My review on Turpenoid Natural.

Yes I know, there are hundreds of reviews about this stuff but if you’re like me, a skeptic I wouldn’t believe everything that’s out there. I've been lied to too many times from not only manufacturers but by shops pushing their products only to find they are toxic or don't do what they are supposed to do. The only way you’re going to know if this is right for you is to try it. The art industry is as bad as the drug industry here in the U.S as they gouge the public needing their meds. Even though it costs pennies to make, the manufacturers want to make as high profit as they can due to greed. I see no difference in the manufacturers and sellers of art supplies. I have been a musician for about six decades and I have never encountered the greed there is in the art industry. I was always able to afford whatever I needed in the way of supplies for my music. Whether it was a cleaner, strings, tuners, reeds manuscript paper, books or whatever, they were always affordable and readily available. In the art world, I have to jump thru several hoops just to get the oil paints and other supplies I need at an affordable price. I’m retired and living on a fixed income so I always have to budget and only get what is absolutely necessary for the moment.

I’ve been wanting to try Turpenoid Natural for a while but it’s just too damn expensive. A 32 ounce bottle goes for $1.25 an ounce or $40 at Michael's. Comparatively, the same amount of Walnut oil which does a great job cleaning brushes as well goes for $0.50 an ounce or about $16. So to go with Walnut oil is no brainer. The only problem with Walnut oil is that unless you wash your brushes in soap and water at the end of the session, a sticky residue will develop on the brushes and will eventually dry them out rendering them useless. I received one of those coupons from Michael’s for fifty percent off any one regular priced item. I know the scam involved with these coupon deals. The prices are inflated making you think that you are actually getting a deal using the coupons where in fact the price is pretty close to where it is supposed to be. Even at $0.62 an ounce is outrages for what the stuff really is….a citrus cleaner, and their profit is still up there. Since I had the urge to try some, I went ahead and put down my twenty bucks for the stuff and tried it.

It did what it was supposed to do without toxic chemicals so they say and the odor was tolerable for the time being. It had a strong odor of citrus. How the odor will affect me in the future, considering strong odors whether toxic or not bother me, is in limbo for now. I personally don't believe that Turpenoid Natural is non toxic and won't create harmful effects. History has proven itself that what may be a good idea today may kill you tomorrow. The cleaner hasn't been out there used by millions yet and who knows how it may affect your health.

In reading some other reviews claiming to clean dried out paint off vinyl floors and other amazing things, I found it a bit exaggerated. I have plenty of dried out paint areas on the floor and tested a couple of spots; one with turpenoid natural and another just using a scraper. The scraper won. I didn’t see much significance wasting something that’s almost as expensive as some pain killers on some paint on the floor.

I had some dried out paint brushes and soaked them in turpenoid natural for about an hour or so, rinsed them in water and they worked like new. Turpenoid Natural did ease my cleaning of dried out oil paints on my palette fairly quick. I simply brushed some on the dried out paint, let it sit for ten fifteen minutes and wiped it clean with a paper towel. What was left if any, I was able to scrape off easily with a scraper or a palette knife. A 32 ounce bottle won’t go too far unlike Odorless Turpenoid which can be used over and over again by simply removing the settled paint at the bottom of you cleaning bucket. Turpenoid Natural is a little more viscous and although oil particles settle to the bottom, after a while the stuff becomes cloudy with particles floating from top to bottom. Now it’s time to replace the stuff. One thing I might add is I had an aluminum screen at the bottom of my cleaning bucket where I scrape my brushes on had disintegrated while sitting in Turpenoid Natural. I thought that was a bit odd.

In wanting to try more of Turpenoid Natural, I wanted to see whether the stuff came in larger quantities so I did some research. Yes it does. It comes in gallons and half gallons. The best bet, cost wise, is a gallon. Recently I found it on sale at Jerry’s Art O Rama for under $0.40 an ounce or little over $50. Once again comparatively speaking, Walnut oil for the same amount would cost $64. I know that in the future I will be looking for the best price I can possibly find. Just keep your eyes open and when you see a deal on it go for it. But remember, the bigger the quantity, the cheaper it will cost by the ounce.

Those of you using Bob Ross paint brushes or similar where the hairs end up flaring out when coming in contact with water, there is a solution and the hairs can be brought back to normal. Don’t wash your brushes as often as one might with O.P.T. I wash mine once at the end of my paint session and then wrap the bristles tightly with a paper towel and apply masking tape around the edges to keep the paper towel taught. Once the brush dries out, it should be ready for use once again. I have to admit though that sometimes I will have to use a damp paper towel and wrap that around the bristles a second time which works like a charm.

In using the wet on wet technique, since there is an abundant amount of paint on the brushes, I needed to clean as much off as I could before cleaning them in the solution. If I don't, the stuff won't last more than a painting or two. Turpenoid Natural is a bit more viscous than the Odorless Turpenoid and the oil particles take a while for them to drop to the bottom of the bucket. Once the solution becomes totally cloudy and thicker, it's time to replace it.

For more art stuff visit me here:Markku-artist

Bristle Magic-my review

If you’re like me, an artist, who is sensitive to strong odors or just want to get away from the toxic chemicals used as paint brush cleaners, finding a fairly inexpensive none toxic no odor brush cleaner is a challenge. Since my health, after using so called no odor yet toxic brush cleaners, declined rapidly, it became a priority to make my studio non toxic. In doing so, the first thing on the agenda was replacing the toxic brush cleaner ( Odorless Turpenoid) with something less hazardous to my health. If you go thru what I have gone thru for the last several months, it would be your priority as well. I have to say that it’s been hell.

After getting rid of the toxic brush cleaner, I’ve relied on either walnut oil or olive oil to keep my brushes clean. Walnut oil, a friend to oil paints and a great medium, has done a fantastic job, unfortunately it’s getting harder to find at grocery stores. If you use walnut oil on your brushes, don't let them sit around too long without washing them first with soap and water to get rid of the oil. The brushes will harden as the walnut oil dries. Yeah, I could  order some Turpenoid natural at double the cost of walnut oil... not. My other alternative has been olive oil. It’s dirt cheap and I find it around three bucks for a sixteen once bottle at Aldi’s. Olive oil does great job in cleaning brushes. The problem with it is that, like with Turpenoid natural, you need to remove all traces of it from the brush using soap and water. Unfortunately, all brushes don’t take to water kindly. Take Bob Ross brushes, made from hog bristles for example, once introduced to water the bristle begin to flare. They can be brought back to normal however, with a lot of work and plenty of time.

In my search for the perfect, affordable non toxic brush cleaner, I came across Bristle Magic. Bristle Magic is a paint brush cleaner and re-conditioner. It’s biodegradable, non-toxic, non-flammable and supposedly no fumes. Notice that I didn’t mention no-odor. Neither did the bottle. I had some questions regarding the stuff so I contacted the maker via their web site, even got a confirmation of them receiving it and a statement that they will contact me shortly. Never heard from them. It was up to me to locate someone that sold the stuff. I finally found a couple of sites that carried it.  A thirty two ounce bottle cost me about twenty three bucks which includes delivery cost. But don’t go out and order some for yourself quite yet. Keep reading and the decide if this is for you. This is my initial accounts of using Bristle Magic for the first time and is more of a first impression of the stuff. Your experience may differ from mine considering I’ve had to go thru de-tox for several weeks and still have some issues from using toxic brush cleaners and paints.

The first thing I did after opening the bottle, was to sniff it. Hmm, an odor and it was a familiar one, but just couldn’t place it. I poured enough into my brush cleaning system to cover the screen at the bottom. It also stated that you have to clean the brushes with soap and water after washing them in Bristle Magic. I already had my other cleaning systems ready to go. My paint palette had plenty of dried out oil paint from a painting I did a few days ago so the first thing I needed to do was to clean my glass paint palette. I took a brush, wet it in the solution and brushed it on to the dried out paints. I let it soak for about five minutes or so, took a wad of paper towels and began wiping. Not much was happening so I decided to scrape it using my knife.

It took me about fifteen minutes to clean my paint palette, about the same time as it would using walnut oil in the same manner. Okay so cleaning the palette was nothing to write home about and wasn’t any easier with this stuff. Maybe, it really worked wonders on brushes, after all the bottle says, “artists love this stuff”. The viscosity of this brush cleaner was about the same as the toxic cleaners so the paint should settle to the bottom rather than staying suspended as with walnut or olive oil. Both are much more viscous but eventually, the solids do settle to the bottom of my system. I placed some oil paints as usual on my glass palette and began painting using large brushes, as in wet on wet technique. However, I don’t use Bob Ross brushes except for the liner brush so swishing them In water won’t cause them harm.

After painting, I had a few brushes loaded with paint, wiped the excess on a paper towel and began washing them in Bristle Magic. I have to admit that it did a nice job cleaning my brushes although I had to wash them several times before they were totally clean, Walnut and olive oils did it much quicker in my opinion and I didn’t have to wash my brushes several times. By the time I got to my last large brush, the smell of this stuff was really starting to get to me. I started feeling nauseous and a head ache was coming on, perhaps a migraine, so I thought. It just turned out to be a head ache caused by the nasty smell of the stuff. The maker says that it smells like oil but to me it was something else. After a while, it came to me where I had smelled that odor in the past. Car wax has the same smell except you’re out doors and really don’t notice it. I took a whiff of some car wax I had laying around. The car wax was a little weaker as it was pretty old but had the similar smell. I had another recall of the same smell a few minutes later, so I began searching for the source. I found the old reliable Kiwi black shoe polish and opened it up and took a whiff. There it was, the same exact smell but Bristle Magic was much, much stronger. Low VOC is claimed on the bottle however voc‘s never the less. For some, any amount of voc’s can be harmful. Here are a couple of links. Find out for yourself.

http://cdn.dickblick.com/msds/DBH_05733XXXX.pdf

https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/volatile-organic-compounds-impact-indoor-air-quality

Well there went twenty three bucks down the drain as I’m sticking with my walnut or olive oils. They’re cheaper, no odor, non toxic and walnut oil can be used as a medium.

In all fairness to the company, I did have a good experience using the stuff. Forgetting to clean a 2" brush filled with colored gesso, the next morning I found it hard as a rock. I didn't want to just throw it away as it would have been a waste of money and a waste of a decent brush, so I thought I'd give Bristle Magic a try. I let it soak over night,then washed it. To my surprise my brush was like new. All that dried out clumped paint was gone. It actually did what it was supposed to on acrylic paints and gesso.

I found another 1½" brush that had some dried out oil paint by the ferule making my brush a bit stiffer than usual. Once again I let it soak over night and washed it with soap and water to remove the Bristle Magic. Sure enough, my brush was like new once again. Bristle Magic works like it's supposed to. Too bad it smells so damn awful!

Read my review on Turpenoid Natural next

For more art stuff visit me here:Markku-artist