What is it?

Glitter Varnish, also known as Sparkle UV Varnish, is a high gloss UV screen varnish containing small coloured particles of metallised polyester film that adds “sparkle” when applied to selected areas of a printed image.

The UV varnish is available in a range of particle sizes, with a variety of different coloured tints to choose from.

How is is applied?

The Glitter Varnish is applied through a screen – which is made in-house using the design of the clients. The varnish is pushed through the mesh of the screen onto the areas of the substrate and passed through a UV lamp to cure/dry the varnish quickly.

The machine can run through 1,500 sheets per hour.

What can you use it for?

Glitter varnish can be applied to a wide range of media from magazines, books and greetings cards. Due to the extremely high coating weight varnish it is designed for decorative use only.

Around the festive season, Glitter Varnish is a popular choice for greetings cards, special edition books or Christmas packaging. Although, it is not limted to this season!

Notable examples

Christmas 2012 issue of BBC Good Food magazine choose to include a copper coloured glitter varnish on the front cover to bring to life the printed Gingerbread house. The dazzling effect created such a buzz within the industry as well as with readers.

BBC Good Food Xmas 2012 Cover – Copper glitter varnish, gold foil and gloss overall UV.

General notes

Because of the nature of the varnish it is advisable that it should not be placed on a fold/crease or trim. It is also not advisable to produce extremely fine details using the varnish.