Brush Flush: A Brush Cleaner for Oil and Acrylic

Brush Flush is a biodegradable and watersoluble brush cleaner that removes quite a lot of paints from pure and artificial brushes. This text assessments the effectiveness of the comb cleaner, together with whether or not it may take away dry, hardened paint from brush fibres.

Brush Flush: A Brush Cleaner for Oil and Acrylic

Within the Jackson’s studio, our brushes are in fixed use. Whereas cleansing them isn’t probably the most thrilling a part of studio life, it’s a essential a part of sustaining the house. A lot of our brushes, particularly hog hair brushes, are used for each oil and acrylic, so any oil residue must be fully cleaned to keep away from contamination. In a brush cleaner, we search for one thing that cleans shortly and successfully – there may be nothing worse than discovering a robust color, like Phthalo Blue, lingering in a brush whenever you go to make use of it! We additionally want a brush cleaner that doesn’t strip the oils from pure brush hairs, which mineral spirits are inclined to do. I attempted Brush Flush within the studio to see if it meets these standards.

Brush Flush Brush Cleaner, 117 ml

What’s Brush Flush?

Brush Flush is a biodegradable, watersoluble, non-flammable brush cleansing product. It’s multi-purpose, with functions that transcend the artist studio. In addition to oil and acrylic, Brush Flush is appropriate for latex-based paints, varnishes, shellac, and urethane-based paints (equivalent to these utilized in automobile paints).
Lacking from the checklist is watercolour. Sometimes you don’t want to make use of a brush cleaner for watercolour or conventional gouache as a result of they’re resoluble in water. In reality, the surfactants in brush cleaners can destroy watercolour paper sizing if they don’t seem to be washed out totally.

There are many completely different brush cleaners in the marketplace, and Brush Flush is probably the most economical of all of them – it’s significantly cheaper per millilitre than different oil and acrylic brush cleaners.

Utilizing Brush Flush

Brush Flush is a transparent, pale yellow and has a slimy, viscous consistency. The bottle states that it’s odour-free, but it surely truly has a pleasing citrus scent which jogs my memory of some family cleansing merchandise.

Brush Flush can be utilized on the finish of a portray session. I labored a Willow Wolfe Seneca artificial brush, filled with Phthalo Blue oil paint, into the Brush Flush. I agitated the bristles gently towards the facet of the jar.

Following the directions on the bottle, I rinsed the comb in heat water and labored it to a lather with the assistance of a brush egg. It’s wonderful how a lot paint is trapped within the bristles even when it appears to be like clear!

Working the comb with a brush egg

I labored the comb till the water ran clear. As a result of Brush Flush is watersoluble, it rinses out very simply, which isn’t one thing I’ve discovered with vegetable oil-containing brush cleaners. The comb was fully clear, and never stained by the Phthalo Blue pigment.

The Willow Wolfe Seneca artificial brush after cleansing

Does Brush Flush Take away Dried Oil and Acrylic Paint?

It’s a state of affairs that I’m positive most painters are conversant in – you permit the studio and overlook to scrub a brush. Once you return the paint has dried, leaving it arduous and unusable. It has occurred a good few instances within the Jackson’s studio!

Brush Flush claims to take away dry paint from brushes. It recommends leaving them to soak for wherever between a number of days and several other weeks, agitating them periodically. I gathered some oil, acrylic, and enamel paint-encrusted brushes to see whether or not Brush Flush might restore them. I additionally tried soaking a palette knife which had some previous dry paint on it (most definitely a mix of oil and acrylic). Having dry paint residue on a palette knife isn’t an issue, however I wished to see how it might carry out. Lastly, I added a white artificial hog brush that was clear, however stained, to check if Brush Flush has any impact.

From left: Jackson’s Shinku Crimson Artificial Brush, Spherical Measurement 6 with dried acrylic.
Jackson’s Akoya Artificial Brush, Filbert Measurement 12 stained with crimson pigment.
Handover Studio Hog Brush, Lengthy Flat Measurement 8 with dried signwriting enamel.
Jackson’s Black Hog Brush, Flat Measurement 8 with dried oil paint diluted with solvent.
Unbranded pure hog brush with dried oil paint.
Unbranded pure/artificial sable combine brush with dried oil paint.
Jackson’s Onyx Artificial Brush, Spherical Measurement 12 with dried acrylic.

After simply half-hour within the Brush Flush, yellow oil paint started to leach from one of many hog hair brushes. The paint within the brush was fully dry, but it surely had been thinned with a solvent so it’s unsurprising that it broke down first. I additionally seen that paint started to peel from the palette knife and the steel brush ferrules.

After 18 hours, extra paint had come out of the oil brushes, and the acrylic paint had begun to melt, wrinkle, and peel away from the comb fibres. It’s a really satisfying course of to observe, and I like to recommend utilizing a transparent jar so you’ll be able to see the progress!

After 24 hours, I took all the brushes and palette knife out of the comb flush and rinsed them. A lot of the brushes have been fully restored, and the stained brush got here out largely stain-free. The enamel and acrylic brush have been mushy sufficient for use, however nonetheless had some paint residue in them, so I put them again within the Brush Flush in a single day. After this, they have been fully freed from paint.

Inside two days all the brushes have been clear and supple, though most of them wanted solely 24 hours within the Brush Flush. One of the satisfying outcomes was how clear and glossy the ferrules have been. They seemed like fully new brushes. I seen that a few of the older hog hair brushes had grow to be a barely brassy color (the third and fifth brushes from the left within the above picture) as if that they had been bleached barely. Nevertheless, this doesn’t have an effect on the comb’s efficiency.

An essential result’s that Brush Flush didn’t seem to dry out the comb fibres. Solvents can have a drying impact on pure hair and might break down sure artificial filaments, resulting in brittle brushes. Brush Flush is definitely a greater different.

Can Brush Flush be Reused?

Brush Flush is totally watersoluble and biodegradable and could be disposed of down the sink, however it’s extra economical to reuse it the place potential. With some brush cleaners, in addition to with solvents like white spirit or turpentine, pigment settles to the underside of the jar and the clear liquid could be poured off and reused. This isn’t the case with Brush Flush, because the liquid is so viscous that the pigment stays suspended. Nevertheless, Brush Flush can nonetheless be used repeatedly, both to wash brushes after a portray session or to soak hardened brushes.

How Protected is Brush Flush?

Brush Flush is labelled as non-toxic, however whereas it’s a safer selection than turpentine or mineral spirits it ought to nonetheless be used with care. The SDS (security information sheet) states that it might mildly irritate the pores and skin after extended publicity. As somebody with delicate pores and skin, the small quantity that I received on my arms once I was rinsing the brushes didn’t irritate or make them really feel dry. It’s undoubtedly preferable to utilizing solvents! Nevertheless, it’s nonetheless beneficial to scrub your arms after any contact with the pores and skin.

Brush Flush bottles have a easy screw high cap, not a child-safe mechanism like some brush cleaners. That is one thing to concentrate on for those who work in an area the place kids might need entry to your supplies.

Brush Flush is a robust, no-nonsense brush cleaner. It doesn’t have the identical conditioning properties as some vegetable oil-containing brush cleaners, however it’s mild sufficient that it doesn’t dry brushes out. In addition to being a really efficient end-of-session brush cleaner, it shortly removes hardened oil and acrylic paint – invaluable for artists who need to hold their brushes wanting their greatest.