If you’ve been browsing our beautiful range of coloured glossy and metallic bubble bags, you might of wondered how to add an address to them and send in the post. You’re not alone -it's something we get asked about almost every day! With a range of dark and light colours, metallic high-shine and glossy surfaces, our coloured bubble bags do look stunning, but without an address on the front they just aren’t going to get to the recipient! The obvious answer is to stick on a label, or use a pen that writes on shiny paper or a glossy surface – a smudge-proof pen, or some other solution for applying an address. But which works best? And which looks the best? We put a range of option to the test to see how well they would write on the shiny surfaces of our bubble bags, whether the writing would smudge easily and how well it works on both dark and light colour bubble envelopes. There were some fails and there were some raging successes - check out our results below:
Standard Ball Point Pen (Biro/Bic style)
Writable? Writes reasonably well but the ink does fade out in places so can look a bit poor and unreadable. Smudge-proof? Yes. Didn’t smudge at all On dark colour bubble bags? Ball point pens come in black, blue or red as standard, so unfortunately not suitable for dark surfaces. On light bubble bags? The blue pen was easily visible on a White Gloss Padded Bubble Bag.
RESULT = 4/10
Worked on light coloured bubble bags and didn’t smudge, so would go through post. The inconsistent look of the ink makes the overall effect a bit messy and difficult to read.
Metallic Pen
Writable? Writes pretty well Smudge-proof? Sadly no – smudged really easily. Left to dry for 20 mins it gave a better result, but with a little pressure it still smudged quite badly On dark colour bubble bags? The metallic colour did stand out on both dark blue and black bubble bags On light bubble bags? Yep – again stands out well
RESULT = 1/10
Looks nice but sadly smudges to the max! Wouldn’t be suitable for sending through the post.
Sharpie Marker Pen
Writable? Yes. Writes easily and looks nice. Smudge-proof? Yes, and pretty much instantly too! No waiting to dry! On dark colour bubble bags? Yep . We tested the Metallic Silver Sharpie and Metallic Bronze Sharpie too. Both look fab tested on the Matt Dark Blue Metallic Bubble Bags On light bubble bags? Again, yes! Tested on White Poly Gloss Bubble Bags and look fantastic
RESULT = 10/10 for the Sharpie
Looks lovely (if you’ve got nice handwriting of course) and we think a bit special too! Imagine receiving a package through the post in a luxurious Matt Black Bubble Bag with a handwrtitten metallic gold address written on the front! You’d be impressed, right? Definite success!
Gel Pens
Writable? Yes and no. Writes well on the Matt Metallic Bubble Bags, but not so well on the shinier Gloss Metallic Bubble Bags unfortunately. Smudge-proof? Smudges easily. If left to dry for a long period of time we suspect the result might be a bit better (perhaps overnight) which may work for a one-off, but on multiple postings wouldn’t be too brilliant! On dark colour bubble bags? Metallic silver looks good on the Matt Dark Blue Bubble Bag, but wasn’t visible at all on the Metallic Purple Bubble Bag. On light bubble bags? Fail here - we tested silver and gold gel pens, neither of which were particularly visible. Go with a black ink and this would work better though.
RESULT = 1/10
If you’re happy to try the loooong wait to dry then they might be ok! The thin nib of these pens means it’s a little hard to read in certain lights though.
White Printer Labels
Writable? Yep (obviously). Advantage is you can print on them too – so works well for mailshots Smudge-proof? Again an obvious yes here. Pen on paper = no brainer. So we tested ‘stickability’ here instead. Pressed down firmly, standard address labels stay on perfectly. On dark/light colour bubble bags? The white background of the labels makes them suitable on any colour surface
RESULT = 7/10
An easy go-to option for addressing metallic bubble bags (or any shiny surface envelopes really). The only downside is the look. A white label does, in our opinion, take away from the beauty of these colourful bubble envelopes.
Purchase White Adhesive Printer Labels here >>
Transparent Printer Labels
Writable? Yes - and printable too of course. Smudge-proof? We tested printing on these labels, plus writing in ball point pen and Sharpie. All 3 options proved smudgeproof On dark/light colour bubble bags? The clear labels work on both light and dark colour bubble bags. Just be careful the colour of pen you use to make sure it's visible. When using a blue ball point pen, then applying to a Matt Metallic Ice Blue Bubble Bag the writing was barely visible.
RESULT = 8/10
An nice option for addressing metallic bubble bags. We feel these give a nicer effect than white address labels, however due to the textured outer of the bubble bags, the labels can be seen more than on a smooth surface. A great option for larger mailings as you can pop these labels through the printer
Purchase Transparent Printer Labels here >>
Clear Pockets
Writable? Write on anything and pop it into one of these pockets to stick onto the surface! Smudge-proof? As with labels, we tested ‘stickability’ here. All good – they stick and stay. On dark/light colour bubble bags? The documents enclosed style wallets are clear, so as long as you insert a readable address into the pocket, you’re onto a winner.
RESULT = 8/10
More time consuming than using a label, but you have the advantage of the pocket being waterproof. You can also write the address onto coloured paper to insert into the pocket, for a more attractive result.
It's worth noting that our Metallic Foil Bags are made from the same outer material as these Metallic Bubble Envelopes, so these results will apply to both products!