Hey, I'm Rob Smead from ELECTRUM Supply in the United States
and I'm here to debut ELECTRUM Gold Standard at the Liverpool Tattoo Convention with Killer Ink.
The difference between the original ELECTRUM and Gold Standard is
the original ELECTRUM is a gel-based product
where Gold Standard is a lotion-based product
so the gel-based product spreads thinner, it's wetter, so you just need a whole lot less of it.
Typically artists that are used to using lotion-based products use a lot more product.
With the original ELECTRUM you use way less.
So it just spreads really thin and really far.
So an amount like this size here could do an entire forearm.
With the Gold Standard, it's more like what you're used to using with
some of the other lotion-based products on the market
so it spreads far but it gets tacky and it holds a stencil
probably a little bit longer than the original ELECTRUM does
and it also pulls more of the purple dye off of the paper
so it makes darker stencils than original ELECTRUM does.
I find it's probably about a 50/50 ratio.
Since I came out with Gold Standard, I've given it to a lot of artists that have been using the original ELECTRUM.
Some of them like it better and some still say they prefer the original formula over the new formula.
So really Gold Standard was just created to appease the artists that like the lotion-based products.
I don't think one's more popular than the other, I think they both serve different purposes.
I always prefer the original. I mean, I made the original and it's what I've used since I created it.
I'm used to it, I know how it works, I know how to use it properly.
I can use the Gold Standard as well.
I probably would use Gold Standard if I was going to get into a really
long session or like a more detailed stencil that had a lot of intricate lines in the design.
Probably Gold Standard might be a little bit of a better product
for something like that because the original ELECTRUM like I said gets a little bit wetter
so if you have a stencil that has a lot of intricate lines, you probably
would fare better with the Gold Standard.
The artists that have tried Gold Standard, the feedback's been pretty much 100 percent positive feedback.
I've given it to a lot of people, and like I said I gave it to
people that have been using ELECTRUM for a long time.
I've also given it to people that have never used ELECTRUM before
that are more used to using the lotion-based products
and they just said it blows everything away.
It's revolutionary. They use words like that.
I'm pretty proud of Gold Standard and I think it's gonna be a great product for everybody.
Yeah so ELECTRUM's 100% vegan.
The old stuff and the new stuff, the original formula and the new formula, both vegan
and the reason why that's important is because, for a few reasons, I mean
I think the world's kind of going in that direction.
Consumers of products now care more about not using products that contain animal by-products just because
of animal rights and people have softer hearts for that kind of stuff these days
so I just think it's it's advantageous for a product to just be vegan off the bat
because then you can cater to everyone, you're not excluding anybody.
It's a product that anybody can use.
Alright, the best way to use Gold Standard is to obviously prep the skin properly.
Anytime you apply a stencil, you need to prep the skin to remove all the surface oils.
So we have a skin prep that we recommend
but you could use hand sanitiser, alcohol, whatever...
whatever is gonna remove dirt and oil from the skin, that's the most important thing.
Let that dry well.
With Gold Standard, you're just going to put a small amount in the glove of your hand
and you're going to massage it into the skin well.
Let it sit there for a couple of minutes till you feel it start to get good and tacky
and once it's nice and tacky and not too wet, then you're good to go lay your stencil down.
Peel the stencil off
and then I always take a dry towel and just kind of pat it on top of the stencil just to remove the excess
purple and just peel that away and it helps it dry faster.
Give it a good 10 minutes to dry and you're good to go.
So the future for ELECTRUM is tricky to answer.
I always think I know what the plan is but it changes all the time.
I have opportunities that come around and then
I just have to decide which ones are the right fit
but basically I only get behind products that I personally believe in.
We do tons of testing on things with artists
and we always make sure that ELECTRUM is only associated with the best things in the industry
and our goal is always just to provide artists with good products
that will help them make their jobs easier.
Thanks for using ELECTRUM and thanks for supporting us over the last six years
and thanks for having us Liverpool and we'll see you next year hopefully!