For a long time I’ve had an obsession with chameleon paints. Years ago while browsing some local art stores I bought a small jar of Pearl EX duo pigments. This was my introduction in trying to get that color-shift onto a miniature. This was my first step into the world of chameleon paints:

Eh not such a great result. I attempted many different ways on trying to get that pigment on a mini. Mixing it into blue paint, mixing it into gloss mediums, and just applying them directly straight from the jar. I eventually used a blue undercoat and then layers of the colorshift pigment with a gloss medium. The result while made me happy at the time, the better I got painting in general the more I noticed the effect was very subtle and the pigment built up in the edges.

I bought things to try out like Spazz Stik chameleon paints but that did not react well to test pieces I used it on and it smelled as toxic as the warning labels on it suggested. As time passed more companies like Green Stuff World came out with a ready to use chameleon acrylic. Having been tempted many times to dive in I held off because some of the example figure they paints looked grainy to me.

Time passed and while lazily browsing Youtube I come across a channel Simply Nailogical and she used a powder that was very similar to the Pearl EX powder but the finish was MUCH more vibrant and mirror like. So I plunged in bought some chameleon nail powders from Born Pretty. Then I adapted what Simply Naillogical did with her nails to an extra Carnifex Head I had for years and I chose a Red-Gold-Green chameleon powder

First: Primed it black

Second: Applied a thin layer of Liquitex Gloss Medium/Varnish (Not sure if my bottle is normal it comes out the bottle very thick almost elmers glue level)

Third: Let it dry enough so that it is dry but still Tacky (VERY Important or your results will suffer)

Fourth: Use an eyeshadow brush get some of the chameleon powder on it and buff it on what you want colored

Then you get this as a result:

It is a brilliant result for very few steps but just particular about the timing of the application of the powder. So I kinda went crazy testing it. I applied another layer of gloss varnish to see if it would keep the effect. It did for the most part but the level of color shifting dulled a bit, the point where the the color shift happens now was more toward the edges than before. I want the shift to be front and center so was not satisfied with that. SO I think the best way to apply it is after the first coat of varnish + powder, just add another on top so the shift is more prominent and will protect the color more than a single layer. You can also mix the different colors of powders, on that same piece I tried putting on a blue-purple powder and the colors combined to give a new oil-slick kind of color:

Since i had a lot of pearl EX powder I wanted to see if this style of application would be similar. You do get a lot of pigment for a good price so it might be a budget alternative to nail powders. I then retried the Pearl EX powder with the same black primer + varnish tack coat and got this result:

It was supposed to be a Violet-Brass duo pigment, but the effect is nowhere near as shiny and I can barely see any violet shift.

Then I tested a chrome-green powder on a segment of carapace what was not all colored black. On the edges they are a light tan color like the flesh and the color shift and mirror effect is much less pronounced. Also notice how everything has some powder on it.

Another test was using one of my previous Carnifex heads with that old blue + pearl EX finish. So I used this green-blue color powder on top. I also used it on a plain black piece to show the difference in effect.

Then I tried it on a very light undercoat. The effect is pretty meh for these chameleon mirror powders. Some of it is very splotchy and taints the white to look dirty. Might be my application technique but the color shift only happens when the light hits it directly.

And the effect looks much better with an even varnish layer. Here is a varnish layer applied by an eyeshadow brush…. yeah don’t do that I couldn’t get an even layer and I tried.

So it is very similar to some of the chameleon paints where darker the undercoat the more pronounced the effect, but you don’t need multiple thin coats. Almost every single example piece is only one or two coats.

Some takeaways:

Do one piece at a time the timing when the varnish is best for buffing in the powder is not very long. Wait too long the powder won’t adhere and not enough you get a mess

Darker the undercoat the more pronounced the effect. The effect on white is very subtle. (Personally I think the effect might look best on a very dark grey compared to a pure black I will have to do more testing on this)

The technique is very very messy. This should be one of your first steps so that you don’t get shimmery powder over everything or use a liquid mask layer to protect other sections

a little powder goes a long way. I swiped the eyeshadow brushes on the “For your safety” seals on the jars and that was enough for a Carnifex head’s worth of surface area

Do 2 layers of varnish + powder for increased durability

Don’t be afraid of going into makeup stores and buying powders! Who cares what other people think, these are really cool materials that were right under our nose.