Product Review Series | Luminarte Twinkling H2O Watercolours

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Last week I had a poll going on my Facebook page to see what you would like to have reviewed this week. It was an incredibly close call but the Luminarte Twinkling H2O Watercolours won with 52% of the vote. Keep an eye out this week for another poll!

I currently have three packages of these that I feel give me a pretty fair palette of colours to choose from. Don't get me wrong, I would certainly love to have more, but for what I do and my needs at this time, these suffice.

As always, this will be a pretty long post, with a bunch of pictures. So grab a coffee and enjoy!

First Impressions:

• Vibrant colors
• Cute little pots
• Decent packaging
• Has the name on the bottom - I'll get to this
• They are Acid-free, Odorless and non-toxic - so good for kids to play with
• According to the website they are available in 210 colours!!
• Can be purchased individually in 5/10mL pots - but I was only able to find them in these packs of six at my local Michael's Craft store

There aren't really an "instructions" with the packages as to how to get them to work, so I was a little disappointed there. They have claims on the site about being child-friendly, but they don't work like any type of paint I have ever purchased for my kids. If I weren't crafty and these were gifted to one of my kids it would be disappointing because they don't work right out of the gate.

To use:

• Open the pot (obviously)
• Spray or add a few drops of water and let them sit for a few minutes. These paints are hard. Like super colourful little rocks inside cute little jars, by adding some water and letting them sit it softens the paint and "activates" it so you can actually use it.
• Paint and enjoy!
• You don't have to wait for the paint to dry out before closing it up. It'll dry out just fine with the lid closed - at least I have never had a problem with it. 

After using these, I found:

• They are incredibly pigmented - there is a lot of colour shoved into that little pot, so a little goes a long way
• Insanely shimmery - You know how I always mention that my camera doesn't pick up the shine and that makes me sad but in real life it really sparkles? With these, the camera picks up the shimmer as you can see in the large butterfly on the right. In real life, the shimmer is off the charts. I couldn't even believe it 
• They blend pretty well - to be fair it was very late when I made this card front and I didn't actually use watercolour paper. Normally I would have. So that being said they can be used on 110lb regular cardstock as long as you aren't going crazy with them - They would be excellent to add just a bit of shimmering highlight to an image
• Be aware that they will warp the page as they dry - just make sure you cover the entire back of the panel with a very strong adhesive so that it will lay flat.
• When the paint mixture is thin it is very transparent - so if you want to add a light wash of shimmer over another colour, you would be able to do so
• As the water starts to evaporate or continue to seep into the paint pot the paint will become very thick - at this point you can use it on dark cardstock (picture below) as it is very opaque and just as shimmery.

As my paints dried I used a couple of the colours on just a scrap of black 65lb cardstock by Recollections. The blue I found to be the most vibrant, but I think if the same consistency were reached with most of the others it would work as well. Obviously a very light colour like yellow won't be as opaque as a blue or dark purple but experimenting with them would be fun.

As you know I'm a fan of swatching - There's a whole big post coming up about it. I'm also a fan of knowing what my colours will look like on the paper I'm most likely to use them on. I mentioned above that there is information on the bottom of each pot about the colour - name, number etc. That's a problem for me, I like to refer back to the colours so I can remake an image or I can discuss it here in the blog, so it just spells disaster for me to have to look at the bottom of a tiny paint pot that I have just added water to. I'm sure you can see where this is going.

To solve this problem I use my 1" Recollections circle punch and punched out a circle from Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper - which is my go-to paper for most of my projects.

I activated the paints, added water to half of the circle and dropped in the colour. Once they were dry, I wrote the name and adhered them directly to the top of the lid.

My overall impressions:

These are a nice to have in the craft room, but definitely not something I would recommend you run out and buy (not that I ever tell you to go buy something, but you know what I'm saying). If you are looking to add some shimmer to your piece and you want to try something new, then by all means these are something you may find interesting. 

Being able to use these on dark and regular cardstock to add just a bit of shimmer is a huge plus for this product. As long as you are using a light hand, I think you'll be incredibly pleased with your results. That being said, this product is something I feel you need to plan to use. Having to activate the paint and wait around for it to be ready, does not lend itself well to being a "spur of the moment" kind of medium.

If you are able to find them individually or want to give one a try, I recommend a neutral colour; a pearl or pale silver, if the paint is thin you'll be able to use it over something you have already coloured (provided it doesn't reactivate with water) to give it a wash of shimmer. 

Aside from these three packs that I had come across in my craft store, I haven't seen them locally since; even in the same store. They are available online - but without seeing them in person picking a selection would be difficult. 210 colours is incredibly overwhelming even for an experienced craft supply purchaser. 

I hope you enjoyed today's review, if you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, drop me a line in the comments section below, I would love to hear from you. If you haven't already please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts.

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I use, that I find interesting and that I have purchased myself. I am given no reward, incentive or payment to write a review. All reviews are based on my personal experience with the product and are my opinions only.