Yes its true the new macbooks come out tomorrow, all with their shiny new form design and 13.3″ screen and most importantly the addition of a new port… (I’ll tell you a secret… its an HDMI outlet).  Don’t ask how I know and I won’t tell you (oh yea and LED backlit screens).

If that isn’t enough then I should also mention that Windy City Novelties, Inc (a Vernon Hills Illinois based novelty and party goods wholesaler) announced their new product line of iGlow hair gel (patents pending and trademarked)!  Now you can add a frightful array of glow to your hair when you go out (and even style with it).

Oh yeah! and here’s a video of how it works:

I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this… but your hair just isn’t up to Halloween standards.  It’s not scary, or funky, or even different; it’s just the same it has always been… blah.

But that doesn’t have to be the case! No, you can spice up your hair with little effort on you!  Two awesome products can completely save your hair from a social faux pas at the next Halloween or dress up party.

First up is colored hair spray.  Benefits:

1. Quick easy application (you literaly shake, open, and spray)
2. Mulitple color options (Silver, Purple, Red, Blue, Green, and Orange)
3. You can use the same spray over and over or share with friends

Drawbacks:

1. If you’re in a dark place it won’t show up well
2. Not the newest thing, don’t expect to be the only one with colored hair

Next up iGlow hair gel.  A quick explanation: iGlow is the a hair gel that glows in the dark, it doesn’t need light, or blacklights or anything like that, its literally like a glowstick version of gel, it glows bright on its own for about 6-8 hours!

Benefits:

1. Extremely cool effect of walking around with glowing hair
2. New, you’re not going to see anyone else with this!
3. Comes in GREEN, BLUE, RED, YELLOW, PURPLE, ORANGE and WHITE
4. You can use some of it now, and some of it later (so long as you only mix what you plan on using for that evening
5. If you’re a Halloween or party shop you can also purchase them in retail displays!

Drawbacks:

1. You will get tons of looks, so only use if you like being the center of attention or being the cool kid at the party.
2. A little bit more expensive then spray
3. Takes more time to apply (about 5-8 minutes, depending on how much you like to style your hair)

Both items can be found at Windy City Novelties, Inc.

A link explaining the iGlow hair gel can be found here: iGlow blog entry

iGlow hair gel directions and FDA safety tests can be found: iglowhairgel.com

So you’ve seen the Glowing Cups and Glow sticks before, and want to try something new to spice up your evening event.  Well how bout Glowing Utensils like knifes, forks, or spoons?  How cool would it be for your guests to come to a fully glowing table setting.

Planning an ice cream social?  Dreading the boring old fashioned ice cream cups?   Well try something new with Glowing Ice Cream Cups, you’re definitely going to get glowing reviews with them!

But don’t forget the spoons for the Ice Cream Cups:

But if a black tie event is what you’re planning for then you are sure to want to serve martinis, and while we have fantastic Glowing Martini Cups, we also have amazing Glowing Martini picks! You can even use the picks for cheese or appetizers.

Visit us online at Windy City Novelties, Inc. to see our other great items!

To learn how Glow works click here.

Making your own glowstick is difficult and time consuming, and quite honestly all your hardwork will be used up in a few hours of glow. Instead I recommend purchasing your glow from Windy City Novelties. We use the highest quality products around to make sure you get a nice bright glow!

I get this question all the time: How does a glow stick work? Now depending on the age of the person asking I have several different answers.
1. (to a young child) A glow stick works by magic, and it will stay lit till you go to sleep.

2. (to a teenager or curious adult) A glow stick works by a chemical reaction, when you break the ampule inside the stick it mixes two compounds to form the affect of glow until the reaction is finished.

But I’m going to guess that if you’re here then you want to really know how a glow stick works… So here is my answer to the do-it-yourselfers out there, and those that really need to know hos stuff works.

CAVEAT: I am not a chemist, with that if there are words that I find too cumbersome to either easily explain or understand by there own then I will link them to a wikipedia page with their definition.

Glow sticks give off illumination as a by product of a chemical reaction called chemiluminescence (light from chemical reaction in difficult language). This is achieved by the mixing of two liquids that alone are uninteresting.

The free flowing chemical inside the plastic tube is a combination of a dye for coloring (usually either a sensitizer or a fluorophor) and what has been called Cyalume which is also known as Bis(2,4,5-trichlorophenyl-6-carbopentoxyphenyl) oxalate (CPPO) which is a solid ester where the oxidation products are what causes the chemiluminescence (glow) in a glow stick.

If you’re adventurous and want to try to make it yourself it can be done by reacting 2-carbopentoxy-3,5,6-trichlorophenol with oxalyl chloride.

The liquid in the capsule inside the plastic housing of the glow stick is Hydrogen Peroxide. Same stuff that you get from Walgreens or CVS. If you’ve ever noticed how it bubbles on contact then you’ll understand why its the activating agent. When it mixes with the Cyalume it releases an Oxygen molecule that quickly forms Carbon Dioxide which in turn releases enough energy in the new bonds being broken and formed to excite the electrons in the dyes causing what you see as Glow. When the glow extinguishes you know that the chemical reaction is finished and that the dye has released enough photons (energy in the form of light) to be stable.

In true scientific terms the reaction is best described by Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D., who wrote on About.com :

“Specifically, the chemical reaction works like this: The hydrogen peroxide oxidizes the phenyl oxalate ester, to form phenol and an unstable peroxyacid ester. The unstable peroxyacid ester decomposes, resulting in phenol and a cyclic peroxy compound. The cyclic peroxy compound decomposes to carbon dioxide. This decomposition reaction releases the energy that excites the dye.”

It should be noted that while different dyes cause the different colors, some chemical formulations are actually patented. Most importantly is the Red dye formulation, which is used in several different colored glow. If you’ve ever seen a red dyed plastic tubing being used to get a red glow stick then you know that you are not buying from the patent holders or one of their licensees.

This posting has been made possible by the help of information obtained from the following references:

http://chemistry.about.com/od/howthingsworkfaqs/a/howlightsticks.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glow_stick
http://www.howstuffworks.com/light-stick.htm
as viewed on 6/11/08 at 11:02 AM