FIRST IMPRESSION – Nuvo Shimmer Powders (Watercolor Powders)

Powder watercolors have been around for a long while, but up until now I haven’t really ever felt the need to try them out. A few weeks ago I happened to catch my friend Jessica‘s live stream on Instagram where she was trying out the new Shimmer Powders from Nuvo. They looked so awesome! I ordered them right away. After the package arrived, I turned on my camera and played with each of the colors.

(Wondering what I used in this video? Everything is linked to multiple sources in the thumbnails at the end of this post, or in the text below. Compensated affiliate links used when possible).

NOTE: Unfortunately, I do not have the color Blue Blitz. It was sold out at the time of my placing my order. But all the others are shown in the video.

How fun are these?! I love the multicolor effects! Can you believe that purple background was only one color, Violet Brocade? And I only tried them with one technique! You can put the powders in a palette and add water, too. Then you can paint with them like traditional watercolors.

I absolutely love the look of these Shimmer Powders! However, I did find a few not-so-positive aspects to them…

They are messy! As a crafter who hates getting ink on her hands, this was an exercise in taking deep breaths and attempting to just go with the flow. LOL! But it wasn’t just my hands (which took extra scrubbing to clean–this stuff doesn’t come off easily like most watercolors). When I added water to the powders with my Distress Sprayer, the powder flew everywhere. Remember in last week’s video when I had to clean up my card with a Tombow sand eraser because there was a bit of color on my work surface and the card picked it up? That was Shimmer Powder! I filmed today’s card before that one and didn’t see the stray Shimmer Powder on my black surface. As I mention in the video, I think when I do this technique again (which I totally will because I LOVE the look of it), I’ll be sure to work inside a box to catch any of the stray powder.

While I love the shimmer effect, sadly the shimmer does rub off after drying. To combat this, I ended up using a Crystal Clear Acrylic Coating spray from Krylon. After allowing that to dry completely, the shimmer was locked in and not moving. I possibly could have used Distress Micro Glaze instead, but I didn’t think of it at the time.

I decided to create cards out of the final two backgrounds. I used the You Da Best die from CZ Design, as well as a greeting from the Love You Mama stamp set.

Overall, I loved playing with the Shimmer Powders! I’m eager to try them out some more!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies

Compensated affiliate links used when possible. Items marked with an asterisk (*) were provided by a store or the manufacturer. All other items were personally purchased. Items below are shown in the order they appear in the video.