Brightness and Duration of Glow in the Dark Paint and Powder

We get a lot of phone calls from first time buyers asking exactly how bright are the glow products and how long this brightness lasts.

Technically, this is a very easy question to answer with the mcd/m2 rating listed on each product.  Unfortunately, this rating has no meaning to the typical shopper.  To make matters worse, there is a multitude of glow product sellers that are lying about these numbers intentionally knowing that the typical customer has no way to test it.  Therefore this article will hopefully give you an idea of what to expect in easy to understand examples.

I will start by telling you that all of the information on our website is accurate to the best of our knowledge.  We don't skew the quality, value, or ratings of any product.  We want you to know what your are receiving before it comes in the mail.  The last thing we want is for you to be disappointed with any aspect of the quality.

To evaluate brightness, you should start by checking the mcd/m2 rating of each product.  Our products range in initial brightness from 26,000 to 900.  A cyalume glow stick like those they sell to children at festivals glows at about 20,000.  Therefore, our Ultra Green which is rated near 26,000 is slightly brighter than the brightness of a cyalume glow stick when charged with a bright light.

Another known example is the zinc-based products like stars that are readily available at local retail outlets.  These items are typically in the 1000-2000 range for initial brightness.  For simplicity and ease, each product detail on our site includes a brightness comparison to the well known Zinc Sulfide green glow.

When you take a glow in the dark product away from a source of light, it will slowly release the light that it has captured.

As time passes, it will get dimmer until it is again recharged.  The speed at which it dims is different for each of our products.  But we have provided a chart with each product to show it's dim rate.

As a general statement, the products loose the "super brightness" rather quickly.  But they continue to glow at some level for many hours and in some cases days.

I will also mention that our interns purchase pigment, paint and glow products from our competitors on a regular basis.   We backwards engineer their products to improve our own.  As a result, we literally have the brightest glow in the dark products readily available on the planet.