Paul Ruben's Watercolours Pearlescent Review

 Paul Ruben's Watercolours is a newer Professional Line on the market from Hong Kong. These paints are a lot younger then some companies and is getting into the art world quickly. They are super reasonably priced and the tins are amazing metal with a few pallets to play on.

The Set I'm going to talk about is the Pearlescent Colours. These paints comes in a 24 set (like this one) or a 48 Set too,  I also put the swatch I made in a south facing window to see how the colours will hold up for light fast test but the results are at the bottom of this post, which has some surprise to see.

These are a Mica based paint that has a stunning shimmer to each one and as you will notice they work amazing on both White and black paper which is honestly very difficult for some pearlescent lines they only work well on one or the other so this paint gives you LOTS of Options along with the fact that Paul Rubens also has it's own paper line both in white and black so they really made sure the paint looks good on both their papers.

48 Colour set (taken off the web)  

1st up I made an Octopus and this guy is using all the shimmer colours 
(I did use a yellow undertone for his eyes as they needed a little extra pop and then I went over it 

with Paul Ruben's Paint 
When using the paints I used a dropper and put a water on the paint I planned on using the longer I left the water on it the stronger the colour would become I found so I could use it as light or as strong as I chose to do

Next I created a winter scene and used the  Pearl Silver White and Pearl Platinum for the sky and the snow cause snow sparkles always, These make an excellent accent to add extra depth 

 This little bee his wings are done with 2 different colours again to make his wings look like the sun is shinning off them and the colour is reflecting from the flower and the sky 

Here I am working on Paul Ruben's Black Paper line 
the paper does have some texture but I did find that it was a little tougher to create something only

because I was trying to paint like I would on white paper the shadows are here already so I have to add in the light to make it pop. The paper was a little to textured for high detail work but excellent for a little looser style which I did with the jellyfish here and the paint spatters perfectly too.

Light fast test 

I put my little sample in a south facing window to get the most sunlight on  it that I could. 
So I did not publish this for a few months as I was doing a light fast test on the paints 
Mica Powders do no have the same qualities as some paints they can fade over time if a fugitive colour is added to them but they still do hold the sparkle so I would recommend on some of the colours to use them as an finish layer. You can see the little F on the paper these are the ones that Faded quickly. 
The Right side of the line was covered over so you can see how some faded but there is some good news to go with this it didn't really fade on the Black paper,  just mainly the white
I did this test from July 31st to Oct 15th which wasn't that long but when I noticed how quickly some lost colour on the white.
I thought it good enough to show the difference 
Also note that you should never hang a watercolour in direct sunlight ever, as

shown from my paint guide that I painted the day I got it and it still looks the exact same as the day I painted it (took the Picture Nov 2nd/22 ) the shine in the paints makes it tough to get a good picture with my phone

I still recommend buying these as the price point and colour Range is just fantastic along with these are just darn fun to play with and honestly we can all use a little sparkle everyday.

Now I do have some mini paintings done with these and they are kept in a album, Which I flip through frequently and they look the exact same way as I painted them so it just and they are older then the light fast test so they do hold up well without light on them as the covered half shows.

 

But like all watercolour paints it's best to keep them out of direct light, north walls are always best for watercolours and damp areas too if you want the colours to stay true. I have kept a picture covered and it looks the same as the day I painted it months ago so just remember that when hanging watercolours anywhere 

Thanks for checking out my review if you have any questions please ask 

hugs Nikki