How do I mix up gold highlighter to make a smooth gold paint? I see on the cake shows that they get a nice smooth paint that just goes on like liquid gold, but when I try to mix it up (in vodka), it is both too dilute (watery with very little color) and clumpy (with powder areas that just don't mix up and it dribbles gold powder everywhere when I try to paint with it). It just doesn't mix up nicely and smooth out. Is alcohol not the right thing to mix with? Anybody know what I'm talking about here? Any advice would be appreciated!

Are you using an actual lustre dust or highlighter? You have to use lustre dust and the dust will dissolve fairly quickly into the vodka and become nice and smooth...Petal dusts,highlighters,etc won't work at least that is my experience!

The trick to using luster dust and vodka is to not mix it together in one large go. I use the white chocolate palette from Wilton and add a bit of powder first, then add vodka to the well next to it and get my paint brush wet with vodka and keep adding more dust until the "paint" is the right consistency with the paintbrush in a 3rd well. But I always work from the dry side, just adding wetness as necessary. This is how I paint with gold luster dust. Does it make any sense?

You could work off a dinner plate just as well. You just need to have a separate small bowl for the vodka. Just put a good dash of gold luster dust on the plate, dip your paintbrush into the vodka to wet it well, then go back to the dust and keep adding dust to the brush until you get a good painting conisistency, drawing more dust onto the brush until it appears to be spreading well. Practice the consistency on your plate. Then paint away!

If this is not working out for you at all, you can try rubbing crisco onto the item to give it a sheen, then dry dust with luster and a dry paintbrush. I hope this helps!