ENL Watercolours in half-pans (2 ml), Mineral and Rare Colours

ENL professional handmade watercolours are a result of years of research and development as well as non-stop testing, formulas improvement and working with professional artists. To make the selection process easier, we split the line into :

1. Organic Pigment Colours – paints that are made with organic pigments or mixtures or organic and inorganic ones
2. Mineral and Rare Pigments (this page). It also includes other inorganic pigments
3. Metallic Colours
4. Watercolours in sets

What is inside these watercolours?

A full overview of what watercolours are made with you can find in special articles. Let’s stop at the main factors that make watercolour genuine and quality. Generally speaking, any watercolour would have the following components:

• pigments – to colour your artwork
• binder – to glue pigment powder together and adhere the solution to your paper
• fillers – to increase the visible volume of paint sold
• plasticizer – to increase the elasticity of paint and film
• humidifiers – to prevent paint from over-drying
• preservatives – to prevent mould growth
• additives to enhance colours or achieve any other specific goals.

The best paints have more pigment, the right amount of binder, plasticizer, humidifiers and preservatives. These ingredients are essential for any watercolours. Lower-grade paints may look the same, but they will have more fillers, and tints instead of pigments or low-quality pigments.

What is special about ENL watercolours?

We released our first watercolours in Sep 2020. More colours are coming up as soon as the testing process is finished. And for now, we’re happy to offer our soft and dry watercolours for professional artists.

• High-quality pigments. Most pigments in ENL watercolours are mineral, meaning pigments got tested with time by the generation of artists. With technical progress, some pigments got replaced with synthetic (like it happened to ultramarine, for example) and complemented with organic (like phthalo, hansa and others); we have them too.
• We buy pigments from responsible vendors, so no children or unfair labour was involved. We don’t buy from places where this ethical problem may exist (for some pigments sourced from Africa (mostly, blue cobalt) and China). All our pigments come from the USA, Canada and Europe (Italy, France, Germany, and Cyprus).
• For our watercolour binder, we use only natural ingredients: water, Arabic gum, pure food-grade glycerin, natural Canadian honey and essential oils. No formaldehyde or other harsh chemicals.
• ENL watercolours have absolutely zero fillers added. We’re not cheating our clients and don’t increase the volume of paints to make you pay more for the less amount of pigment. Some paints look softer than expected as they absorb more binder. We do not add any fillers to make the appearance better. Instead, we’re working on adding other pigments that help us achieve our goals and improve with every new batch. (The pigment we get may go below our standards. As soon as we detect this, the pigment gets removed from the line).
• Maximum pigment volume concentration: 50-90%. Some pigments absorb more of the binder, while others take less. We let pigment take as much binder as it needs for the best performance.
• Our binder is special. As a (very) small manufacturer we can control every little step. We brew Arabic gum varnish at a certain temperature and certain conditions. Usually, bigger manufacturers just dissolve gum Arabic with water and top it up with dextrin.

Other benefits

• We make our paints in small batches, so you’re always buying fresh
• Each pan contains 2 ml of paint.
• They are made in Canada, from mostly local raw materials. By buying from us, you’re supporting 10+ more Canadian small businesses. 
• We’re working on reducing plastic in our packaging, as we did for many other products.

Colour Chart (PDF) >>

2 ml pans

Ingredients: pigment, water, Arabic gum, glycerin, honey, clove and/or oregano oil