Sometimes little things can make a big difference.
I was reminded of that today while I was cleaning up after a painting session – which only lasted an hour but created a big mess! For many years, this was a huge issue since it took a half hour just to get the paint off my hands, let alone my brushes. If I had a free hour, I wouldn’t even think about picking up a paint brush since the cleanup time was so long.
Anyone visiting my home studio can see that I am not the neatest painter in the world. I use a lot of brushes and have a nasty habit of not putting the caps back on my oil paint tubes. While I tried many non-toxic cleaners through the years, none of them seemed to work well with oils, especially on my hands. I walked around with stained hands and kept my nails short so the paint under my nails wouldn’t look so obnoxious, often dreaming about the good old days when I used water-soluble acrylics to avoid the whole cleanup issue.
Little did I know how my life would change for the better when my friend Janet, the office manager for my nutritionist, recommended a new non-toxic household cleaning product called Branch Basics. A week later, I was painting in the late afternoon and had totally lost track of time. All of a sudden, I realized that my husband and I were supposed to leave for a party in 45 minutes. I looked down at my hands and groaned out loud because they were covered in red, blue and green paint, all primary colors that stain the skin quite badly (I was working on a cupcake with sprinkles on top). In desperation, I spotted the bottle of Branch Basics next to the sink, grabbed it and began spraying my hands, just like I did today when they were covered in Oreo Cookie brown paint.
Then I used paper towel to start wiping the paint off. To my surprise (and yes, I am still surprised every time!), the paint actually began coming off easily.
Voila! It’s really quite amazing that it only took 3 minutes to get my hands completely clean! I had the feeling I was watching a magic trick that collapsed 30 minutes into 3 minutes – and did the job better too. (Please excuse me if I am starting to sound like an infomercial. By the way, we did make it to the party on time.)
I decided to share this wonderful product with all of you so you can stop your search for the perfect hand cleaner. As far as I know, Branch Basics is only available online. I would recommend purchasing the Starter Kit shown below at http://branchbasics.com/shop/starter-kit-small/
Branch Basics Starter Kit
The product comes in a concentrated form that can be diluted for various uses that are discussed in the user guide that comes with your shipment, and which is posted online at http://branchbasics.com/user-guide/. I use the 1:1 ratio on my hands, which means mixing 1 part Branch Basics concentrate with 1 part water. If you decide to try the product and would like a 15% discount, please contact me and I’ll send you the code.
I am starting to experiment with cleaning my brushes using the undiluted form. For the moment, I am still using a combination of olive oil and The Masters Brush Cleaner. I’ll keep you posted.
In the meantime, I have a busy day scheduled tomorrow, and look forward to picking up my paint brush for the limited time I do have between commitments – hopefully more than once. It’s still hard to believe how this one little thing has given me so much more flexibility to paint in short intervals throughout the day, and how dramatically it has changed my attitude toward painting with oils. I hope it does the same for you.
