl pigments in 25 gram bags.  We started an Ebay store under the seller name 69_Muscle.

Shortly after I was laid off from my job, so I decided to use my severance to build a web site to run along side my Ebay store. After 2 long months of learning old school web programing, we had a small site that started to sell its own pearl pigments. Paint With Pearl was born. Now, 10 years later there are tons of copycat websites and competitors that all noticed what a great idea we had. You can still see our old website at retro.paintwithpearl.com.

We have expanded over the years to include many different colors and special effects pigments, but we are still just a mom and pop shop, and we honestly have the VERY BEST customer service out there, as well as the VERY BEST prices available on the web.

The Puzzleman from YouTube did a really cool chameleon dip job using only 2 bags of pigment. He is truly a master. By the way, the price has dropped by 50% since this video was made. And the people who buy in bulk? Well, they are getting 10 bags for 200 dollars! And yes, if you subscribe to our page, you will also get 20% off coupons occasionally to drop your price to 16 dollars a bag (if you buy 10). That is pretty much the best price out there. We intend to keep introducing more colors, without weird names, and will make sure you get the best price out there.

Now, Many people believe that our pearls are not compatible with plasti dip, but we have pioneered this field. Not one dip seller out there did not start with our help in the field of pearls and pigments. Even the biggest distributors out there got all of their pearls from us.

Because we turned out to be such a strong competitor, the plasti dip companies decided to make it “mandatory” to use “their” pigments rather than ours. Honestly, we all get our pearls from the same people, so this type of demand seemed irresponsible, and frankly, irrational.  If you want the best price on pearls,  then you should buy from a family and not a multi million dollar corporation. It is their dream to make you live by their rules, but we break rules and make things affordable.

Plasti dip is just like any other clear medium. The definition of paint is basically glue + Pigments. All paint is basically a binder (a glue to make the color stick) with pigments added to it. See how the Puzzleman used our pigments to make our colors stick to his mustang:

Matt

We at Paint With Pearl appreciate all of our customers who take the time to send us pictures and feedback on all of our products. Our Candy Pearls, Metal Flakes, True Chameleon pigments, Thermochromics, Glow In The Darks and all other paint pigments are truly custom paints and can be used in almost any application. There are so many options with our products! Photos, Videos and testimonials are a great way to show off the capabilities of our additives. If you find the opportunity, send us some great pics and a small testimonial about what you did with our products and we will send you a gift card for the website. We love to show off the work that our wonderful customers are doing. Contact us and send us your work!

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 Phantom 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 flakes 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