Depending on how the plastic is viewed, the relative contributions of transmitted and reflected colours may differ. When a transparent plastic with pearl pigment is put against a white surface, the film's weaker transmission colour is reflected through the film. The transmission colour is absorbed against a dark background, leaving just the pigment's reflection colour visible.
A variety of single- or dual-colour effects can be created by combining absorption and interference colours. An absorption pigment, either coated onto the interference pigment or used in concert with it, generates bright specular reflection colours that fade to the absorption Pearlescent Pigment hue atnon-specular angles. There's also a transmission colour that combines the effects of the previous two colours.
