How I make a new color

I don't know how other people decide on how to make a color, but here's how I do it.

STEP ONE: Decide what I'm going to make a color for.

Almost all of my colors come in sets that coordinate, and I decide the sets ahead of time. You can see the ones I have planned, by the quarter, in the tab at the top of the page here. Before I start work, I come up with the ones inside of the theme that I want to do. For instance: The Cap 2 Line. I had a list of about seven possible ones I wanted to do before I ever started work--usually, it's a quote or a line from the source, and a vague sense of the color or finish I want to create, based on how the thing in question looks inside my head*. The ones that don't make it to the current post will likely be made later, anyway.

STEP TWO: Get specific.

Once I know which ones I'm actually going to make (usually three, since I like the number three), I look at what I actually have to make them out of. By this point, I've thought about the colors and glitter combos, and finishes more, and I have a clear idea of what I'm aiming for.

If I have the colors around, or feel like I can mix them easily, I start work. If not, I go shopping on my source sites and get new pigments, new glitter, and / or new special effects. I love getting new stuff, but that all depends on how much money I have; maybe half the time, I don't have the funds or the time to order new stuff, so I have to combine stuff I already have in new ways, wish is harder than you'd think!

STEP THREE: Prototyping

I mix up one bottle, and tweak it until I get the color, the finish and the mix right. Because I make them a bottle at a time, most of the time, I try to keep the formulations simple--if they're too complicated, it takes too long to make them, and it makes me not want to make them. The exceptions are special ones--like ItzMahBirfdayz, One Year Down, and NaNoWriMo--that are kicked up on purpose.

For the most part, I know how the pigments and stuff I have work, and I know what I'm aiming for, so formulation goes easily. It's part of why I put out so many at a time! Once in a while, something doesn't come out how I intended, and I'll either rename the result as something else and start over (Seven Devils was one of these), or I'll drop the off-spec one in the Grab Bag and start over. 

Through the whole process, I keep copious formulation notes so I can recreate the colors, as well as a swatch on the same page with the way it's supposed to look, so I can color-check as I remake the colors for future bottles. (I'll also add notes later, if I change something, if I make it in bulk for some reason, if I need to replace a pigment or glitter that's gone away, or whatever; Loki Stole My Feels has gotten greener since the first prototype bottle, and the Firefly set's early colors have gotten smoother because I cut the amount of pigment a little after the fact)

The last few months, I've been making swatch wheels of each month's colors, too, so that there's at least that one swatch of each color. I didn't think to do this for a long time, and it makes for PILES of older colors that don't have any existing swatches!

STEP FOUR: Sale!

I take pics with my phone, and post almost all the listings through the App because it's easier than doing it online. Then I share them on Pinterest, and Facebook, and pack up the monthly offerings for Mish, my only pro swatcher, right now.

I also have various automation things posting new listings to Twitter, and to the blog here, and I usually post at least something to Instagram, so there's plenty of places where you can find when I post new colors!

And that's how I make a color!