Suspension update

Like many others, I had a moment (or two) of panic when I learned TKB was no longer selling glitter suspension base.  It sounds like it will eventually be brought back, but for now I'd like to have an alternative.  There doesn't seem to be any great solution on the web.  From head to foot has an awesome discussion on her experimentation with alternative suspension base options.  Aerosil sounded like a great solution so I purchased a small amount from ebay.  It turns out that there are many varieties of Aerosil and they don't all work for this purpose.  I purchased Aerosil 200 and it did NOT work in polish.  The powder clumped up in the luster base and wouldn't completely mix in.  Xanthan gum has mixed results, but I figured it was worth a try.  Also, There is this video floating around where xanthan gum is successfully used for glitter suspension. 

This is the xanthan gum I used.  Most blogs have suggested using the clear form, but I'm not sure which this is.

I used a spoon made from a straw and added 3 scoops to the bottle.  Luster base was also added.  This bottle has 2 sizes of glitter.  There is a micro pink glitter and small pink hex glitter.  The xanthan gum did cloud the base a little, but it wasn't anything too dramatic.  I wanted to see how long the glitter would stay suspended without me shaking the bottle. 

  

The photo on the left is after 24 hours.  The photo on the right is after 5.5 days.  

Seems too good to be true, right?  Right.  The suspension was successful, but the xanthan gum did add a slightly rough texture to the polish.  The photos below are without and with top coat.

 No top coat

(notice the rough texture)

One layer of seche vite

(better)

Two layers of seche vite

(not too bad)

In conclusion, xanthan gum suspends glitter surprisingly well.  It did leave a slightly rough texture and wouldn't work well to make polish to sell, but it seems to be a good temporary solution until glamour base returns.  2 coats of seche worked to cover up the roughness and looked fine for every day use.

Here is another suspension with xanthan gum.  This polish contains 3 different sizes of glitter including a micro, small and large hex.  This was left untouched for 4 days.

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