Glow Lanterns for Pools with Balloons and Glow Sticks

"Fill a balloon with a glow stick, then inflate! Makes a cool pool lantern!" 

If there is one thing I've learned, it's to be very skeptical of any "glow in the dark" project you find on pinterest. From plant pots to stepping stones, its usually not going to be anything like the image promises.

This is another case of such a project. Fill a balloon with a glowstick, inflate, and have a quick easy beautiful floating lantern, great for late night pool parties and such.

Unfortunately once again that's NOT what this is an image of. Its of an actual product called The Flat Ball Light. At over $200 a pop, that's not quite the easy thrifty item most people are looking for for their home parties.

So what DOES the DIY version look like? Over at the blog Life in the Wylde West, she tested the pin out herself. The results?

Glow Stick Balloons | Life in the Wylde West

Yeah, not impressive. At all. You're better off buying actual LED pool lights (there are cheaper options out there besides the $200 flat lights) but as long as you know what you're getting yourself into, your kids might still get a bit of a kick out the project.

Glow In The Dark Planters

"Buy a flower pot that you really like and use Rustoleum's Glow-in-the-dark paint to paint the pot. During the day, the paint will absorb the sunlight and at night the pots will glow." 

I'm completely convinced  that people who pin and share these things on Facebook have never actually tried glow-in-the-dark paint. The first thing wrong about this image is that well, it's not night. At all. The second is the amazing glow the pots are putting off, enough to even illuminate the grass. Glow-in-the-dark paint won't do that. 

You see these aren't just painted pots, they are LED-lighted pots. I've been trying to track down the direct source of  this image, but haven't been able to. However I have found enough variously similar planters to show you, like these from Konstsmide, a German light manufacture:

And just like in other various "Glow-in-the-Dark" pins, people don't seem to take in account that glow in the dark paint is very green/yellow. In fact there is a great review and write up about two different popular glow-in-the-dark paints at Observation Blog. Here is his 2 examples of the paints, which even with 8 hours of charge were barely glowing, surely nothing strong enough to light up the grass around it. 

So once again, put down the paint, people. Sadly this isn't even near what the original image is. And please let me know if anyone knows the source of the original image! I'd love to email the photographer or landscapers who did this and give due credit. 

Good Idea Friday - Glow in the Dark Cupcakes

Goulish Glowing Cupcakes : Recipe Snobs 

Pinterest  in general (well, the people on pinterest, so I guess "Pinners") have this weird obsession with all things glow in the dark. I've never personally put a lot of thought into what I can and can't make glow in the dark, but on pinterest a quick search can pull up dozens of different ideas, most of which are wrong and won't work.

A fan of the blog sent me this, and I was delighted to see something glowing that isn't a bad idea for once! Not only that, it's cupcakes! And who doesn't love cupcakes?

So, what's the secret? Well it's tonic water. It's the quinine in the tonic water that does the trick. However they won't just magically glow in the dark, you need a black light to activate the glow of quinine (just like you do with the infamous "Galaxy Cocktail")  I can't vouch for how this tastes, but it would be a fun and easy enough project for Halloween to test out. Head over to Recipe Snobs for the full recipe. 

And remember, if you have a pin you are curious about, we're always taking ideas! Find us on facebook or twitter. 

(Yet Another) Mountain Dew Glow Stick Hoax

"How to make a homemade glow stick - baking soda, mountain dew, peroxide, starbursts, and dish soap"

This takes the original hoax of making Mountain Dew glow and adds even more pointless items. I honestly started laughing when they added two Starbursts, as if somehow a mixture of gelatin, HFCS, and red dye is going to aid in this. In case you're curious, you can see the video here: 

Just like in our last post about the ever popular Mountain Dew Glow Stick, the basic idea is you add certain things to the Mountain Dew (notice how both video has the use of peroxide in them? We'll come back to that in a bit.) and after a bit of shaking, it glows, just like a glow stick. Why? Well what they don't show you is the contents in the bottle; in both videos the bottle already contain some liquid, which is generally believed to be Mountain Dew. In all likelihood however, it's probably a nice mixture of glow stick chemicals. Once the peroxide is added (which is also used in glow sticks, that is what is in the glass vial you break to activate them) it starts to glow. You can read a step by step guide in making your own glow sticks over at Wikihow (with actually glow stick chemicals), which again, uses peroxide. 

