Are you looking for a fun and profitable side business? Selling glitter can be your answer. Making glitter is a simple but highly profitable business, and you can make glitter to sell at home with a few simple steps.
How do you make glitter to sell? You can make edible glitter using salt or sugar, or paper glitter just by cutting up holographic or glittery paper into smaller shaped bits. You can also customize your own face and body glitter using mica powder.
In this article, we will tell you about two easy ways to make glitter that you can sell online or even at your local craft fair.
How To Make Edible Glitter
Have you heard of edible glitters? These are not just fun to look at, but they are actually safe for children if they accidentally eat the glitter. In addition, they are also quite simple to clean up because they don’t stick to everything.
Here’s what you need to make edible glitter:
- Salt, Epsom salt, or sugar
- Liquid food coloring
- A closable container
- Baking sheet
Here’s how to make edible glitter:
Step 1:
Preheat the oven to 300ºF for sugar and 350ºF for salt.
Pour the salt or sugar in a container that you can seal tight; either a zip up bag or an airtight food container will do.
Each container can be used to mix a different color of glitter, so use as many containers as you want to make all the colors that you would like.
Step 2:
Add food coloring to your container.
There’s no perfect ratio of food coloring to salt, but most people add about five drops of food coloring to every tablespoon of salt. If you would like the color to be darker, add more food coloring. If you want the color to be lighter, add less food coloring.
If you would like to mix your own color (i.e., making green by mixing blue and yellow), you should mix the food coloring to create a liquid green first, and then mix it with the salt. Otherwise, your colors may not be mixed evenly into the salt.
Step 3:
Seal the container and shake it vigorously to mix the food coloring with the salt.
If you are using a zip up plastic bag, you can also knead the entire bag to make sure that the food coloring is well mixed into the salt.
Step 4:
After the food coloring is well-mixed into the salt, you will start to see the resemblance of glitter. However, for the glitter to be usable, the entire mixture will need to be thoroughly dry.
Spread the mixture onto a baking sheet, and make sure to spread it into a thin and even layer so that the entire mixture will be allowed to dry thoroughly. Keep in mind that each color will need to dry separately.
There are two ways to let the mixture dry: air-dry overnight, or oven dry. Pop the baking sheet into the oven at 350ºF for about 10 minutes. This method is recommended for salt.
Air drying is recommended for sugar because the sugar can easily melt and caramelize if you are not careful with it.
However, if you would like the process to go a bit faster, you can also use the oven to dry the sugar by baking it at 300ºF for about 10 minutes. Make sure to check on it every 2 minutes to prevent the sugar from melting.
Step 5:
After baking, you can let the glitter cool down completely for about one hour. If the glitter has formed clumps, you can use a spoon to break them up.
If you would like a variety of shapes and sizes, you can also use a salt shaker to grind up the bigger bits of salt so that they resemble fine glitter as well.
And that’s it! Your edible glitter is ready to be packaged and sold! Edible glitter is amazing to use as nice decor touches for cupcakes, sweets, and other types of food.
They also make great party decorations for households with children and pets because you don’t have to worry about your kids and pets consuming the glitter!
What’s The Difference Between Epsom Salt, Salt, and Sugar Glitter?
You can make edible glitter from Epsom salt, regular salt, and sugar. Although they are all safe to consume and make wonderful edible glitter products, you may wonder which option will give you the best result.
Epsom salt has a wonderful variety of textures and shapes, and it can resemble crystals that reflect light beautifully. However, Epsom salt can come in big chunks that need to be broken down. Otherwise, they look like big pieces of rock rather than glitter.
Epsom salt is also wonderful for making glitter, specifically for making bath bombs. Since Epsom salt is already a key ingredient in bath bombs, an Epsom salt glitter can help you achieve two goals with just one ingredient!
Sugar definitely has the fine grainy texture of real glitter, and it can produce beautiful, shiny colors. Sugar also has more practical uses when it comes to decorating cakes and sweets.
However, working with sugar definitely takes some trial and error since it tends to melt under heat and produce clumps after drying. Sugar glitter can also give you an ant problem if it’s not cleaned up properly.
Regular salt has a slightly bigger grain compared to sugar, and the colors may not look as bright and sparkly as sugar or Epsom salt.
However, salt is the safest option when it comes to making edible glitter because it doesn’t clump up and can dry quickly and evenly to produce perfect grains.
Is There Another Way To Make Edible Glitter?
Yes, there are a few other methods, we just like the previous one because it’s so easy and can be made with ingredients you likely already have in your pantry. However, if you’d like to see a more involved method using corn starch, take a look at this tutorial from My Lockdown Rasoi on YouTube.
The Best Way To Package Edible Glitter To Sell
When you buy Epsom salt, regular salt, or sugar in the store, all of them have ‘Best Before’ or expiration dates printed on the packaging.
These dates are really good to include in the packaging of your products because they help your customers know when to use up the edible glitter before it is no longer edible.
When it comes to Epsom salt, although the expiration date is usually within 3 years of the manufactured dates, Epsom salt can actually last for up to 7 years in ideal conditions!
So, edible glitter made from Epsom salt can stay fresh for up to 7 years from the original manufactured date.
