Finishing Mermaid Parties tail

[MermaidRaegan]

So I got my mermaid parties tail unpainted, so that I could have fun playing with the paint. But now I'm wondering if instead of spray silicone sealant I could use a thin layer of GE 1 silicone to seal the whole tail. Would this be a good idea?

[Winged Mermaid]

Not if it's not made with it in the first place :/ It won't stay on. It may not even cure at all if it was made with anything latex based. You'd have better luck with a latex based one, such as perma-wet. However it may not bond since there would be a layer of paint between that and the latex of the tail, so there wouldn't be that latex to latex bond. Best thing to do with that route is either mix the paint with what the original tail was made of (you'd have to ask Stevi, but I believe she uses tin cure latex) and use that as paint or mix it with the perma wet and paint it that way (swatch test first with the perma wet).

When it doubt, always swatch test first.

[MermaidRaegan]

I was worried about that. I'll do a test swatch just to see what happens, but I'll go ahead and start looking at other options as well. My main issue is that Alex degrades so quickly and I'm hoping for a way to preserve this tail for as long as possible, or at least until i can afford to start on my second project. I know Shelly put silicone over a latex tail with paint inbetween, but i'm not sure what kind of latex that was.

[MermaidRaegan]

Alright, I'm now looking into perma-wet. Has anyone ever used this before on a latex tail? And does it really work for waterproofing?