Posts Revisited

Well there's been enough posts and wonderful fans asking a lot of questions and comments that I think it would be great to revisit some of the past posts I've done.


The first post I have new information on is the infamous Glow-In-The -Dark Walkway. The mystery is finally solved! I've had a lot of really great suggestions from fans on how this photo was taken, but one commenter shared a link that fully explains it, directly from the photographer himself. What I had missed the first time around was a small faint water mark on the bottom right hand corner of the image. The photographer is David Tejada and famous for his lighting techniques. You can read the full interview here, but basically it was done with a ridiculously long shutter speed and a flash light in his own back yard. So there you go, straight from the photographer, this isn't glow in the dark paint. 



The second post I'd like to revisit is a Good Idea Friday I posted about last month. The "Ziplock Bag To Prevent Flies" has been hotly debated. Apparently Mythbusters did an episode on it, and they found it actually attracted more flies. However, a lot of people debate on the effectiveness of their experiment as they not only did this indoor with artificial lights, they left out the pennies. They also had a lot more flies than you would normally have, rotten meat, and a fairly small area in which they did the experiment (I love Mythbusters but agree they tend to go the extreme when testing things). Critics of their test believe these are enough to say the test failed because they weren't doing it correctly. You can read more about this over at Hoax Slayer. So for now, Good Idea still? Maybe. It is ridiculously cheap to do, and it may or may not work. And as tacky as it might look, it is slightly better than fly tape. Unfortunately I don't live in area with much of a fly problem, so I'm unable to test this myself, but I would love to hear from fans on this.

So that's our recap. Are there any posts we've done that you'd like to see us go more in depth on? Let us know! We're on twitter and facebook.

Glow Sticks and Nail Polish

"break a glow stick & put in clear polish" 

With Halloween coming up I've been seeing a lot more Glow in the Dark pins then you usually see. However as we learned with our other glow stick pins, not only will this not work, it's probably not the best thing for you. Not only that, glow stick formula typically doesn't glow that long once it's exposed to air. I was going to test this out and see how long it will glow, and if it would even set up properly but alas, I'm out of glow sticks. Even if it did set up right (instead of leaving your nails a big glowing gooby mess, which is what I think would happen) the glow would only last a short time, then you're left with a funky colored bottle of nail polish.

Instead, just buy glow-in-the-dark nail polish. A quick search not only pulls up a lot of different companies and online vendors that sell it, they also use the same exact image as the Pinterest pin! But I'd also like to point out that even with retail glow in the dark nail polish, without a blacklight you will not get the effect depicted here. That's not your standard glow-in-the-dark glow. 

Any fans out there with a spare bottle of nail polish and glow sticks want to test this out for me? I'm honestly really curious if it will even set up and harden right. 

Galaxy or Aurora Cocktail

"This cocktail isn't Photoshopped. With a blacklight and the right ingredients, you can actually make your own at home."

I'm honestly flabbergasted at the amount of times I have seen this pinned by people who honestly believe if they follow the drink recipe, it will come out looking like this. This is pure photoshop people. In fact, the original artist of the image is Melody, who was so sick of seeing her image stolen and used without permission she's covered the original on her page with about a dozen different watermarks. 

But is it a real drink? It sure is! I can't vouch for the flavor as I haven't tried it yet, but this is the recipe via Campus Companion : 

• 9 liters of tonic water
• 3-4 bottles of rose mojito passions OR 3-4 cans of pink lemonade concentrate
• Ice 

And the results? It looks something like this: 

As cool as that is, it's not a galaxy in a glass. It's because the tonic water contains quinine, which glows under a blacklight. You can make a lot of different cocktails and drinks that glow, as long as you use tonic water and have a black light handy. 

