Hey everyone! Today I am going to be talking about coloring resin. Not everyone knows that you can actually color resin with lots of things. You may be surprised to find out what you can use! Let’s hop right into it.
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Table of Contents
Color Resin With Glitter
Glitter is one of the most simple ways you can color your resin and add a nice shimmer. Sprinkle as much as you need, but be mindful of the glitter to resin ratio.
Don’t dump your entire glitter container into the resin, but add a half a teaspoon at a time until you get the desired look. Stir it in very well.
Get extra fine glitter for resin crafts right now on Amazon.
Color Resin With Acrylic Paint
Yes! You can really use with acrylic paint of any color. My recommendation is that you only add ten percent or less acrylic paint to your mixture of resin. Too much acrylic paint can cause problems with the resin curing.
Also keep in mind that acrylic paint can take away some of the glossiness of the resin. Still, you can create gorgeous dynamic works of art using acrylic paint.
Get acrylic paint for resin crafts right now on Amazon.
Color Resin With Alcohol Ink
Alcohol ink is a very fascinating type of colorant for resin. Alcohol ink in general is very fast drying. When you add alcohol ink to resin, the alcohol evaporates quickly which will not disrupt the curing of the resin.
Try mixing different colors of alcohol ink to experiment with different marbled looks. There are many techniques for alcohol ink. I will cover those in a future post!
Get alcohol ink for resin right now on Amazon.
Color Resin With Mica Powder
If I had to pick a favorite way to color resin it would be mica powder. It comes in so many vibrant and unique colors! I ordered a 50 pack of mica powder colors and I’ve been using it forever.
All you need is a small sprinkle of mica to color your resin. Depending on how much intensity of color you want the resin to have, stir less or more. Mica adds such a nice sparkle and color to resin.
Get colorful mica powder for resin right now on Amazon.
Color Resin With Makeup
It sounds really weird, but you can actually color resin with makeup. I would recommend something like eyeshadow, blush, or any powdery makeup. You can get some really bright and interesting colors by using makeup.
Liquid makeup typically doesn’t integrate very well with the resin and can actually disrupt curing. I wouldn’t recommend it due to its watery base.
Color Your Resin With Glow Powder
Glow powder is so cool! If you want to make some really fun glow in the dark crafts then this is exactly what you need to do it. Stir in a little sprinkle of glow powder for a light glow or add more for a super bright glow!
Glow powder comes in a LOT of colors that you probably didn’t know about. There are a lot of vibrant works of art you can create with this simple powder.
Get glow powder for resin right now on Amazon.
Color Your Resin With Color Shift Powder
Much like regular colored mica powder, a little of this goes a long way. What makes color shift powder so special is that it is formulated to give the appearance of color changing! Color shift powder is very fine and specially formulated to add a pearlescent look to your resin.
Did you know you can paint your resin molds with color shift powder? Yep! Just take a paint brush and dip it into color shift or mica powder and paint the silicone mold. Pour clear or colored resin over top for a dynamic work of art!
Get color shift chameleon pigment for resin right now on Amazon.
Color Your Resin With Foil Flakes
Color your resin with foil flakes – also known as “gilding flakes”. This is not your traditional tin foil for barbeques, but an ultra thin foil especially for crafts like resin. Simply stir a bit of it in to your resin for a nice shiny foil effect. Typically this craft foil comes in gold, silver, and rose gold.
You’ll find that foil like this for art often contains large flakes. I find it best to break the larger flakes up with a popsicle stick while stirring it around in your resin. Many people use these flakes in imitation geode coasters and resin trays.
Get foil flakes for resin right now on Amazon.
Color Your Resin With Resin Pigment
Try out specially formulated liquid resin pigment for your coloring needs. This pigment is specially designed to leave a glossy look to your resin all while coloring it brilliantly.
Much like other resin colorants, a little goes a long way with this stuff. Start out with a drop at a time until you get the desired intensity you want.
Get resin pigment right now on Amazon.
Color Your Resin With Color Shift Chameleon Acrylic Paint
Bring the two worlds of color shift pigment and acrylic paint together with this fun chameleon paint. These colors make for some amazing and mesmerizing art. It is one of my personal favorites.
Chameleon color shifting paint is so unique and the possibilities are endless. Again, only mix a little bit of this with your resin to prevent curing issues.
Get color changing chameleon paint for resin right now on Amazon.
