How to Clean Brushes from Acrylic Paint

Nothing is worse than spending a lot of money on paintbrushes and seeing that your brushes are clogged with acrylic paint. In this situation, it’s essential to know how to clean brushes from acrylic paint thoroughly.

Cleaning acrylic paint brush is easy; however, the traditional methods can take a lot of time to remove paint properly. Sometimes it even takes more time than acrylic to paint a wall.

So, here I provided some ways to clean your brush and make it new so you can use it for future painting projects.

How to Clean Acrylic Paint off Brushes?

Here are some ways based on the material used to clean a brush. All these are easy to use because the specific material is readily available in the market. Read them one by one and decide the best one as per your needs and budget:

1. Acetone

Acetone is a chemical that helps break down paint particles from the brush or even on the wall. It has enough capacity to make your brush clean from the paint because of the repulsion forces, due to which color doesn’t stay on the meeting for a long time. Here are some steps to follow this procedure:

Take a beaker or a jar that has a length more than the length of your brush
Now pour acetone into the cup or jar and fill it
Keep the meeting in the acetone filed pot and allow soaking for 20 minutes (You can also keep it for a long time depending upon paint quality)
Now remove the brush from the jar and rub it with the help of a sponge. In this way, all the paint particles will be removed easily
After that, rinse the brush with warm water
After rinsing it with warm water, let it use a towel or an old cotton cloth to wipe away the paint particles
Allow the brush to dry and see the results

Note: don’t worry if paint particles are left behind because it’s expected. In this case, you can repeat the procedure until all the paint particles are removed.

Additionally, you must remember that acetone is a chemical and should avoid it in the eyes and other sensitive skin parts. Wear gloves during the procedure.

Acetone can be a reason to dry the brush hairs, so don’t worry. The paint hairs will gain their original shape and nature after some hours. This procedure mainly works if your paintbrush is wet or not dried enough.

2. Isopropyl Alcohol

If you ask how to clean acrylic brushes, I would like to answer using hard alcohol. Isopropyl alcohol is the best choice if acrylic paint on the brush is dried. This alcohol is readily available in most homes; if it’s not available, you can buy it from the nearest market. Make sure to wear gloves and start cleaning the brush in a ventilated area while using isopropyl alcohol to clean your paint-affected brush. Now follow these steps one by one:

Take a beaker or jar, which should have more length than your brush
Now pour alcohol and fill the pot or beaker
Keep the brush in such a way that it dips into the alcohol inside the jar
Allow the reaction of the alcohol with the brush and paint
After 10-20 minutes, remove the brush from the beaker and clean it with a towel or cotton
After this, rinse the meeting with warm water

Alcohol is more reactive than acetone, so make sure it does not stay in the jar for a long time. It can harden your brush and its bristles. To avoid it, you should remove the meeting after a short time.

How to Clean Brushes from Acrylic Paint

3. Mineral Spirits

How to clean paint brushes with mineral spirits is a frequently asked question. Mineral spirit is not reactive enough with acrylic paint. However, you can use it if you don’t have any other option. This spirit is available in most people’s homes so you can use it.

The reason why it’s not good enough is that it’s reactive in oil-based paint. Acrylic paint is not oil but water-based paint since both are liquids; you can try your luck.
Steps to follow this procedure are given below:

Pour the spirit into a jar or beaker
Keep the brush in the pot and allow it to soak for some time (you can keep the brush for a long time because the spirit does not have harmful effects)
Remove the brush from the jar and clean it with a towel. You can also use a scrub or sponge to rub the paint on the meeting, and in this way, all the paint particles will break down
Rinse the brush with warm water and allow it to dry

Don’t worry if the paint is not removed from the alcohol, as there are other ways to try to remove paint from the brush.

4. Vinegar

Using vinegar is one of the smooth and fearless ways to remove acrylic paint from the brush. It’s easy to use and doesn’t adversely affect human health.

