I have a confession to make—I LOVE Mona Lisa Pink Soap Artist Brush Cleaner by Speedball. I first encountered it in college when I was looking for a decent, yet inexpensive soap for cleaning my paint brushes. I gave this one a try and I was hooked. At the time, I was using oil paints, so I used it after an initial cleaning with solvent to remove the bulk of the paint from the brush. This soap was fantastic at getting rid of the last of the paint residue and leaving my brushes clean and in good condition.
Now I paint mostly with acrylic or water-mixable oil paints, and Pink Soap tackles both of these quite easily. I use a few drops of soap in the palm of my hand and work it into the bristles, then rinse and repeat until no more paint comes out of the brush. It even does a decent job at removing dried paint and residual staining from the bristles, though no product will remove All staining. And honestly, I don’t particularly care if my paint brush bristles are stained, as long as they’re clean. The scent is pleasant and it also seems to leave my hands (and brush bristles) feeling soft. It does a great job at removing dried paint from my hands too.
Now, I’m not one of those people who leave their paint brushes covered in paint, so I don’t know how well this soap would work for thick, very dry paint (If that sounds like you, try this soap out and let me know how it works!). I’ve tried a few other brush cleaners over the years, but I keep coming back to Mona Lisa Pink Soap . It smells nice, is non-toxic, and not overly messy. It’s also easy to find, since it’s carried in several of the major craft stores, like Michael’s, as well as online.
What is your favorite brush cleaner? Have you ever tried Mona Lisa Pink Soap? If so, what did you think?
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