Glow in the Dark Paint: Part 2 - Glowing Plant Pots

When something seems too good to be true, you know what they say...

Welcome to the long-awaited Part 2 in our series of Glow in the Dark Paint!  Like Part 1, this is going to be a lengthier entry.

Rustoleum's glow in the dark paint on flower pots

This is an extremely popular Pin.  It even made an appearance on Buzzfeed.  However, I'm wondering if the word hasn't already spread to some of the earliest adopters that this is false.  There are a couple of links to Pins that used to have this picture, and those Pins are missing now.  Methinks they were deleted when their owners discovered The Truth About Glow In The Dark Plant Pots (DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!!!).

The popularity of this Pin speaks volumes about the desire that we have to believe without thinking.  Someone puts a caption about glow-in-the-dark paint, and everyone repins it because they want so badly to believe they can create this beauty for themselves.

But looking at this picture, there are several hints that would indicate this is not glow-in-the-dark paint.  For one thing, it's not dark outside in this picture.  Anyone who has any experience with glow-in-the-dark materials knows that it usually has to be quite dark before the glow will show up. 

Another clue is that the grass surrounding the pots is lit by the glow.  Again, glow-in-the-dark items usually don't glow strongly enough to illuminate much area around them, and this picture shows a pretty bright spread around each pot.

If you go to Amazon and check the reviews on "Rust-Oleum Glow in the Dark Paint," you'll find some very disappointed people:  

"Sad to see a name I trust like Rust-Oleum on this. I have a light beige paint in my daughters room and we tried to paint just a few glow in the dark flowers. Even after 5 coats this did not glow at all."

"The Rust-Oleum brand is usually pretty good, so I didn't even think to look up reviews. Turns out, this product is TERRIBLE. I left the light in the room I painted on for an extended period of time and then turned off (during the night, so there was NO light anywhere) and there was NO glow whatsoever. "

"I bought this rust oleum glow in the dark spray paint to spray my plantpots so they would glow at night did everything i should and NOTHING the dont even faintly glow ..Would not reccomend waste of money"

As you can see from the last quote, the customer wanted the paint specifically for plant pots.  This is the kind of disappointment that inaccurate Pins inspire.  Thanks, Pinterest Trolls.

And this isn't the only version of "glow-in-the-dark plant pots" out there.

 I haven't done this yet, but it said Rust-Olem glow in dark paint. I got this pic from someone else so I can't even say they are actually this bright. 

So what is The Truth?  It's that these pots are not coated in glow-in-the-dark paint.  They are lit internally by electric lights.  In case you doubt that statement, Sweet and Simple Living tried this project and came to this same conclusion.  

Where can you get these planters, since painting your own won't yield the results you're looking for?  Some Pinners believe the pots in the upper picture are sold by Certified Lighting, but there does not seem to be anywhere to actually order these pots on their site.  The pots in the lower picture are from Rotolux, according to Dornob, but going to the site they linked to sends you to KuL Designs when you attempt to view the planters.  You can also find lighted planters at Konstmide and Home Infatuation.

I think that last one offers a product that is the closest to the original Pin.