Good Idea Friday - Nail Polish to Brighten Solar Panels

"Rejuvenating solar garden lights — with nail polish! Brilliant!!!"

How to rejuvenate your solar lights : blog.kriegsman.org

Today's good idea post is going to save me a lot of money. Last summer I noticed my solar lights for the garden weren't as bright and nice as they were when I bought them. I switched out the batteries but no luck, so I pulled them all up and put them away, thinking it was probably time to buy new ones. 

Well I never got around to investing in new ones, and I'm really grateful now for that. A little fine grit sandpaper and clear nail polish is all it takes to revive the solar panels on your lights. You can read more about it over on the blog kriegsman.org 

Glowing Mountain Dew

"For camping or late nights at the beach? Leave 1/4 of Mountain dew in bottle (just don't drink it all), add a tiny bit of baking soda and 3 caps of peroxide. Put the lid on and shake - voila! Homemade glow stick (bottle) solution."

Ah yes, the infamous glowing Mountain Dew pin. I've referred to it before in previous posts and have received a few people asking about it. It's not being pinned as much as it was some time back, but I still see it pinned a couple times a day in my feed. It's source is a Youtube video which can be seen here. 

But can you mix a just a pinch of baking soda and a dash or two of peroxide and get glowing Dew? 

No. It's a hoax. My honest guess as to how it was done after watching the video is that they added the same chemicals found in glow sticks to the bottle, and when the peroxide was added it caused the same reaction as it would if you 'break' a glow stick (remember - the glass insert in glowsticks contains peroxide as well!) it formed a reaction and volva! "Glowing Mountain Dew!"

I think one of the reasons this keeps getting pinned time after time, despite there even being a Snopes.com article about it, is this pin offers a little entertainment and horror. The horror that something people commonly drink could glow (and let's face it, Mountain Dew is already a pretty horrific shade of day-glo green) but also that this is something we could pull out at the beach, at a BBQ, at home and impress our friends and family with. But unless you plan on doing the same as they did in the video by adding glow stick chemicals, it's not going to glow, or impress anyone. 

Glow In the Dark Walkway

"Line a pathway with rocks painted in glow in the dark paint. During the day they “charge” in the sun and in the evening they reflect the stored light. Rust-Oleum Glow in the Dark Brush-on Paint."

This is another example of a photo on pinterest with an idea that doesn't match up with the image. Those are not patio stones that are painted with glow in the dark paint. I've also seen the same image tagged with Glow Stones - a company that makes glow in the dark rocks. 

But how do I know this? Because that's not what glow in the dark paint would look like, first off. Glow in the dark paint often times comes in colors like yellow, green, or pink, and tend to be that of a neon nature. 

Here is an example of what the glow in the dark paint from Rust-Oleum looks like:

Glow in the dark bat : B-Movie Star

.

That is awfully green and neon compared to the original image. You'd also have to make sure the pavers you are painting aren't treated with waterproofing, and since this paint isn't designed for outside use, you have to realize that with wear and tear and normal weather condition it will peel and chip over time.

So what about the other product this often times get tagged as on Pinterest - Glow Stones? Again, nope. Glow stones look to have the same bright colors as other glow in the dark paints do. Not only that, Glow Stones only come in pebble size rocks - not large flat walkway paver stones. They come in ether a blue or green, not that warm soft yellow that the walk way is glowing in.

So what COULD be the cause behind this great image? Photoshop or good lighting, It's as simple as that. Lets take a look at the image again. If you look at it, you will notice that there is a soft light not only on the walkway  but also reflected back onto the fence door and the vases by the fence. Also notice how the light of the walkway extends OUT from the stones themselves, as if there were simply a light source that was lighting the walk way from above? 

So there you go - this isn't glow in the dark paint or Glow Stones, but just a pretty picture of your average walkway that ether had a perfectly time photo taken or has been altered in photoshop. I've tried to find the source of this image, but haven't been able to track it down. It seems it's just been pasted around the internet being tagged as what to do with glow in the dark paint. 