Color Resin With Sidewalk Chalk
Who knew? You can really color resin with sidewalk chalk. Most chalk used for coloring on sidewalks is made from calcium sulfate. All you have to do is shave off a little of colored dust into your resin mixture to begin coloring.
I would recommend using a butter knife to scrape the chalk with. It has the perfect edge that isn’t too sharp, but just rough enough to scrape with. Of course supervise kids and young crafters with any sharp objects.
Get sidewalk chalk to use for resin right now on Amazon.
Color Your Resin With Pressed/Dried Flowers
While you won’t be exactly “coloring” your resin with these, you will be adding color in the form of beautiful dried flowers! Why dried? Resin has the tendency to turn fresh flowers a really ugly yellow/brown unappealing color.
Trust me, pressed and dried flowers look so beautiful in resin. When you press and dry flowers they will maintain a great deal of color and beauty. Some people even like to dye the flowers after they have dried and then use them in the resin.
If you want to press and dry your own flowers from your garden or indoor plant, I highly recommend the microfleur. It allows you to dry flowers in the microwave instead of waiting for a week or two for them to dry naturally. Otherwise you can actually order packs of dried flowers on Amazon.
Get dried flowers for resin right now on Amazon.
What NOT To Color Resin With
After finding out all the things to use, you may be wonder what you shouldn’t color resin with. Here are my recommendations.
Do not use:
- Anything Heavily Water Based
- Oil Paint
- Nail Polish
- Fresh Flowers and Leaves
I hope you enjoyed this list!
Let me know if you found my list helpful and feel free to comment things you like to use for resin coloring! As always you can email any crafts or ideas to [email protected] for a chance to be featured on the website.
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9 Superior Tips For Resin Art Beginners
I really want to start making things with resin! xx
You would really love resin! I hope you get around to it. Thank for reading!
There are so many good ideas here! It seems like you can color resin with almost anything! xx
Yes there are a ton of things to color resin with! Thanks for stopping by to read Sophie!
I have seen a lot of videos online of different people doing resin art, and in watching those, I’ve seen many of your suggestions in action. That being said, I’ve never seen anyone colour their resin with makeup. I love that it’s something that you would have likely sitting around the house – so if you’re in the middle of a project and see that you’ve run out of a colour that you need, there’s a great fix!
Yes absolutely, there are a lot of things that people may not know about. I have a colorful eyeshadow pallet that I barely use. It has around 200 colors and I use maybe a handful. The others I have experimented with using in resin and I find them to be effective and brightly colored! Resin is just so much fun to work with. Thanks for reading!
I love the glow in the dark resin stuff! I never knew you could colour them with so many different things!
Rosie
Yes it really is fun to experiment with different art supplies to come up with unique colors and styles!
What would happen if I inserted fresh flowers and/or leaves to my resin project?
In my experience, fresh flowers will typically yellow or discolor. They continue to oxidize even while cast in resin. To get the best results I highly recommend drying the flowers first although it is optional.
Wonderful ideas but please bear in mind that resin should be used with care, while most brands state they are non toxic, the minute you combine the resin and hardener you’re starting a chemical reaction which gives off fumes and VOCs (volatile organic compounds)ALL resin does this. Adding anything else to if, from pigment to glitter, will increase the chemical reaction and can massively increase the toxicity. Fumes will be released for up to 30 days as the product cures’. This is known as ‘off-gassing’.
Also wear a mask with dust filters when sanding as resin dust is toxic.
Always look at the SDS (safety data sheet) for your chosen resin. You should as a minimum, wear a mask with organic vapour filters, nitrile gloves, have good ventilation and not do it in your home, or with your kids.
Enjoy but stay safe 😊
You’re absolutely right and thank you for bringing up that great point. I do promote resin safety and encourage those using it to use it in well ventilated areas and/or wear proper safety equipment when using it.
Not only is that helpful to prevent harmful inhalation, but also I think it helps you have an overall better experience with resin as a whole. I like to do a lot of prepping before using resin. Thank you so much for your informative and helpful comment.
What is the best thing to color with that is transparent?
I want my resin to look like glass!
Transparent epoxy pigment would probably be what you want. You can get a basic Amazon epoxy pigment or you can try Tone brand epoxy pigment from Etsy. I think it does really well as a basic transparent colorant. Hope this helps!
Ive been looking at this for a long time and dreaming of the things that I would make, while not knowing how to start. Coloring is cool as long as it stays absolutely transparent IMO. Now, off to find the absolute beginning, the how to and what with. 😊