Petal, pearl, luster, highlighter, etc, etc, etc....all those dusts are confusing to me. I'm not sure which one to use for what.

How do I achieve a perfectly solid metallic or gold colour to recreate things like shinny coins by paining it on? I've tried mixing dust with vodka but it got very gooey. I can't remember what kind of dust I used.

I've also tried airbrushing, which worked out beautifully but I'd like to try the paint on method.

TIA

I use the CK products gold highlighter for the metalic gold look. Ive painted it on dry and Ive added a few drops of vodka so I could paint it on.

petal: matt finish, with colour
pearl: shimmery finish, hint of colour - pearlised look
lustre: metalicy finish, with colour
highlighter: usually just gold or silver 'extreme' lustre dust. i honestly dont know if there is a difference, or its just a brand thing. google search suggests most are non edible?

a lot of companies call their dusts something different to be 'special' and 'unique'. just watch for the ones that arent edible (although petal, pearl and lustre dusts are usually safe from this!).

you can use airbrush colours to paint with.

if painting with lustre dust, it can take some experimenting to get the ration of alcohol to dust for the look you want. do you mean the mix got gooey, or your icing? it helps to colour your icing a similar colour first, so yellow icing for gold paint.
xx

Hmm I think I used Wilton's "shimmer" dust as opposed to a luster dust. I'll order some luster dust and highlighter dust.

THe only problem is every site I look up says "highlighter dust" is not edible.

it appears that highlighter generally isnt edible. so lustre dust will work fine.
the less alcohol you add the more pastey it will be. the more alcohol you add, the thinner it will be. certainly wiltons products in this field do not work as well as other brands.
xx

I only use the wilton dusts when Im shading my gumpaste flowers. Ive also used nontoxic chalk for this too.

U can just paint with the airbrush color

So I've heard that some people that use dusts on their flowers (regardless of non toxicity status) reccomend to their customers that they not eat them because of the dusts. So if I was going to use any form of dust that was considered non toxic and therefore, "edible," to paint or decorate large portions (if not all) of a cake...is this considered a bad thing? Would you take off the fondant/icing before serving? I just read that somewhere and it scared me so I thought I'd ask everyone on here. Thanks and I hope I don't sound too ignorant lol...still learning.

I have had a lot of luck with CK luster dust. Just like the others have already mentioned. I add a few drops of vodka until I get the right consistency. If you add too much just let it sit for a few mintues and the alcohol will evaporate. Then you can try again. I've used the CK "gold" luster dust several times with good results. The CK "Old Gold" isn't quite as shiney.

Great info! Clarifies for me too!

How do you use these to color fondant? Can you just nead it in?

I use only the Crystal Colors. If I'm coloring an entire batch of fondant the same color, I add it as I'm making the fondant, otherwise, just knead it in. After a few uses, you'll be able to guess about how much you'll need for the depth of color you want to accomplish.

So Disco dust/ rainbow dust is non toxic but not edible... is there anything else that is that sparkly but edible?

I find that any time I need to achieve a metallic luster on something it is always necessary to apply several coats of whatever I'm using. I have purchased the bottles of pre-mixed edible gold paint (Gold Glaze) and it works quite nicely. As for the different kind of dusts, I appreciate the advice from other members, I don't use them often as I try to keep things as natural as possible, but good to know

This is so interesting because you see all these cake shows on tv and hear from pro bakers about how they mix luster dust with vodka and paint entire tiers of cake! So if it's not edible...how is this possible? Maybe this is just a confusion and someone can help me out. But is this what I'm understanding correctly or am I misunderstanding? How can they paint huge amounts of cake with this stuff if it's really not edible?

so in that same vein, I'm fairly new to sugar flowers, at least adding dusts to them.
I have ordered dusts from sunflower sugar art and their petal dusts just don't seem to be very bold. They are downright wussy in my opinion. But I don't have much to compare it to. Most of my manuals show painting entire petals from say, white paste to dark african violet. With these dusts, that just doesn't seem possible!

Are these Crystal Colors a better way to achieve an more even, bold finish? I have heard of using straight powdered food color, and I was thinking about trying that.

i think you can also use the paste colors and thin a bit with vodka.

I asked this before, but I'm guessing it go lost in the posts. So here it is again if anyone can respond that would be great!!

This is so interesting because you see all these cake shows on tv and hear from pro bakers about how they mix luster dust with vodka and paint entire tiers of cake! So if it's not edible...how is this possible? Maybe this is just a confusion and someone can help me out. But is this what I'm understanding correctly or am I misunderstanding? How can they paint huge amounts of cake with this stuff if it's really not edible?

Sweetaudrey - how can they? Why not *until someone takes you to task for it*??
They get away with it because the general public is not aware of the rateings on things like that and think since if it is shown on tv it must be o.k. And bakeries get away with it until some health dept employee finally cracks down.
I have had HD inspectors say you can't have a drink in the work area but I have seen many, many chef/cooks have a drink right near them. I saw this just last week at a local resturant. It just depends on when the inspector comes/what they see and what they say.......each one is different..,...each one hones in on one thing where as another lets it pass.

Oh ok. So You really shouldn't use those dusts on cakes? People just do it because they can get away with it? That makes sense I guess.

I would say it's mostly the highlighter dusts that are non-edible. Most of the other dust are edible so it's fine to paint a cake with it. This thread had lots of good information, thanks guys! I just took over all of someones cake decorating supplies and i've pretty much always used gel colors, but now I have a ton of different dusts and I wasn't sure what all of their uses were. Helpful as always! Thanks