Luster Dust

 When you want your cookies,chocolates, cakes, fondant or royal icing decorations to have a little sparkle using Luster Dust is a perfect way to achieve that. Luster dust is nontoxic, tasteless, odorless edible powder,it
 comes in a form of a powder and in the wide variety of  colors. I’d say most universal for me is CK Products Pearl Dust
 or you can also get lustre spray, it comes in different colors as well,  again most useful for me is PME Sugarcraft Lustre Spray – Pearl

 LUSTER DUST APPLICATIONS:

Dry Application

 –when using dry form of powdered luster dust to achieve shimmer on  fondant covered cakes, cupcakes, or even decorated  cookies :
-for larger areas use larger /makeup style/ full and very soft brush to achieve maximum coverage, using circular motion apply luster dust,
-synthetic kinds seems to be less prone to “hair” loss
when applying dry luster dust to cupcakes use a smaller a bit flatter brush with longer bristles
 -using  lustre spray is a great solution as well
                                                    – pearl luster dust is very versatile
– when using  luster dust to add shimmer to royal icing, make sure all surfaces are sufficiently dry before application. 

pearl luster dust was brushed on the top of the fondant icing on the cupcake

  pearl luster dust was brushed on the top of the dried royal icing on the cookies:

 Wet Application 

-when using wet application of powdered luster dust :
-you need luster dust of your desired color  
-small brush
-alcohol:

• To use luster dust for painting purposes you need to mix it with alcohol with higher alcohol content. Reason you want the higher alcohol content is that you don’t want alcohol to be sitting on your painted decorations, this will cause a royal icing to melt and form unsightly looking finish. You want liquid to evaporate as fast as possible, higher content alcohol will do just that.
  There are variety of products on  the market that you can use, depending on where  you are located and what is available to you :cake decorators rose spirit
  McCormick lemon extract(alcohol 83%), orange extract and mint extract -all these extracts have high alcohol content and they will work for the wet luster dust application. I use lemon and orange most frequently..
  everclear (grain alcohol – 95%) – in USA in some states it is illegal to sell.
  Gin- some people use this as well, I personally haven’t tested this
  -I use the painter’s palette tool, each cavity can hold a different color luster dust. 

  -when adding alcohol to dry luster dust, add only a tiny bit/by drops/, more liquid you add to luster dust, less vibrant the shimmer
-you can keep unused portions of luster dust in the painter’s palette, store it away from dust and moisture when not in use, when you are ready to use it again, use the spoon to scrape the dry dust and reuse.
– when using wet luster dust to paint fondant, gum paste or royal icing, make sure all surfaces are sufficiently dry before application. 
–using  lustre spray is a great solution as well

Here I used gold luster dust to paint the  royal icing crosses gold.

Blue luster dust was used to paint the blue fondant gem on the cookie ring

Details and tassels painted with gold luster dust