Glow in the dark paint is amazing fun to work with and there are endless possibilities for making things glow.

However, it's also important to understand there are a few key factors, which can greatly effect how well glow in the dark paint will glow, and each situation can be a little different.

On this page we'd like to provide some useful facts and tips about glow in the dark paint in general. If you feel you're not getting the bright & long lasting glows which SpaceBeams paints can offer, hopefully the points below will provide some help:

1. As with all glow in the dark paints, thickness of your application will make a big difference. A thin layer will mean less particles are present for holding a charge and giving off a glow. We recommend applying as thick a layer as possible (3mm+). If you have watered down your SpaceBeams paint when painting, this rule applies even more so.
2. Glow in the dark paint requires good exposure to light during the day in order to properly ‘charge up'. If the paint is in too dark a place, the glows are likely to be fairly weak.
3. UV light is far superior at charging glow in the dark paint, as opposed to standard home lighting. So exposure to sun light will make a huge difference (and the longer the better). It doesn't necessarily need to be in direct sunlight, but close to a bright and sunny area should be sufficient.
4. If the area you've painted is not near a well lit area during the day, you may need to manually charge up the paint using a flashlight. A strong standard flashlight will work for this, however a UV flashlight will work significantly better. Pointing the UV flashlight's beam directly on the painted area for 15-30 seconds should provide ample glow (the amount of time required will vary based on the strength of the UV flashlight).
5. SpaceBeams paints can actually glow for a very long time (up to 24 hours), but after the first few hours its glow will be more subtle. The length of time for the glow to become more subtle will vary depending on how thick and how well charged up it was, however the initial strong glow lasts usually 6 hours. So after a few hours, when the glow is more subtle, if you're coming from a bright area and your eyes have not yet adjusted to the darkness, it may not be as easy to tell if the paint is still glowing because your eyes have not adjusted to the darkness. So, as simple as it sounds, always wait a minute or two to allow your eyes to fully adjust to the dark.
6. Having SpaceBeams paints painted on a lighter background color can make a difference to the appearance of the glow. A dark background may dull the glow a bit. However, if your application is a decent thickness (3+mm), this shouldn't be much of an issue. Although a white undercoat may still be beneficial in some situations.
7. For a nice even glow, use a flat surface (such as an old store card) to smooth off the surface of the painted area with a slow steady wiping motion.

We hope these tips come in useful! If you have any questions you can always reach out to us here.

Thanks and have fun with your SpaceBeams paint!

In the video below, you'll see a time lapse experiment we did to test how long the glows from Aurora last with different thicknesses.

We tried less than 1mm, 1-2mm, and 3-4mm thicknesses.

Timelapse Setup:

• 24 hour run time.
• 1 photo per minute (playback speed in video is at double speed to make viewing quicker).
• Camera set to manual with fixed exposure settings to allow for true representation of glow variance over time.

Timelapse Conclusion:

1. When 2-4mm thick and charged with sunlight for 2 hours, Aurora glow in the dark paint can remain visible for up to 24 hours!
2. Aurora is brightest up to 6 hours.
3. Aurora has good glows for 14-17 hours depending on thickness and charging.
4. Keep Aurora above 2mm for best results.

Aurora, when used right, will outlast the night with strong glows all night long 🙂

We hope you found this video useful!

 

Credits:
Music: Silver Lakes by Wes Hutchinson
Icons: designed by Freepik from Flaticon (https://www.flaticon.com/authors/freepik)