Always ask your tailmaker what kind of silicone they use to make tails. If they don’t give you an answer or an actual name of the silicone that’s a big red flag.
I don’t know about you but I definitely wouldn’t pay thousands of dollars for a tail made of a mystery substance that might be toxic or fall apart.
A lot of tail buyers see the word "silicone" and assume the tail is high quality, durable, and safe. A lot of people are not even aware that there are many different kinds of silicone and not all of them are safe for tails.
There are A LOT of different silicones. For a silicone mermaid tail you need:
-skin safe material that won’t break down
-environmentally safe material that won’t release toxins that can harm aquatic life
-stretch
-durability
The industry standard for silicone mermaid tails is a platinum cure medical grade silicone called “dragon skin” it is made in America by a company called smooth on. Here is info about it: https://www.smooth-on.com/product-line/dragon-skin/
Finfolk productions said this about only using dragonskin:
Sometimes dragonskin can be very hard and expensive to get especially if you don’t live in the USA. There are other medical grade silicones that are stretchy and skin safe. It is important to ask your tailmaker what kind of silicone they use. look up the msds of the silicone they use and make sure it’s safe.
Technically all platinum cure silicone is “safe” for your skin. But not all platinum cure silicone is the same quality. It won’t all stretch or hold up without ripping and it’s not all going to work for tailmaking.
Food grade silicone is meant for making molds not casting so it won’t stretch as much or hold up as well and isn’t recommend for tail-making. Fairytails Bangkok used “eatable grade silicone” meaning food grade. This is what happened with that:
Just because a tailmaker used dragonskin in the past doesn’t mean they still do. It doesn’t hurt to ask! I mean how upset would the community be if they found out that let’s say theoretically a top tailmaker stopped using dragonskin but still charged top dollar and didn’t tell anyone they switched… I would be pretty mad.
Question low prices! If it seems too good to be true it probably is. The only way you get a full tail made of high quality skin safe silicone for less than $1000 is a basic silicone tail. These use a lot less silicone so they can be as low as $500 and still be dragonskin silicone. If the tail is solid silicone with no fabric lining it will take a lot more material to create and be more expensive. The cheapest solid silicone tails (dragonskin) are around $1500.
Recently I have seen several tailmakers selling silicone tails for top dollar but when you ask them what silicone they use they avoid the question. This is a big red flag!
Examples:
Mermaid Lucia advertises “We classify our silicone tail types into two classes: one class is high-end handmade custom silicone tails, the price is relatively high, and another class is ultra-light beginner silicone tails, the price is affordable and fast production” the prices range from $896-$6,000. Which seems too low for dragonskin and too high for a mystery substance.
Braveeer silicone tails have become popular lately (they are the main tailmaker who makes the tails for mermaid Lucia to sell) but they use food grade silicone. Even one of their ambassadors put out their warning:
while wearing leggings will prevent your skin from coming in contact with the silicone on land once you get in the water any toxins that leech out of the silicone will be in the water with you and absorbed through your skin into your bloodstream.
While this silicone is considered skin and eco safe the risk of ripping and tearing is high and the glue used to attach fins and assemble the tails is questionable. Read about why you shouldn't use caulking and tin cure silicone for tails here: