Illuminating compositions based on unsaturated polyester binders have been prepared. This work was directed towards the application of unsaturated polyesters as an oxygen containing binder for an illuminant composition. In this work, the effect of variation of the different formulating parameters on the processing and luminous characteristics of the illuminant composition has been investigated. Those parameters include; changing type and content of metallic fuel such as magnesium and aluminum, inorganic oxidizer such as sodium,barium and strontium nitrate as well as the polymeric binder. The binder used was rigid and flexible unsaturated polyester. The effect of addition of sodium fluoride, poly vinyl chloride, and graphite to the illuminant composition has been also studied. This work shows that unsaturated polyester can be fairly used as a typical polymeric binder for preparing an illuminant composition of high luminous and mechanical characteristics .