Thread: Anyone ever made their own black light paint?

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Not sure this is exactly a prop question, so I apologize if I’ve posted this in the wrong section.

Last year for our party we lined the walls in our garage with dollar store black plastic tablecloths, and added spider webs and black lighted the whole thing. The only thing we had out there was the keg and beer pong, so we were surprised at how many people actually hung out there.

So this year, I want to put a lot more effort into that space, and I plan on lining the walls with cardboard painted black (got my local appliance supply store saving boxes for me as we speak!) and painting stone walls, with pointed arched windows and doorways with backlight paint. Think the stone wall scenes setters you can get at most party supply stores.

I will go broke buying those tiny bottles of glow paint from Michael’s for the amount I will need for this project. I’m wondering if any of you have ever made your own using basic gallons of latex interior paint and rit whitener, similar to what is described here:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4886001_make...ght-paint.html

or if you have any other suggestions on a more economical way too pull this off.

Try this link. You can buy black light pigments (powders) so that you can mix your own paints. If I read it correctly you can mix them with clear acrylics to make as much or as little as you need. I hope this helps, I know what its like to craft on the cheep.

http://www.glowinthedark.net.au/blacklight-powder.php

Good luck, Marc V.

Rit whitener mixed with a bit of blue paint works well. The whitener glows a blue/purple under blacklight on it's own without any paint. Adding paint darkens it up.
I am going to try other colors but I think you have to probably stick to blue/purple tones.
I'll try to keep you posted....

Red paint doesn't work. If you mix enough paint to make it red it takes away the glow in the Rit.
Only the blue or purple tones will work with the Rit and only add a small amount of paint.
Spinach juice and vodka is suppose to glow red but I don't have any booze to try it.
The .99 neon paints from Michaels work. (in case the paint you were referring to was the more expensive "fluorescent" paint)

Mix RIT whitener with any clear gel glue or acrylic medium to make instant blacklight paint. You can add food coloring to make different paint colors.

ok so i tried the vodka and spinach juice a now and it doesnt work :/ i used a half and half mix. may be pure chlorophyll and vodka might work but not a watered down version like spinach juice. bummer

Does anyone know what they use on shows like CSI. The walls are blank then they do the luminol and black light and theres flourescent blue blood splatter all over. As much as they use show after show theres probably some cheap recipe out there. It might be the rit dye. I tried the rit last year with water didnt do anything might try again with a glue.

The Rit powder with water does work under UV light. You can add a small amount of blue paint to darken it up a bit.
The Rit on it's own glows blue.
Too bad about the spinach and vodka not working. Did you grind it up and then strain it?

ah no:/ i did not think to try that. if i have more voka i may give it another go in the morning since i have some opened spinach lol :P

I just tried rubbing alcohol which didn't work.
Oh, the spinach juice hasn't been heated has it? I think that heating destroys the chlorophyll.
You are suppose to grind up the spinach and then strain it through a coffee filter.
It would be interesting to know your results since I still don't have vodka and don't really want to go buy some just to try this.
After a while some of these homemade versions probably won't exactly be saving any money.