Highlights vs pearls

[cc1]

I know there are differences in both. I have had pearl colors and highlight colors. Most pearl is white now but the doit product is confusing to me now. You go to hyper highlights and it says both. Hyper highlight blue pearl etc. I have owned blue pearl and that is much stronger than blue highlight. Just wondering if I ordered some what I would be dealing with.

[BareKnuckleJigs]

Ma, give me a Call der Bro.  I'll explain it.  It's a lot to text/type but it really isn't much to comprendé...Zero Feces...

[ctom]

Any hi lite added in enough quantity will pearl a plastic. The basic difference lies in how much you add. In 4 ounces of plastic a ball the size of a bb is plenty to get the surface sheen that hi lites are meant to create. Keep adding more hi lite and the plastic will get that pearl look. Personally I am not a pearl fan so much. Hi lite? Love it used as it was meant to be used. Hi lIte works on the surface of the plastic so of like an oil slick on water. Pearls work inside the plastic to give that "clam shell" look.

[Bob]

Any hi lite added in enough quantity will pearl a plastic. The basic difference lies in how much you add.

Negative. The more highlight you add the more it amplifies the effect of the highlight. It will not however act like a pearl. A pearl powder will actually colour the plastic, Hilites won't. That is the simple difference between the 2.

[ctom]

Beg to differ, but that's ok.

I grabbed this off another site to show what I am referring to...



This has a ton of hi lite in it, not pearl powder or pearling agent. In the amount seen here the blue hi lite has lost its hi lite properties [surface sheen] that most people use it for. The plastic has been over-whelmed with the hi lite to the point it blocks light and becomes a pearling agent. While this is not my picture, I have done this with several batches of plastic. So....yes, hi lite can be over-used to the point of acting like a pearl.

[cc1]

Ok I understand that and attempted to state but obviously I did not state it clearly. I have owned colored pearls and of course highlights. I ran out of colored pearls and attempted to change a color to make another. I was not successful at a certain point and stopped since I thought using more highlight would be wasteful. Most pearl powder offered is now just that no color. Doit hyper highlight says both. Was wondering which one it acted like most. Highlight or pearl. Someone has stated to me they are highlights with highlight properties just named that color. Example highlight color is blue pearl. Not adding blue pearl.

[ctom]

The hi lite sold at Do-It, as is my understanding, is hi lite and only called by color pearl.....blue pearl. Its still hi lite powder. If you want to pearl a color, just add pearl powder to that color and you'll pearl it.

Hi Lite is supposed to be a "surface" additive while pearl is supposed to work within the plastic and not so much "on" it. You can still over do the hi lite and the result will resemble a pearl color.

[Bob]

Beg to differ, but that's ok.

I grabbed this off another site to show what I am referring to...



This has a ton of hi lite in it, not pearl powder or pearling agent. In the amount seen here the blue hi lite has lost its hi lite properties [surface sheen] that most people use it for. The plastic has been over-whelmed with the hi lite to the point it blocks light and becomes a pearling agent. While this is not my picture, I have done this with several batches of plastic. So....yes, hi lite can be over-used to the point of acting like a pearl.

you can beg to differ all you want, put an actual blue pearl in that purple plastic and and it will actually colour the plastic and change the base colour where a highlight won't. All the hilite will do is exactly what it is doing here in this picture, adding a blue iridescence to the purple plastic. Entirely different and not achieving the same results at all. Add a ton of hilite powder to clear plastic and all you get is a milky plastic with an iridescent sheen (I have several colours I make myself that make use of hilites in this manner) but if you add blue pearl to a clear plastic you get a blue plastic with a pearl look to it. Over doing a hilite will look nothing like a pearl. no matter how much you add it won't colour the plastic.

[cc1]

All I can say is the tequila recipe said make red or pink and add blue pearl. I made red added pearl. It was red pearl. Added blue highlight. After several doses it did nothing but sheen the top according to light. I added some flouro blue and midnight blue and got a color like that one. Guess I will have to find that pearl powder. Only 2 places I know of will carry it so far.

