I exclusively use Winsor & Newton oil paints in my work unless I need a certain color immediately and can't find it in-store, in which case I buy the color in another brand until I can replace it. Holbein makes excellent paint but it costs more.
That being said, one day I noticed that when I tried using the Winsor & Newton tubes with the new label, I had trouble mixing certain colors in terms of the hue and intensity I had known while using the same color from a tube with the old label.
Wondering if I was imagining things, I decided to try to determine if what I thought I had noticed was indeed the case. So I did the simple experiment you see below.
The sap green from the old tube on the left side was more richly pigmented (see the closeup) than the the paint from the new tube. Also, if you look closely, the "old" paint on the right is slightly less glossy. I believe this is because there is less binder due to the higher concentration of pigment.
This seemed to be the case with sap green. I couldn't really determine this when I tried it with dioxazine violet, also shown below. The color of the "old" paint on the left seems slightly different, but when I mixed the colors I was after, I didn't have the same trouble getting the color I was after.
Having said all this, Winsor & Newton does state on their website that, although they strive to maintain the highest quality product possible, their colors may occasionally differ slightly from lot to lot, I presume, due to availability and place of origin of their raw ingredients. I like that they readily state this is the case so that artists know that this is the reason for color variance within the same color.
I enjoy being a sleuth and wanted to share my findings with you! Happy painting!
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