Translucent polymer clay is similar to regular, colored polymer clay except that it is made with a base that turns more clear when it’s baked. Most (but not all) brands of polymer clay have a colorless translucent clay in their line. You can see a comparison of major brands here, demonstrating their relative clarity. But translucent polymer clay doesn’t have to be neutral-colored. Cernit has a full range of colored translucent polymer clay.

Before I get into the specifics of specifically colored translucent polymer clay brands, let me mention that you can color regular translucent clay any color that you’d like by adding various colorants (such as regular clay, paint, ink, pigment, glitter, and more). You can learn more about that here, and see a comparison of several different materials in translucent Premo polymer clay.

By the way, to learn more about polymer clay in general, head over to the Translucent Polymer Clay FAQ.

Technical Considerations

Behavior

Since translucent polymer clays generally use a different base than the corresponding opaque clay lines, they often behave slightly differently. For example, Cernit Translucent is known for being particularly taffy-like and gooey, especially when fresh. Since colored translucent polymer clay uses a translucent base, these colored clays will behave more like the uncolored translucent clays than the colored opaque clays in the brand.

The White Tint Effect

Translucent polymer clay, in the block, appears white or buff colored. After baking, the “whiteness” disappears and the clay becomes more translucent. While this white color is not due to white pigment, it can still make the unbaked clay appear like the tint of a color. In other words, unbaked colored translucent polymer clay appears pastel colored, but after baking the color darkens and intensifies. Sometimes very dramatically!

Color Reduces Translucency

The color that’s been added to colored translucent polymer clay will slightly reduce the translucency of that color. Light colors won’t show much impact on their translucency, but intense and dark colors will. Very dark colors, like Cernit Translucent Blue, will be very difficult to see through, even when quite thin. But they will never have the flat, dull opacity of regular opaque colors.

Air Bubbles and Plaques

Air bubbles are pockets of air that have been trapped in the clay by improper conditioning or handling. Plaques are circular flaws visible in baked clay that formed from trapped gases as the clay cured. While air bubbles and plaques are different things (and have different causes), they are both equally annoying. They’re present in regular clay as well, but since colored translucent polymer clay is often dark in color, they’re even more visible (and annoying).

Brands of Colored Translucent

Historically, Premo, Fimo, and Pardo all carried lines of colored translucent polymer clay. You may still encounter some Fimo and Pardo in some retailers’ stock, but Premo colored translucent has been gone for many years. Currently, the only brand to be producing and actively promoting their colored translucent polymer clay is Cernit.

NOTE: Viva Decor has ceased making Pardo. You may find remaining stock with various suppliers. I know that Blueberry Beads in Seattle has some of the colored translucent in stock, but no more clear/white translucent.

Cernit Translucent

Many people love Cernit Translucent (in white) for its clarity and lack of color. But there are 13 now 20 colors to use and enjoy. As you can see below, there are nice Cernit translucent primary colors of magenta (ruby red), cyan (sapphire), and yellow (amber). These primary colors don’t look like primaries when used full strength, but they work fairly well when mixed with uncolored translucent to mix new translucent colors.

Unlike the other polymer brands, Cernit Translucent also includes three glitter colors. There is a glitter white, silver, and gold. The glitter in these colors is not polyester glitter. It’s a large flake synthetic mica, which means that it has a tremendous shimmer and behaves a bit more like metallic clays than the glitter clays you see in the Sculpey Premo line. You can see below how the particles align in “waves” much as they do with mica shift. The glitter white is tremendously shimmery and unique across all brands for its lushness. It’s even more shimmery (but less sparkly) than the Cernit Pearl Line. There is also a glow-in-the-dark color that has an excellent glow.

In early 2026, Cernit released six new colors in their line. The new Cernit Translucent colors are Blueberry, Grenada, Pink Quartz, Mirabelle, Jade, and Maize.

And here are what the colors look like. I tried to get the colors as close as humanly possible, comparing against the thing itself on color-calibrated monitor. Each picture below shows (top to bottom row) baked #7 thickness on my Atlas, baked #2, then unbaked. I did this so you could see the color change of each and also how translucent the specific color is. (They are not all the same!)

You’ll notice that Cernit Translucent Colors are VERY intensely colored. This means that the colors will bake much darker and richer than you might think, especially when you consider how light the unbaked colors are. In many cases, you will want to dilute these rich colors with Cernit White Translucent. This will make the color lighter, but not whiter.

Working with Cernit Colored Translucent Clay

Because Cernit Translucent clays are quite soft and flowing (especially when fresh), this entire line of clay can be challenging to work with. The clay will need little conditioning (possibly none) and may behave much better if you can leach it. This ease of conditioning means you may experience fewer air bubbles.