[Arkansasbowhunter]

So do it hyper highlights all say pearls.  Are they highlights of really pearls lol.  I use them some time bb size to get a sheen on the plastic.  This above picture had 8 bob sizes in it as I too was trying to make a tequila. 

[ctom]

Thanks for the use of the picture here Arkansas.

CC1, to your original question....the so called pearl hi lites sold at Do-It are hi lites, not pearl. Here is the link to their pearl powder....http://store.do-itmolds.com/Pearl-Powder_p_311.html.

Unlike hi lite, pearl powder is white and will take on the plastic color you put it in. Pearl powder, because its base color is white, will opaque a transparent color if you add a lot of it. Used in any color the pearl will tend to lighten the color. Pearl is super strong and a very little will create the pearl swirl in a transparent bait, but since it works INSIDE the plastic it will also start stopping light with the addition of very little powder.

If you add enough hi lite color to clear plastic you will indeed not end up with clear plastic but one colored to some degree in the color which the hi lite is labeled. Add enough of the hi lite and you'll cloud the clear plastic just like a pearl will do only in color. If you add a hi lite to a colored plastic in proportions to get the surface sheen you probably won't see much color change unless the plastic color or hi lite color is a serious contrast color. Lots of blue hi lite in a transparent purple plastic, like the picture shows, will indeed create the illusion that pearl has been used and the color of the plastic will shift as well. The purple plastic in this picture I also saw PRIOR to the addition of so much more blue hi lite and it was definitely purple transparent with a slight blue sheen on the surface.

One has to be careful in buying products sold as pearls in the automotive paint arena. Many of these pearls are colored. Very few pearl powders sold for plastic specific use are colored. White is the usual and silver is yet another color of pearl for plastic use. The two products are not interchangeable....pearl s won't give you the same effects in plastic as hi lite will. But the picture speaks for itself in that adding a ton of hi lite can create that pearl effect in a plastic. This is all stuff you can toy with and see first hand how too much hi lite will work in your plastic be it clear or colored.

Apparently Bob and I are feuding over something completely different. I have no idea.

[Bob]

here is a simple pic showing the difference. It has a bait made with a purple hilite and purple pearl, blue hilite and blue pearl, and then a white pearl thrown in for fun. when you add a lot of any of the hilite powders into the plastic as I state in an earlier post, it will give the plastic a milky look with an iridescence in whatever colour the powder was but I will maintain it looks nothing like even a white pearl. I'll even add a couple pics of one of my baits that uses a lot of blue hilite in the belly and one that uses a little white pearl in the belly.




Hilite in the belly


White pearl in the belly

[Edgecrusher]

Pearls can give similar finishes to highlights, I drop the tiny eat amount of pearl powder into my purple to give it s very slight surface sheen. Very small amount like less than a match head 

[Muskygary]

Great topic and super information! Maybe post of the year!!

[ctom]

Your picture showing the purple and the blue pearls in clear plastic are not Do-It products. I use nothing but the Do-It and will tell you right off they can be put in clear plastic at a rate to get the surface reflection without turning the plastic whitish or either color, respectively. Bear's hi lites do not change clear plastic either when used as I do. I don't load plastic with hi lite unless my intention is to try and slow down light from moving thru the plastic color. Using a ton of hi lite will cloud the bait similar to what a pearl will do.

I do not use any colored pearl other than the traditional white product or silver in rare cases. If I need to pearl a color I simply add pearl to the color after the initial cooking so I can control how much of the pearling I want. I can however add way more hi lite to, say purple, and get a color similar to what your purple pearl is. The photo I showed is transparent purple with an overload of blue hi lite and looks like a pearl to me.

I have a closet full of after-market pearl products that I do not put in the plastic but, rather, brush on after the injection and then seal with a clear dip. Buying a colored pearl is a waste of money when all a person needs to do to get a pearl color is add pearl to a color.

But to answer the original post, Do-Its hi lites are exactly that even though pearl is used in the name and in cases where a person over-loads a plastic with these hi lites they will appear almost as a pearl.