There are a few ways you can do this depending on how ethical and stable you want your preservation to be. Naturally, you are going to want the best of the best, let’s be real. Unfortunately, you aren’t going to find too many people giving that information out for stable, well-established formulas.
Some are more ethical than others, but if you are making it yourself you are well in the know of what you are putting into your piece.
This DIY method is easy and you can get most of the items quickly. Please note this method is NOT professional grade.
You can see the below method done on a previous blog post or my YouTube.
Resin
You will want 5 ml of Citric Acid
5ml of breastmilk
(titanium dioxide) if you choose
Mix together and evaporate off the liquid in a double boiler method until the mixture becomes a paste.
Flatten onto parchment paper to dry for 1 week. Silica gel sand helps this process as well.
Once dried mix with your resin and cast. - I recommend sealing your piece to give it extra protection.
The famous powder dust is made with various ingredients. Most are not public, but I speculate a lot of them are filled with titanium dioxide, plaster, citric acid, and other finely ground powders. Most of all, whatever they are using is highly pigmented. I’d assume things used in the powders are anything from safe products to dangerous chemicals. BE CAREFUL ordering, using, and creating these products.
M.O.M. Breastmilk Wet Method Cure-out
Here’s a good example of The Mind Over Matter breastmilk preservation wet method. This shows the method next to the client’s actual milk used. The two pearls show how the cure-out phases go with this method. When the breastmilk is cast it tends to be a dramatic, crisp white. This method cures out to a more natural milk color once it settles (oxidizes) into the resin. Some might consider this discoloring, but as spot on as my pieces seem to cure out to, I’d say it’s much more natural than the super white pieces that typically don’t represent the natural colors of the milk.
I also have a photo of a cured-out ring next to the client’s actual milk. I thought it was pretty stunning how well the gem represents the actual milk from my client.
Breastmilk Preservation Powder Method
I did a demonstration of the famous breastmilk preservation powder recently. You can get the powder from etsy and other dna crafters via diy kits. I would imagine powders are made and work similarly, but you can try this for yourself with whatever kit or method you are using.
I’m not using the full step-by-step method as that requires a double boiler and for the sake of time and showing tints I don't think that part is necessary, but I do that in full in a later video.
I was given the powder from a lady in one of the breastmilk preservation groups I was a part of after we had talked briefly about the method not being all that tried and true as it's claimed. My stance is that not all methods are created equal. There are several others who agree, but few will say publicly (and I won't throw them under the bus ) because you will get removed from groups and or bullied and name called.
Some methods are definitely purer than others, but from my research, this seems to be one of the lower quality options as it is packed with tint and filler, on top of evaporating off much of what you'd use.
In my years preserving breastmilk and pumping my own milk, I’ve not seen Bright, powder-white breastmilk, so it doesn't make sense to start with a base that impacts the natural color so much.
I like science so doing this method with water as I did with my own was a part of the experimental and learning process for me. You can see both demonstrations now and you can see which is the purest choice, which is up to the mother's and that's really the whole point. Being a mother myself I would have been devastated to find out my piece was made with tints when I was expecting my milk was the only thing added to color my piece.
I got to see the powder with my own two eyes, it's not speculation how it works. In my opinion, this method is flawed on several points.
This method isn't bad, per se, if you are being honest with your clients about what is going into their keepsakes. I realize some people aren't going to be happy with this, but I’ve been deleted from groups, called names, and bullied along the way, it is what it is. I'm not doing this to be mean, but I like science and information. My Main point is mothers are expecting no tints, and for their crafter to be honest with them. If you're doing that, then there is no issue here.
It's not about swaying your opinion on the method or which crafter to use, rather making people understand what’s happening to their piece. Most mothers aren’t going to realize THAT much filler and that much of a tint goes into their piece. And if their crafter is telling them no tints, they believe them.
This is 5 ml of water to represent the breastmilk that would be used to one packet of powder. I didn't use the whole packet, I used a tiny bit, just to show how much it impacts. Even being diluted more, it still is VERY pigmented and again, you'd be adding a lot more powder and evaporating off any excess liquid, which is primarily what breastmilk is.
This method only works if you’re being honest.
If you still want to argue that I make no sense, there likely isn't any reasoning with you.
You can see the video and all the other videos about preservation on my TikTok or Youtube.. https://www.tiktok.com/@mindovermattermom