I THINK WE GOT THE GLITTER MYSTERY ALL WRONG!!!
The whole consensus about the glitter being ground up and used as an additive in boat paint/sealer didn't sit right with me as the answer to the 'big mystery'. The guy in the interview said it would be bad for PR, they would need to do "damage control" if people found out. No one has done any damage control yet.
I mix vinegar and dishsoap with water to make a general purpose cleaner for around the house, works great, cheap. This time I used blue dawn liquid soap instead of my normal sunlight liquid soap. The dawn is clear blue. UNTIL I added the vinegar and water at which time it took on this milky/shimmery/3D/shiny look with a baby blue color. I let it sit for a few weeks and it settled out. Now the milky/shimmery stuff has precipitated out and is in a layer at the bottom, the liquid on top is a cloudy blue color, no shimmer. Video attached. The shimmer is not visible on camera but noticeable to the naked eye, when it moves especially.
I just mixed up a new small batch, one part soap, one part vinegar, 6-8 parts water. It looks milky again but I don't see any shimmer this time, tho it is just a shot glass full, and it was subtle last time anyways, UNTIL it settled out. I will let this batch settle and we'll see, but it's the same jug of vinegar and same bottle of soap, just in glass this time.
I was thinking originally - when I first heard of this mystery - that ground glitter was what could make some liquid soaps and shampoos so 3D looking and shimmery, but this soap was perfectly clear blue. WTF? It was a mixture of ONLY tap water, dawn dishsoap, and pure white vinegar so where the fuck is a precipitate coming from? And LOTS of it! And SOOO shimmery. If this idea is correct it may answer the question of where these micro plastics in the ocean are coming from. THAT would be a PR disaster alright.
Still, why in clear soap?? What is it? Am I missing something here?
CHEMFAGS!! HAAALLLPPP!!!