The best way to package edible glitter to sell is in a resealable, airtight container. Since both salt and sugar can melt when they meet any moisture, you should also make sure that the edible glitter is thoroughly dry before packaging them to sell.
If you want your products to last longer and look even more professional, you can pop a couple of silica gel packages inside the edible glitter containers. The silica gel will soak up any moisture inside the container itself, and your edible glitter will stay fresh for longer.
Keep in mind that silica gel is not to be consumed, so if you want to put the silica gel inside the edible glitter container, you should have a clear warning label on the package.
And voila, your products are ready to be shipped out to your customers!
How To Make Paper Glitter
Making paper glitter is just as simple as it sounds – cutting up holographic or shiny glittery paper. Here’s what you need to make paper glitter:
1. Shiny Or Holographic Paper
You can buy this in craft stores or online (we’re in love with this iridescent craft paper on Amazon) or even collect old wrapping papers and candy wrappers. As long as the paper is shiny, you can use it to make paper glitter.
Reusing wrappers is also a great way to upcycle old papers that would otherwise go to the garbage! It doesn’t matter if the paper is crumpled up or wrinkled because we will be cutting it up into smaller bits anyway.
If you are buying the paper from a store, you can have thousands of options for colors and levels of shine that will really make your homemade glitter stand out! However, choosing paper that is shiny on both sides is the best way to go, otherwise you will get glitter that’s half matte white.
2. A Cutting Tool
You can use scissors or these handheld hole punchers to cut your paper into beautiful tiny shapes (hearts, stars, you name it) or even a multiple hole puncher specifically for confetti.
However, if you are making glitter to sell, we recommend using a paper shredder that you can use to quickly and efficiently cut a big chunk of paper into a million pieces of confetti that you can use to make glitter!
Once you have all the tools needed, all that’s left to do is to use your cutting tool to cut up your holographic paper into millions of pieces. You can create hexagon shapes, rounds, hearts, stars, or whatever it is that you would like for your products!
You can mix multiple colors of paper together or separate the papers into different colors. Either way, your glitter products would be totally eco-friendly and unique!
How To Customize Glitter Colors
Another fun way to make glitter to sell is not to physically make the glitter pieces but to customize the glitter colors to make your own unique colors.
This is a method often used by costume designers and crafters who are making specific designs and need a specific glitter color that they cannot find on the market. However, you can use this method to make your unique colors that can differentiate your shop from other glitter shops!
This is also a great way to make glitter that’s safe to use on the skin as well. If you would like to make a face or body glitter, then this is definitely the way to go.
To customize your glitter colors, you will need:
- A white glitter (such as this craft glitter or this face and body glitter). Use face and body glitter if you are creating glitter specifically for the skin.
- Mica powder in the color that you want. Mica powder is considered nature’s glitter because it has a lovely shimmering quality, and it’s also safe for the skin!
- Rubbing alcohol
- A mixing cup
- A mixing tool
- A plate (for drying the glitter)
Here’s how to customize your glitter color:
Step 1:
Use your mica powder to mix the color that you would like for the glitter. You can use a single mica powder or mix multiple colors of mica powder together to make a new color.
This is a fun part that requires some experimentation! You can use your understanding of the color wheel to mix your own color, but whatever formula you come up with, make sure to take notes so that you can replicate the colors for future products!
Step 2:
Once you are happy with the colors of the mica powder mixture, add a little bit of rubbing alcohol to the powder to create a runny consistency.
Don’t worry; the mica powder won’t melt, and the rubbing alcohol will evaporate, but this step is to create a liquid coloring that you can mix with your glitter later on.
Step 3:
Once you have made a liquid coloring mixture, mix the liquid with the white glitter. Add a little bit of liquid coloring to the white glitter at a time so that you can control the color and make sure it doesn’t turn too dark.
Keep adding the colors until you have achieved the colors that you want. Keep in mind that the colors of the glitter mixture will look a bit lighter than the colors that you have achieved in step 2. If you go too far, you can also add white glitter to even out the colors.
Step 4:
Once you are happy with the color, you can spread the mixture out on a plate in a thin, even layer. Then, you can allow the glitter to dry out for a few hours until all the alcohol content has evaporated.
You’ll end up with a lovely and unique glitter color that you can now package and sell. Color customization can also be offered as a service so that your customers always get the color of glitter that they want.
How To Package Glitter To Sell
Packaging is everything when it comes to a small shop. If you want your product to be a truly transforming experience, then you should definitely look at some dependable packaging options that can make your shop stand out.
Glitter products are usually packaged in a resealable, clear, and airtight container. You can use a bag like this, a small jar, or a small bottle for packaging your glitter for selling.
If you want to go the extra mile, you can also print custom labels for your product using a label printer that gives your customers information about the content of the product.
Keep in mind that for edible glitter and face and body glitter, the labels should tell your customers everything that has been added to the glitter.
This is because some people can be allergic to certain ingredients of the glitter (such as mica powder), so this information will save you a lot of trouble later on!
For edible glitter, you should also add a Use-By date. Since salt and sugar are perishable, they will go bad at some point, so this information is also good to include on the label.
Then, all that is left is for you to list your products for sale online or at your local craft fair!
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