In September 2016, Tom Davenport posted It Glows! It was a short review of a high-solids, water-based glow in the dark ink from Allureglow. His opening verdict: “most of the glow-in-the-dark inks on the market SUCK.”

His complaint was specific. Most glow inks only worked when you laid down so much ink that the print felt harsh and cost too much. Allureglow’s ink, printed over a discharge base, glowed strong with a light deposit and a soft hand.

Is Halloween coming early?

The board knew the season. When RICK STEFANICK asked about glow ink for a large program in June 2019, brandon answered: “The Allureglow is awesome. Especially the discharge. Is Halloween coming early this year?” (t23999.5)

Tom’s pick held up for years. ebscreen, April 2016: “AllureGlow is excellent.” He had just tried glow over a discharge base too. “I didn’t think it would work as you need that whole reflection thing but it looked awesome.” (t17511.5) TCT in 2019: “It’s been years and not a single complaint!” (t23999.1)

Not every report was clean. mk162 in 2017 found the white glow ink speckled, and “It pops screens. I had 2 brand new screens pop while running a 400 pc job.” (t20039.3) He switched to lower-tension 110s.

Three kinds of night ink

Customers say “glow” and mean three different things. tonypep laid it out in 2014: “To be clear, there are essentially three types of inks intended for night viewing: Phosphorescent, fluorescent, (which can sometimes exhibit phosphorous properties) and reflective.” (t12739.16)

Phosphorescent is true glow in the dark. It stores light and gives it back. Fluorescent only pops under a blacklight. Reflective needs a light pointed at it. Rick covered blacklight in Rave On. Blacklight Ink and reflective in Crows and Shiny Things.

In one 2011 thread, a party order turned out to need blacklight, not glow. Frog: “Will these need to glow in the dark, or under black lights?” (t1529.6)

The underbase does the work

Glow ink is not opaque. Every thread says the same thing. Put it over a bright white.

Frog: “It needs something to shine the captured light off of as the inks are very translucent.” (t4635.3)

ebscreen gave it a name: “GID is a good example of the “blue water over white sand” concept.” (t16367.2)

Itsa Little CrOoked on a 500-piece job: “The better white (ie MORE white) you lay down, the better glow you’ll get.”(t16072.2)

The working recipe is the same across a decade. Base, flash, top white, flash, glow. tonypep in 2021: “The ub screen alone is usually not opaque enough ie speckles” (t25773.6)

Tom’s discharge base is the exception the board confirmed. It worked because the discharged cotton is light enough to reflect.

Coarse mesh, heavy deposit

Glow pigment particles are big. Fine mesh filters them out.

Fresh Baked Printing, 2011: “The coarser the mesh, the better. Nothing finer than a 110. I’ve used an 86.” (t1529.3)

Atownsend boosted old ink with 20% pigment by weight. “Printed the 20-40 micron particle size through an 86 mesh screen.” (t20285.5)

Colin’s limit: “Max pigment loading is 1/3 by weight. ALL GLOW PIGMENTS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL.” (t20285.1)

The daytime color problem

Clear glow ink prints a pale green. The board has a word for it. Frog: “Plastisol glow in the dark ink looks like snot.”(t9164.3) ebscreen: “most folks want the GID to have a day time color other than baby snot.” (t4635.4)

The fixes are consistent. Tint with a translucent fluorescent, not an opaque color. Colin explained why: “Once you add an opaque pigment to any glow ink, the opaque ink/pigment will cover the phosphorescent up and GREATLY diminish the glow.” (t947.2) Some shops mix glow into white for a white-by-day print. ericheartsu: “brightness dies down a little bit, but our customers really like it” (t9164.4)

The customer is the real risk

This is the most repeated warning in the archive.

Screened Gear, 2011: “I almost had to take back 500 shirts because they glowed only for 5 to 7 minutes.” (t1529.2) He said it again a year later: “Most glow only lasts 5 to 10 mins depending on the thickness of the ink. Make sure they know that.” (t4635.8)

mk162’s 2019 customer expected the shirts to “glow out of the box” forever. His answer: “I couldn’t explain to them that about the only things that glow forever are radioactive.” (t23999.6)

Glow needs a charge. Frog on a nighttime yoga mat job: “if stored and transported to the final location rolled up for a nighttime session, this ink won’t get charged.” (t12739.11)

What’s changed

The demand is bigger. The National Retail Federation expects record Halloween spending of $13.5 billion in 2026. Half of consumers plan to dress in costume.

The pigments got better before Tom’s post, and the board saw it happen. The newer strontium aluminate pigments are about ten times brighter and ten times longer-glowing than the old zinc sulfide mixes. blue moon in 2015 called his new pigment “easily two-four times brighter than the old school stuff.” (t13862.3)

One question from 2014 is still open. “I wonder what happens with these products under all the LED lights that are coming out today… betting things won’t glow as much.”(t12739.9) Most stores and homes run on LED now. Test your glow under the lights your customer will actually use.

Water-based glow is now a normal option, not a novelty. That fits the water-based special effects piece. Print the idea, not the ink.

Before you take the Halloween glow job

1. Ask what they mean. Glow, blacklight or reflective.
2. Print a test and time it. Charge it under real light. Turn off the lights. Use a stopwatch.
3. Tell the customer the time it glows.
4. Base it bright. Base, flash, top white, flash, glow. Or a discharge base.
5. Go coarse. 86 to 110 for the glow.
6. Tint with fluorescent. Never opaque.

Tom was right in 2016. Most glow ink disappoints. The fix was never just the ink. It was the base, the mesh and the conversation with the customer.

Original: It Glows!, Tom Davenport, September 2, 2016. More October reading: Voodoo Oktoberfest II, Misprint Monday: Charred Remains and Equipment Maintenance Horror Stories. Forum quotes drawn from the theshirtboard.com archive (20,820 threads, 187,100 posts) and matched character-for-character against their source posts.