I wanted to know the difference between luster and pearl dust is one more sheer I want to make candy sea shells for a wedding cake and shade them to look as real as possible.

Luster dusts are colors. They are the gold, silver, blue, yellow... what ever color you are looking for.

Pearl dusts are white based. They have iridescent tones to them, but the main color is white or pearl.

TexasSugar, what one do you think would look better for a soft natural look?

If you want just white shells then go with the pearl, super pearl is a good one.

IF you want them colored like shells then you can do it two ways. You can get luster dusts in the shades you want to use, or you can use petal dusts and then brush pearl over them when you are done.

Petal dusts are matte colored dusts.

Here are two pictures with shells I have done. They are on fondant/gum paste, but I did shade them with petal, luster and pearl dust.

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=52493

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=52492

The shells in my pics are colored in Wilton pearl dust in bronze, yellow and pink orchid. I mixed the bronze and yellow to give me a different shade. Very easy to get them to look real. I use super luster pearl dust for all my fondant stuff and pearls. It doesnt change the color of you fondant (used it on my blue bassinet cake).

I looked at both sites Texas Sugar and Baking at the beach your cakes are beautiful and your shells look real I guess it will take a lot of practice.

They really aren't hard to color. I just brushed a little over the fondant/gumpaste, then if I wanted it darker I would add more to it. You can blend colors in between.

I think light pink and peachy tones look really good on shells.

Also since it was mentioned earlier Wilton does make a "pearl' dust but in my opinion they should have named it something else, it is more of a luster dust than pearl.

Honestly, you cant screw the shells up! Just dust them with the lighter color, then go across them with the darker to shade them. I do the tip, the center and the end to give them the lines that they have. But you can pretty much do whatever and they will look good!

since I am doing it on white chocolate will the luster or pearl dust stick to the chocolate?

Thats what mine are made of.

Thanks for all the help now I need to bake for Memorial Day picnic nothing like waiting till the last minute.

Good luck! Don't forget to share a picture.