Under The Sea Mini Palette

I'm not sure if I'm doing it right- the instructions, if there were any, were torn off by a helpful toddler, but I've been adding one drop of activator to the colour I need, then swirling it around, and attempting to paint with it. It's very watery and clear for a while, and then turns into a great paint consistency for a few seconds before it dries hard again, and then it starts again with another drop of activator making it very watery and clear for a while until its a good consistency, which almost immediately dries. The colour also seems to fade a bit. I painted the fondant on Wednesday night and it was shimmery and beautiful, but by Friday morning when I dropped off the finished cookies, it was more matte and a dull sort of sheen. any I painted over the stencil were bright and there was a good contrast, but by the Friday it had faded and I could barely see the difference between the background and the bits I'd painted. I may just be doing it wrong, but I didn't buy the lustre dusts, which its what I'd seen in videos previously, so maybe I just had the wrong method.
Anyway, they worked at the time, looked pretty, and did the job, so I'll beg operator error.

I love these little palettes of metallic paints as I can build a collection to suit so many different themes. Just activate with a drop or two of water, swish it around a small part of the desired colour, wait a few minutes and start painting.