# Black light food coloring? Need advice



## Chupa

I don't think there's anything that's safe to drink.


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## Saruman of Many Colours

According to this site (http://hauntersparadise.tripod.com/blacklights.html), Tonic Water glows light blue and Milk glows pale orange under blacklight. Don't know if that information is accurate though.


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## kcharles12

Chupa said:


> I don't think there's anything that's safe to drink.


I don't care about safe


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## walkingcorpse

I've been researching UV reactants in the garage and on the web (as I'm sure you have) and have not come across any UV food coloring. Tonic water or any soda with quinine will glow faintly as will food with lots of chloroform in it. I once found a bartending site which suggested painting the outside bottom of the bar glasses with UV paint to make drinks glow. I don't know if that will work with your IV bottle plan.


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## ScareCrowe

Yes, you can get neon colored food dye from the grocery store!


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## walkingcorpse

Perhaps it would be easier to make the ice glow rather than the drinks themselvs.

http://www.partylightsonline.com/site/1649092/product/ICL-BK
http://chemistry.about.com/b/2010/05/13/how-to-make-glow-in-the-dark-ice.htm


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## Saruman of Many Colours

Found some other references online stating _inter alia_:

- "anything very acidic, like lemons or limes," both of which will be found in any bartender's setup.
- "Red Bull Energy drink, I have seen night clubs use it in drinks and the lights in the club make them glow a lovely greenish yellow"
- "Coca Cola glows a disgusting greenish color"

Oh, and Heineken will apparently be releasing a bottle that glows under blacklight: http://www.just-drinks.com/news/heineken-releases-black-light-bottle_id101822.aspx Here's the blacklight design: http://www.just-drinks.com/cip.aspx?cid=1&id=101822


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## HauntedDiva

pop a glowstick in the bottles


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## bl00d

you will be suprised lots of drinks already glow in blacklights like: midori sours, and AMF's


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## HeatherEve1234

I was really surprised last year (my first blacklight year) at what glowed and what didn't - some white stuff looked amazing, some didn't flouresce at all. A black & white melamine plate looked AWESOME, a black and white ceramic did nothing. 

Tonic water did glow, and some of the labels, but none of the other liquor we had (and there was a lot: http://www.heatherscreativelife.com/2009/10/raising-bar.html + all the "leftovers" we had from other events )


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## Charmed28

Midori, tonic water and mountain dew.


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## ernstdesigns

ScareCrowe said:


> Yes, you can get neon colored food dye from the grocery store!




Yeah, but does that fluoresce under black light?


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## walkingcorpse

ernstdesigns said:


> Yeah, but does that fluoresce under black light?


It would be great if the food coloring works, but in my garage I've found that pens and paints labeled neon are not UV reactant at all. Only about half the flourescent markers I tried are actually reactive under blacklight. I 've seen the neon food coloring at Easter, but haven't been able to find any recently to test.


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## Quixote1

walkingcorpse said:


> I've been researching UV reactants in the garage and on the web (as I'm sure you have) and have not come across any UV food coloring. Tonic water or any soda with quinine will glow faintly as will food with lots of chloroform in it. I once found a bartending site which suggested painting the outside bottom of the bar glasses with UV paint to make drinks glow. I don't know if that will work with your IV bottle plan.


I signed up to this forum because I noticed while reading up on the topic that you suggested putting Chloroform in the drinks. I'm not sure if anyone else caught this already, but I think you should correct your post, lest some poor kid decides to ingest a bottle of chloroform. The stuff will kill you even in small amounts. What you meant was _*Chlorophyll*_, which is a plant pigment found in stuff like spinach and algae.

Chloroform is a chemical that was once used as an anesthetic. From the Wikipedia article (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroform#Anesthetic): "Serious illness has followed ingestion of 7.5 g (0.26 oz). The mean lethal oral dose for an adult is estimated to be about 45 g (1.6 oz)."

Doesn't sound like a great party to me. lol


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## Kwll2112

As already noted, tonic water will glow a light blue, but it's not all that spectacular. Actually, none of the UV-reactive liquids I've used have been all that great. Sure, they glow, but not like I wanted, and certainly not in the variety of colors I was hoping for. I think there's some really expensive reactants out there, but I haven't tried them.

We took a bunch of neon highlighters and soaked them in a water-alcohol mix for a few weeks. This colored the liquid in some neat colors, some of which would fluoresce, but again, not spectacularly.

My solution for cooler looking fluids was to use LEDs. Some were UV LEDs that would brighten the UV-reactive liquid, but most were simply colored LEDs carefully placed to light up the fluid. For a vessel you can carry, you can get 3V LEDs and use a 2036 lithium coin battery to power it. Makes for a very small light package. You'd just need to figure out how and where to mount them on the glass containers. 

There are also submersible LEDs lights you can just drop into the liquid (I think I got mine from 100candles.com).

Here are some examples of the effect I was able to achieve using the above.


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## Tye Rannosaurus

Vitamin B2 is VERY blacklight reactive. I used it in a recipe I did for Syfy for alien facehugger pudding cups.

http://www.blastr.com/2017-5-18/fantastic-feasts-facehugger-cookies-alien-eggs

You could easily either grind up the tablets or get capsules and add them to anything you want to glow. I will warn you, it is bitter in high amounts and you will pee bright yellow for a day or two afterwards, but it's worth it under a blacklight. Mixed with quinine, it's very bright!


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