An Australian startup promising to “ship glitter to your enemies” said it had been overwhelmed by demand within 24 hours of its launch, exceeding its founder’s supply of all seven colours of the substance.



Sydney-based entrepreneur Mathew Carpenter, 22, said he had been swamped with orders from people keen to wreak sparkly revenge on those who had wronged them.

After being featured on Reddit, the Huffington Post, Gizmodo and Business Insider hours after it launched on Tuesday, ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com crashed for several hours.

Ordering was temporarily suspended after “thousands” of orders from around the world exceeded Carpenter’s supply of glitter. “People seem to have a lot of enemies,” he said.

For just $10, Carpenter will send “the herpes of the craft world” to any address in the world, along with a note explaining what they did to deserve it.

“We’ll send them so much glitter in an envelope that they’ll be finding that shit everywhere for weeks,” the site promises. “Hint: the glitter will be mixed in with the note, thus increasing maximum spillage.”

The service was received with enthusiasm on Twitter. “There isn’t enough money in the world to send all the people I hate glitter,” fumed one user.

Carpenter said he was inspired to start the service after receiving glitter-filled Christmas and birthday cards from well-intentioned relatives. “I hated it, and wanted the rest of the world to feel my pain,” he said.

Carpenter said his glitter came in seven “different, terrible colours”, presumably to ensure maximum contrast against an array of floor coverings.

Despite trading in the substance, he had no advice on how to keep it contained. “I don’t think you understand glitter. It doesn’t work like that,” he said.

Asked whether glitter wasn’t somewhat tame as a revenge strategy compared with, say, a flaming paper bag of dog shit on the doorstep, Carpenter said: “Have you ever attempted to ship dog shit via mail? It’s a logistical nightmare with both supply and distribution issues.

“You don’t have that problem with glitter.”