In my experience, your paintbrush remains soft and safe when it comes to knowing about its bristles and hairs. You don’t need to wear gloves or any additional safety equipment, as vinegar is 100% safe. Here are the steps to use it:

Take an electric-resistant glass beaker or any ordinary jar available at your home; if it’s not available, I recommend buying it from the nearest market.
Now pour the liquid vinegar into the beaker so your brush can quickly be dipped into it.
Put the jar in an electric cooking pot and turn it on.
Allow the vinegar to heat enough, turn off the pot, and remove the jar from it.
Now dip the brush into the heated vinegar and allow it to react for a few minutes; you can keep the brush dipped into the vinegar for an hour for excellent cleaning results.
After one hour, remove the meeting from the vinegar and clean it with a towel.
Rinse the brush with warm water until all the paint is removed.

Note: this method is helpful for wet and dry painted brushes.

5. Comb

This method is excellent if you struggle to remove the dry paint from the brush. Here are the steps to follow:

Take a beaker and fill it with warm water.
Dip the brush into the water for some minutes.
Remove the brush from the water and hold the bristles tightly with your hands; if you have a perfect grasper, you can also use a home item.
Now take the comb and scrub the paintbrush such that all the dried paint is removed.
This way, all the large paint particles will be removed, so it’s easy to follow another method to clean the brush thoroughly.

Note: Compared to other methods, this will take more time, so always start it when you have enough time and are free.

Tips to Maintain Your Paint Brushes for a Long Time

Maintaining your brush quality and keeping it safe for a long time is difficult. So, here are some tips that can help you enhance the durability of a paintbrush, whether you use it for acrylic paint or any other paint:

Tip1. Storing the Brush

How you store your brush matters a lot. Always hold your brush so the bristles and hairs are unaffected and not turned from the actual position. Also, please keep them in a towel or a protective piece of cloth for a long time.

Tip2. Trimming and Conditioning of the Brush

Trimming and conditioning the brushes is another essential way to protect them from further damage. Most of the time, while painting heavy metals or during industrial paints, the bushes get severe damage from the end of the bristles. It’s good to trim and cut these ends to avoid further injuries. Cut down, so that only damaged ends are trimmed; don’t cut them off too much in length.

Applying the conditioner is another way to keep your brushes safe. These conditioners are oil-based substances, so the ends of the bristles remain softened, which is suitable for their long-term storage. Apply the oil to the brush for a long time and allow it to react actively. After dipping a meeting in the oil for some hours, remove and rinse it with warm water. Both are the easiest and most cost-effective ways to keep your brushes safe for a long time

Tip3. Washing Paint Brushes

Washing the paint brushes immediately after you have used them for painting a specific wall or place is a perfect way to maintain their quality. In this way, paint is removed when it’s wet, and you are now free to get rid of the dried paint, which is a big headache.

Tip4. Don’t Soak Paint Brushes for a Long Time

It’s necessary to dip and soak the brush in different chemicals depending upon the situation of your paint for some time. However, don’t soak a paintbrush for a long time. Otherwise, you can face permanent brush damage issues. Hence the next time to paint even a small portion, you need to buy a new paintbrush which can be expensive. You can ask the professional or see the labels of chemicals and other products to see the required time for soaking the brush.

Restore Damage Brushes

Some Homemade Acrylic Paint Brush Cleaners

If you don’t have enough budget to buy cleaners or different chemicals, here I provide a homemade method to clean your brush from acrylic paint. This method is easy, but you need time and full attention. All the products used in this method are readily available at your home.

Required material

Liquid dish soap
Olive oil
Gloves
Water
Beaker

Procedure

First, you need to wear gloves to avoid the side effects of the soap
Now take a beaker and mix equal portions of the olive oil and dish soap
After the mixture is ready, pour it slowly on the paintbrush so that all the bristles are thoroughly wet with the mixture
Leave the mixture on the brush for some time and allow it to react
After some minutes, clean the meeting with a towel or use a sponge to rub the paint
Rinse the brush with warm water and allow it to dry

Note: if you see that paint particles are left behind during the meeting, you can repeat this procedure until the session is entirely free of acrylic paint.

Best Brush Cleaners for Acrylic Paint

Here are some top-rated cleaners for acrylic paint brushes which help clean the brushes quickly.

1. Speedball Pink Soap Brush Cleaner

It is an excellent brush that helps remove paint from the meeting and soften the brush bristles. Using this cleaner is very easy. You need to get the color on the encounter with it and then allow a reaction. After some minutes, rub the brush with a sponge or scrub. Now rinse the brush with warm water.

Note: Besides removing the acrylic paint, this cleaner is also helpful for eliminating oil and water-based paints.

