Coloring clear epoxy resin is one of the best things about using it. (Right behind this fun resin project.) And you can easily color your resin to glow in the dark by adding glow powder pigment to your epoxy.
You’ll love how it adds dimension and contrast to your resin art.
You can buy glow powder in two different forms:
An off-white to beige shade that glows a different color.
OR
Powder that’s colored the same as the color it glows.
Which one should you use?
It depends if you want your resin to be white or a specific color when it isn’t glowing.
How much glow powder do you need to color epoxy resin?
Estimate using 1 part glow powder to 4 parts mixed resin. But you might be able to get by with less.
If you don’t know how much mixed resin you need, the Resin Obsession volume calculator does the math for you.
How do you color epoxy resin with glow in the dark powder?
Mix your resin according to the instructions. Then, add your glow in the dark powder to mixed epoxy.
What else should you know?
Glow powder doesn’t dissolve in resin.
It makes a suspension and doesn’t completely dissolve. That means after the resin cures, you’ll be able to see powder particles if you look closely.
💡 Pro tip: Don’t let this be a deal-breaker for you to use glow in the dark powder with epoxy resin. No one besides that annoying voice in your head is going to notice. And here’s what you can say to that voice instead.
You can’t combine glow powder colors to make a new color.
Meaning, you can’t combine blue with yellow to make green. If you want green, use green glow powder.
The finer the particle size, the more of the powder will stay suspended in resin.
Large particles will sink to the bottom.
You can add resin colors to a glow powder white base.
So you might want to test this first, but every time I’ve added alcohol colors to white-looking glow powder, it’s worked well. But always test.
Wear the proper safety gear, including a dust particle mask.
How do you make the resin glow after curing?
This is the easiest part. You need to charge the cured resin with a light source. (no cable required) You can do that by leaving the resin underneath a blacklight or in the sun for up to 15 minutes.
But, not all colors glow for the same length of time. Yellows and greens can glow for hours while reds and pinks may only glow for under an hour.
Here’s how to make jewelry with glow and dark powder and epoxy resin:
Mix until the powder dissolves. This finely ground powder mixed in well, but I’ve worked with some powders that were the equivalent of mixing sand with water.
Use the resin as you want.
However you use epoxy resin and colors, you can use epoxy resin and glow colors. That means you can use it in molds, for coating a surface or to make an epoxy table. Especially epoxy tables made with pecky cypress. Those are pretty cool.
Can you use glow powder in resin layers?
Yes. That’s how I like to use it. It adds color and contrast without looking overwhelming.
The thicker the layer, the more glow color you’ll see.
The rectangle earrings are 1/8 inch thick of nothing but glow color. The round earrings only have glow color as the back layer and are half the thickness.
You can also use it in holographic molds.
So let’s check out some results of using glow in the dark powder with epoxy resin:
The first layer on both of these earring sets is clear resin mixed with glitter. The back layer is clear epoxy mixed with glow powder (purple left, green right).
Here’s how they glow after sitting in the sun for five minutes.
And ignore that halo of purple color around the pair of earrings on the left. I have no idea why that happened. 🤪
Here’s the demolded holographic resin butterfly.
And here it is glowing.
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