How To: Make Holographic Glitter

How To: Make Holographic Glitter –  Have you used glitter in resin and just loved the shimmery effect it gives? Well, have you ever used holographic glitter? Chances are you probably haven’t because it can be quite hard to come across, especially in large and affordable quantities. We are going to explain how you can create your very own Holographic Glitters at home using just regular glitters.

Base – The most common or easy to work with base is a Black Glitter. We use and recommend the Art Tree Creations Onyx.

Alternatively another colour like grey or a very dark blue could also work. As long as it is a dark glitter. Having a dark base is the most important part in the blend as this makes sure the colours don’t end up looking all the same or looking a mess if too many colours get added.

Light – Once you have a dark base, you want to find a light colour to contrast the dark. For our holographic blend, we used the Art Tree Creations Champagne Luxe.

Any sort of gold, silver, white or similar glitter colour will work for your light contrast.

Shimmer – Then the fun stuff! Any colours can be added in this part. We would suggest adding 3 colours so in total a mix of 5 glitters to create the holographic effect. Less colours can be used, however we wouldn’t add any more. More colours in the mix will become too much and not offer as nice of an effect when added into epoxy resin.

For this particular mix we used the Art Tree Creations Aqua Aura, Lucky Clover (discontinued) and Sugilite.

If you wanted all blues, you could add 3 different blues. The beauty of this is it’s completely customisable, meaning you can add any sorts of colours you desire to suit the kind of resin project you are trying to create. The combinations are truly endless. Not to mention any brand of glitter can be used, or multiple brands could even be mixed together.

Now, the question is, how much do you add of colour? We blended a decent amount of glitter together as we were using it for a number of projects, but the ratios can be tailored to suit your resin projects.

In a mixing cup or container we added the following (Rough Estimates): 
1.5 shot glass (approx. 40ml) – Base Glitter
1 shot glass (approx. 25ml) – Light Glitter
0.5 shot glass (approx. 12ml) – Shimmer Glitter (1)
0.5 shot glass (approx. 12ml) – Shimmer Glitter (2)
0.5 shot glass (approx. 12ml) – Shimmer Glitter (3)

This is of course just a guide, so if you want to add more of a certain colour or have less of another colour, then just add more to the mix. Like any colourants with epoxy resin, it is always better to start with less and add more as you go. Once all the colours have been added together, give them a mix, or if you are using a sealed container then seal and shake to blend the colours together.

Just Remember – You can always add, but you cant take away – especially once you have begun blending colours together.

After you have blended your desired glitters together, now they are ready to use. As these are glitters, there is no expiration on them and will keep for as long as you have them to use. We mixed our Holographic Glitter blend with our U RESIN UltraCoat – High Viscosity Artwork Resin system to create the Tea Light Holder and Coaster shown in the image.

This same technique to create holographic glitters can also be used with chunky glitters. From experience, the effects look best using all fine glitters, but of course it is a personal preference. The same measurements can be applied to chunky glitters to create a holographic blend. However, we would not recommend blending both chunky and fine glitters as many of the colours end up lost and won’t achieve the same effect.

We hope this is a fun technique you will give a go when you unleash the artist within. For more tips and techniques, see our YouTube channel or previous Blog Posts.