2. The Master’s Brush Cleaner and Preserver

This acrylic paint cleaner uses some tin in its preparation which helps remove acrylic and oil-based paints from the brush. It also works as a preserver, and hence you can increase the durability of the meeting by using it for a long time. Using this cleaner is easy. Firstly remove the largest paint particles from the brush and then soak it in the cleaner for 10 minutes. Now remove the meeting and rinse it with warm water. Clean it with a towel and allow it to dry.

How to Clean Acrylic Paint Brushes Which Are Dried?

All the ways mentioned above help clean the wet or dried acrylic paint brush. These ways are easy to apply. Still, if you are wondering how to remove dried acrylic paint from the meeting, read this guide.

First, you should use liquid vinegar because it’s not bad for human skin. So, if you get in touch with it during the process, there is no worry. Dip the brush into the vinegar for hours (You can dip it for more time depending upon the quality and hardness of the paint). Now clean the meeting with a towel and rub it to remove any remaining paint particles.

Hopefully, vinegar will remove all the paint perfectly, so you don’t need to follow any other method. However, if you still feel for the betterment, then using the paint cleaners mentioned above is the ideal choice.

Acrylic Paint Care for New Brushes

Most people use the brush after removing it from the box, which is not a good way. It would help if you did some work on it before using it for painting. Here are some tips for how to wash acrylic paintbrush that is new:

Take a beaker and our some warm water in it
Now dip the brush in the water (make sure that its bristles are in the correct position)
Now remove the meeting from the water
Remove excess water with water-absorbent
Dry the session with a towel
Now you can use the brush for painting

Taking Care of the Acrylic Paint Brush While Painting

Taking care of the acrylic paintbrush while painting is more important. Of course, everyone wants to keep the brush in a safe position and in good shape. For this purpose, you need to apply paint to the meeting so that the bristle’s work is not affected. Please don’t allow the hairs of the brush to turn specifically from their tips. Now follow these steps to maintain the shape and durability value of the paintbrush!

First of all, remove the excessive and wet paint from the brush with the help of a towel
Take a beaker and fill it with water. Dip the brush into the water and stir it
Now move the brush into the beaker to paint the cup
Repeat the procedure until observe that all the paint is removed from the brush
Now clean it with the towel, rinse it with warm water, and allow it to dry

Note: If the paint is quick to dry on the bristles or if you mixed different colors due to which paint bristles turned over the tips, in this case, you should use any home item to remove paint from the information.

Care of Acrylic Paint Brush

Care of Acrylic Paint Brush after Completion of the Paint

It’s essential to clean the acrylic paintbrush once you have completed the painting project. After cleaning and preserving it, the meeting remains durable for a long time. Here are the steps to clean the brush after painting

Buy a cleaner and pour it on the brush bristles
Allow the cleaner to react on the bristles
Now rinse the brush, specifically the bristles, in warm water
Clean the brush with a towel and allow it to dry

This process will take time to clean the brush. You can repeat the procedure until all the paint is removed. Make sure to rinse the brush with water before starting this procedure. This way, all the big dry and wet paint particles will be removed, and it’s easy for you to clean the brush with less effort, energy, and time.

Frequently Asked Questions- How to clean Brushes

No, rinsing the brush with water doesn’t wash off the bristles. However, you must remember that if the strands are too dry and have turned their tips/ends, the bristles are highly likely to be washed off during the rinsing process. Before rinsing, you must soften the hair using cleaners and vinegar.

Those brushes prepared using natural hair work best with acrylic paint. They have fewer chances to turn over their tips because they are rugged and durable. At the same time, those brushes made using synthetic hairs are not stable and are soft. These soft tips have a high chance of turning and breaking their tips.

Using homemade cleaners, you do not need to wear gloves; hence, you can wash the paint with bare hands. However, using chemicals and cleaners, you must wear gloves to avoid skin issues.

Wrapping Up- How to Clean Brushes from the Acrylic Paint

I hope that you now understand enough about cleaning acrylic brushes. Using vinegar is an effective and risk-free method. However, if it does not work, you can follow other procedures depending on the item and the product availability. For those who are skin sensitive, ready-made cleaners are a good choice. Still, if you have any questions about the paintbrush cleaning process, feel free to ask anytime.