in love with pearlex spray
 

I made up a spray bottle of the pearl ex (equal amounts of hair spray and rubbing alcohol and add pearl ex) and I love the papers - I have purchased glittery papers for 79cents each and these papers are just as nice and more fun because they will coordinate with all my cardstock.

Did you mix the hairspray and rubbing alcohol with the PearlEx in the same bottle? I've heard of mixing PearlEx with hairspray and PearlEx with rubbing alcohol separately, but never together! Interesting.

It's all the same thing if you think about it. Hairspray CONTAINS alcohol, you're just upping the alcohol content of something that already has alcohol. The only advantage is it dries faster for some reason and isn't as sticky. Problem is part of the point is for it to be sticky so the PE stays.

The current combinations are: PE to 1 part hair spray/1 part alcohol
PE and hair spray full strength
PE and alcohol

I added fishing sinkers to mine to mix it and did both combos.

It's all a personal choice.

Hmmm .. I never did look at it that way. Thanks for pointing out the alcohol content in hairspray! I've never tried this technique, but I am planning to for this year's holiday cards.

I'm having trouble with my shimmery PearlEx spray -- it keeps clogging my spray bottle. Does anyone know a good way to clean the sprayer and keep it clear?

Good old fashioned REALLY HOT water will clean the nozzle. I used to buy the cheapest of cheap hairsprays and that's why they clog. It's not so much the PE that does it, it's the hairspray. Remember the hair glue effect from Aqua Net? If your nozzle is clogging, that would be a good hair spray to add the alcohol to. That will dilute that glue effect some.

On this same topic....can someone name some "cheap" hairspray brands? I'm in Canada and we don't have access to all the ones you do...so if someone could list a few maybe I have a chance of finding that brand! Also, does it need to be aerosol, versus pump spray?

TIA for your help.....

I was wondering if it was ok to use in scrapbooking?

To make the PE spray you have to use a pump hairspray and I don't recommend using "cheap" to make it with only because the cheaper the gummier (ie Aqua Net) and the more the nozzle will clog. I buy the trial size bottles for 50 cents to a dollar depending. I'm using Pantene right now.

As for "cheap" to seal PE I use arisol and just buy whatever has the lowest price ~ right now it's White Rain. Then there's Aqua Net and Suave. They have cheap arisols you can use for setting.

Hi Debbi,

on the East Coast of our great land, I can get a few different brands of the trial / travel size bottles of pump action hair spray - Ausssie - Down under naturals is one - green bottle and European Formula is in a blue bottle.

HTH,

Heather J

I did not have any of the pump hairspray - so I just used a can that I have for ink in the laundry. It seems to work fine, I just aimed it into the bottle and pressed down and sprayed until I had the amound I wanted.
I did buy a pump bottle of white rain last night at the store along with another bottle of rubbing alcohol.

:oops:
Ok - What are you guys doing with this pearl ex spray?

Here is the link to the original thread that got this started

http:////www.splitcoaststampers.com/...l%20ex&start=0

Hope this help! I have been using the micro pearl color - like crazy - it makes the best "shimmery white" paper at a portion of the price that SU! charges!

I found that mixing the hairspray to alcohol - part for part - takes the sticky gluey-ness out of the cheap hairspray. that way a $0.99 bottle lasts a long time. (not if you are using it as much as I have though)

I wouldn't use it in scrapbooks -- the hairspray will probably yellow in the long term. You can make a version with water, Lumiere and PearlEx that would be better for scrapbooks. (It's 4 oz. water, 1 tbs. Lumiere, 1 tsp. PearlEx.)

I find this interesting since I can't get Lumiere out of my brushes with just water, it gums up. Are you adding alcohol or anything to make it work?

Just a hint when you are mixing and then testing your creation. When you first mix up the bottle and spray the paper. Before you add more PE because you can't "see" anything, make sure you've got the mixture actually coming out and not just the hairspray that was left in that little tube. :lol: I have to use some of what I have now and then dilute it when there gets room in the bottle. I overkilled because I didn't realize I was only spraying hair spray on my CS and added more PE. Some days are just more brain dead at the end of them than others.

I use an empty stamp and mist bottle for this technique. The recipe I have is:
…from Shauna Hailey
Make your own Shimmery card stock. Take an old stampin' mist bottle and put in a little Lumiere and some aztec gold pearl ex and add some water. Mist your paper with this mixture, keeping the mist far enough away to prevent getting big blotches. You can now have 48+ colors of shimmery cardstock just by misting my paper with this mixture. about 2 tablespoons each of water and lumiere. I just poured some in the bottle so I'm guestamating. The scoop I sed for the Pearl Ex is 1/4 teaspoon. you may have to add more water to make it thin enought to mist.