Even with leaching, Cernit colors with a translucent base (this includes Cernit Pearl and Cernit Metallic) will tend to flow a bit like silly putty or the cornstarch and water slurry you played with as a kid. You will, to an extent, just have to learn how to handle it. If your clay is very fresh, like you see in the picture above, you will have to leach it to make it workable. To do so, just layer sheets of it between paper and sit on it for 30 min or so. The oils will soak into the paper, leaving the clay easier to handle.

Be aware that some batches, especially those sold to the big box craft stores, have a reputation for being quite hard and crumbly. It’s not you. The “rules” for conditioning and managing hard clay still hold true here!

My favorite use for the Cernit Translucent colors is to use them as a tinting concentrate for coloring plain, uncolored Cernit White Translucent (or any brand of translucent, for that matter). No more alcohol inks or messy paints. The range of colors in this line makes this brand extremely useful! You can even use them to tint white clay. (Keep in mind that you’ll never overcome the white pigment, though.)

Comparing Specific Colors

This whole section is a rewrite because the new colors introduced in 2026 bring us new questions. Which yellow to use? Which blue? Which red? Here is some clarity.

The Blues and Greens

Sapphire is a blue that leans green, which I would say is fairly close to phthalocyanine blue in other media. Blueberry is a much more true blue, but it is VERY VERY (and I do mean very) saturated. I cannot imagine using this color without a lot of dilution. It’s nearly black, in fact. Turquoise blue makes a nice, clear, light greenish blue. As for the greens, we don’t have a true grass green or bottle green, unfortunately. Emerald is similar to its gemstone namesake, but in practice, it usually “reads” more like teal. Jade is new for 2026 and is quite pale. When used in full strength, it’s a lovely seafoam color, and when used thin, it’s very delicate. Lime green makes a nice color when used thick, but it’s not terribly translucent and tends to get overwhelmed in comparison with other colors. Mirabelle is also new in 2026 and is sort of a yellowish spring green. It’s a color that can’t make up its mind if it’s green or yellow.

Yellows and Oranges

Orange is a nice orange. It’s, well, orange. Like an orange candy. Yellow has long been an issue for this line of polymer clay. The Amber color is a very, very warm yellow, similar to the yolk of a farm-fresh egg. That has made color mixing hard, since Amber isn’t a pure yellow. But the new Maize color is a much more neutral, clear yellow. It’s not a lemony zinc yellow, though. It’s pretty neutral. And finally, I included Mirabelle in the yellows because as you can see, it’s a green yellow and you might want to consider it for color mixing.

Reds and Pinks

Ruby Red is a warm red that made mixing cooler colors challenging. The new Grenada is a nice deep, cherry red that leans to the cool side. It is perfect or color mixing. The Pink Quartz is a delicate neutral pink that still reads as blush pink even when used thick. Thin pieces of Pink Quartz will read as nearly colorless. It is a very delicate color you won’t want to dilute when using. Bordeaux is appropriately named and is a deep wine color when used thick. It won’t be very translucent and dilutes to a light maroon.

I will say that I am annoyed that there is no magenta in the Cernit Translucent line. I do understand that it’s difficult to create magenta, but I think they’re missing the mark on this one. You can always mix regular magenta into the translucent and it will work just fine (I do it all the time).

Cernit Polymer Clay and Names

Cernit is made in Belgium and has always translated its color names into 6 languages (English, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and German) on the label of each block. This means that retailers and online stores sometimes choose a color name that’s different from the color name you expect. Additionally, the manufacturer sometimes uses a different name yet. It can be super confusing. When in doubt, go by the color number since it doesn’t change.

Personally, I think it’s fun to look at the different language names for the colors. You can see the similarities to other words you might know.

Using Colored Translucent Polymer Clay

So, these are pretty samples and all, but how can these colored translucents be used? Well, the uses are endless. You can use these as color concentrates to tint uncolored (aka white) translucent clays of any brand. Just a tiny bit of the deeply colored Cernit translucent colors will be sufficient to tint a lot of white translucent.

You can use colored translucent clay (either full-strength or diluted) to make beads.

I’ve used them to great effect in my Color Ribbons wall art and in many of my flowing glass creations. I made all of these with Cernit Translucent.

Where to Buy Colored Translucent Polymer Clay

You can buy these colored translucent polymer clays wherever you buy Fimo, Pardo, and Cernit polymer clays. Below are some excellent small businesses around the world that offer fresh polymer clay and premium service. I recommend these sellers highly!

US
Blueberry Beads
Poly Clay Play
Munro Crafts

Some Michaels stores in the US and Canada are now carrying Cernit Translucent, including the colors. Reports are that the clay is super crumbly, though.

UK
Clayaround

Europe
Hobbyrian

Australia
2Wards Polymer Clay