Pure colour is great fun to use - these are for adventurous paint mixers who want to invent, or tailor their own colours, make intensely coloured translucent varnishes, waxes or glazes. Pure colour, whether in a liquid or powder from is generally un-bound so it must be mixed into something that will hold it together - it will not work on its own.
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Colourants are pre-wetted and in the case of Auro colourants are suitable for water-based coatings (although the universal colourants we use in our own tinting machines will mix into spirit-based or water-based coatings.
Powder pigments should be wetted in a small amount of compatible solvent before mixing into your chosen medium e.g. wet with white spririt before adding to oil-based coatings. (Just read the label or the instructions and you will easily work out what goes with what). One great exception: powder pigments can be blended straight into wax. That is how ready-mixed liming wax is made, although you can easily make your own with white pigment.
Dye is used most often on an absorbent surface - in the context of our shop this is bare wood - but it can be used to tint paint or varnish too. Dye tends to have very little solid content and is even more translucent or see-through than other types of colourant. Dye has no binder and must be fixed in some way, so wood dyes must be overcoated with a varnish or sealer.