But that OTHER image making the rounds of pinterest being tagged as glow stones? That is legit. In fact you can even find over at their website. 

Glow Stones Driveway : Glowstones.com

Update 10/2013 - This post has quickly became one of our MOST popular posts, and with out a doubt one of the most debated and talked about posts we've done. Good news - we were able to track down the artist thanks to a fan, and have updated news on this over at Posts Revisited. So we can all put to the rest finally how the image was made. (hint: it's really not glow in the dark paint)

Glow in The Dark Steps for Halloween

"Mix powdered laundry detergent (containing phosphors) with a little water and splatter on your doorstep. Then, switch your porch lights to black light bulbs and your steps will glow!"

Interesting. This image has made the rounds of pinterest but often times with the idea of cutting open glow sticks and dumping them down your stairs, so I'll go ahead and post about why both glow sticks and laundry detergent is a bad idea. 

As I mentioned in my previous glow stick post - glow sticks don't work that way. The writer at Pintology tried this out using glow sticks, and as you can see her results were on par with my last glow stick test - glow stick liquid just doesn't last, and isn't as bright as the original image from pinterest. Here is where I would also like to point out that the original image isn't taken at night - so that is some pretty strong day-glo green they have going on there on the steps. 

So what about laundry detergent like the pin suggests? Yes and No. Yes, certain laundry soaps can glow under black light. The problem comes about by what it IS that makes it glow - phosphorus. It can be in everything from laundry detergent to dishwashing soap, but more and more companies are straying from using it in their products? Why? 

Because it's REALLY bad for the environment. In fact it's already banned in 16 states. 

From Wikipedia: 

"A more profound problem arises from the heavy use of sodium triphosphate, which can comprise up to 50% by weight of detergents. The discharge of soluble phosphates into natural waters has led to problems with eutrophication, or the growth of living things, of lakes and streams, often where it is not desirable. The replacement of sodium triphosphate by zeolites offers some relief to this problem. With respect to the phosphate additives, between 1940 and 1970 "the amount of phosphates in city wastewater increased from 20,000 to 150,000 tons per year." With an increase in phosphates, especially in the absence of species feeding upon algae, algal blooms grow splendidly on the excess phosphorus and can produce toxins, killing fish, dolphins and plants. They can also indirectly cause oxygen depletion at greater depths, through microbial breakdown of dead algal cells."

So why would you be adding this to your STEPS? That can be easily washed away, into your yard, soaking into ground water, washing away into city water systems? Even if you live in an area where phosphates haven't been banned yet so you can still even BUY soap that contains it, why would you want to willing add something like this to your yard - which is where it would end up once you hosed it off.

So back to the glow stick idea - now you're thinking maybe you could just cut up a LOT of glow sticks and try this.. well guess what makes glow sticks glow? It's a nice little mixture of hydrogen peroxide and phenol. What's phenol? Oh, just a chemical found in everything from BPA to paint stripper -

"Phenol and its vapors are corrosive to the eyes, the skin, and the respiratory tract. Repeated or prolonged skin contact with phenol may cause dermatitis, or even second and third-degree burns. Inhalation of phenol vapor may cause lung edema. The substance may cause harmful effects on the central nervous system and heart, resulting in dysrhythmia, seizures, and coma.The kidneys may be affected as well. Long-term or repeated exposure of the substance may have harmful effects on the liver and kidneys." There is no evidence that phenol causes cancer in humans. Besides its hydrophobic effects, another mechanism for the toxicity of phenol may be the formation of phenoxyl radicals" 

I'm honestly a bit skeptical that this image is even of glow sticks or soap - if you look at it it's too well done, too bright, and clearly not taken at night or with the usual hue that a black light would give off. I believe (and I'm unable to find the source of the image to verify) that this is simply steps painted up with day-glo paint.

So all in all - Bad idea all around. Don't do this. Don't pin.