Alcohol- vs. Water-Based Airbrush Coloring: A Brand Comparison

Surprise! Today, I’m departing from my usual cookie decorating to talk ingredients! I do a lot of airbrushing and, lately, I’ve been incorporating more alcohol-based colorings into my projects, in part because they’ve become more available to me here in the US. As it turns out, they perform very differently than the typical water-based airbrush colorings found in my neck of the woods, and so I wanted to show you exactly how. In this video, I introduce you to a leading US water-based coloring (the AmeriColor or AmeriMist brand) and a UK alcohol-based counterpart (Spectrum Flow) by comparing them across three product line attributes: (1) number of matte hues, (2) container size(s), and (3) unit price. Then, I do five tests to evaluate their relative perfomance, including (1) pooling or underspray when stenciling, (2) sheen, (3) coverage (or opacity), (4) color blending, and (5) likelihood to clog your airbrush. Last but not least, I recap the pros and cons of each type of coloring, and discuss my preferences in various cookie decorating applications.

Note: All tests were performed with matte colorings on royal icing.

RELATED VIDEOS:
My Stencil Line Playlist (with how-to videos using stencils from my line):

MY MOST COMMONLY USED TOOLS:
Many are here in my Amazon store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/juliamusher

OTHER SPECIALTY TOOLS:
AmeriMist Airbrush Colorings: https://www.americolorcorp.com/produc...
Spectrum Flow Airbrush Colorings: https://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.... (Be sure to select the colorings designated for chocolate and sugarpaste, as they are alcohol-based; the others listed are water-based.)
My Bridal Party Dynamic Duos™ Stencil Set (the background stencil from this set was used in the seepage/pooling test): https://www.confectioncouturestencils...
My Boo to You Dynamic Duos™ Stencil Set (the background stencil from this set was used in the coverage test): https://www.confectioncouturestencils...
My Birds and Blossoms Prettier Plaques™ Background Stencil (used in the first blending test): https://www.confectioncouturestencils...
My Vintage Flora Prettier Plaques™ Background Stencil (used in the second blending test): https://www.confectioncouturestencils...
My Quadrant Masking Tool (used to mask off sides of each cookie when stenciling): https://www.confectioncouturestencils...
Stencil Genie (the frame used to hold the background stencils in place): https://tinyurl.com/ycvs3g3e

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https://confectioncouturestencils.com...

TO JOIN MY STENCIL OF THE MONTH CLUB: https://tinyurl.com/y23whksb

TO PURCHASE MY 4-HOUR VIDEO COOKIE DECORATING COURSE, MY BOOKS, OR APP:
http://www.juliausher.com/store

TO JOIN COOKIE CONNECTION, MY ONLINE COOKIE DECORATING COMMUNITY:
http://cookieconnection.juliausher.co...

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CREDITS:
Music by: Kevin MacLeod, http://www.incompetech.com
Videography/Editing by: Two5:7North (https://www.two57north.com), Grant and Ashleigh Murphy