First of all not all epoxy resin creations will need a top coat, if you pour your resin project into your mold and your project looks incredible once it’s cured, then please skip this part. If you pour your resin project and you notice any issues with the top of it, or that the top isn’t even, or you’d like it domed etc then you can of course use top coating to give it a perfect finish.
Adding a top coat to your projects can help resolve issues like bubbles appearing in your work, amine blushing on your projects, or dirt/debris in your creations. When your work has cured and you notice any of these imperfections please don’t worry, adding another layer to top coat can work wonders to cover blemishes up.
In order to topcoat your work you will first need to sand your project down, if your work has fully cured then another layer of epoxy resin won’t bind to the cured layer below, gently sanding the layer down first, then cleaning any sanding debris, will enable you to pour another layer on top and will then self level over the project and cover up any issues that may have formed.
There are a couple of ways that you can topcoat your work around the edges of your projects:
1 - If you place your project on something like a paper cup to stand the resin project up from a desk/worktop that is covered by a protective plastic sheeting. If you cover the bottom of your project at the edges with something like tic tape this will make any drips easier to remove afterwards. You can then gently pour another layer of resin mix on top and let it flow over the edges, if you pour slowly you can get more of a control over this part. You can then use your gloved finger to gently make sure all the edges are covered by the resin, then leave it to cure.
2 - Another way you can do this is to add a liquid latex to the bottom, or sides of your project, then when you pour the resin mix over it gently and mix that cures over the edges will be easily removed by the liquid latex. You can find out how to do this technique in our Liquid Latex YouTube video.
With either technique you use you will need to monitor after pouring to see if any bubbles do appear in your freshly poured top coat. If they do then use a spritz of alcohol spray over them and watch them disperse, or use a heat torch to get rid of them also. If you have used alcohol spray, please don't then use the heat torch, for obvious reasons. You may need to repeat the bubble steps a couple of times and so monitor for the first few hours checking back regularly to see if any new ones have appeared.
With top coating most of the time you’ll be able to simply top with a clear epoxy resin, but if you do want to get creative you can add things like a few bits of glitter, which won’t distract from the colours you have used in layers below, but this could give an extra touch of sparkle. This is simply part of the creative process, it’s not necessary to add anything like glitter into a top coat, but it’s up to your creative flare to experiment with this and create items that you love.
Our epoxy resin is food safe, heat resistant and scratch proof when fully cured, after 21 days, the resin projects can withstand temperatures of 200F/93C. Projects created with our brands resin have this regardless if they are top coated or not, so top coating won’t offer anymore protection than the resin mix already does.
Topic Of The Week Giveaway:
We have attached a giveaway to these Topic Of The Week announcements on our Instagram platform, this is helping us to spread the knowledge of how to use epoxy resin further, but also enabling anyone who helps us share this information to win free resin and mica powders.
To enter the weekly giveaway please see the latest post #CRWEEK35 on our Instagram feed/highlights and follow the instructions to enter:
We hope you have a great time top coating your resin creations and making them look absolutely beautiful.
Team Craft Resin
