Cobalt Violet v Cobalt Violet Hue

From my understanding Ian a “ Hue “ is a less pure colour and uses mixed colours to obtain a known colour. Therefore being cheaper to use and possibly not as reliable. This is my understanding but lots of others on here are I’m sure will give you a better explanation .

Anything with the word 'hue' after the colour will be considerably cheaper. Sylvia's description sounds pretty good, but we do have a resident technical man full of knowledge, who I'm sure will be able to write the equivalent of three chapters of 'War and Peace' on the subject - Over to you Robert...

Well, he said, unfurling three reams of closely-typed paper, unaccustomed as I am to public speaking perhaps these few remarks will clarify the matter. Are we all sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. A 'Hue' colour is one that contains none or very few of the components that make up the real thing. This applies mostly to the colours made from metals - cobalt, cadmium, chrome, lead. Cobalt Violet is based on cobalt stannates, as I remember (where's Amanda Bates with her chemical knowledge when you need her?) whereas Cobalt Violet (Hue) has no actual cobalt anywhere near it - what constitutes it will vary from maker to maker, but however well-made it is, it will only ever approximate to the genuine article. It may be less lightfast, or less intense, or both, but that entirely depends on what IS in it, rather than what isn't. The Handprint website, among others, gives a breakdown of many watercolour pigments - so you can tell how some of them are made up and how reliable are the pigments employed. In some cases, you might actually prefer the Hue colours; in others, there's no alternative anyway - eg, Chrome Yellow (Hue) replaces the toxic and unreliable Chrome Yellow which very few makers, if any, still produce. So they're not necessarily inferior, but sometimes they will be: no one has yet produced a really good alternative to any of the Cadmium colours, for instance; and while there have been many attempts to make a Cobalt Blue and a Cerulean that looks something like the pure pigment, none has really succeeded. The other and final thing (unless more is required: I can bore on for MUCH longer than this!) is that the genuine metallic colours are considerably more expensive than the Hues. But probably most of us would think the extra cost is worth it.