****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I recommend without hesitation the use of Lavender Spike Oil to modify paints or mediums while oil painting. Chelsea Classic Lavender Spike Oil Essence is great, with very high quality and clarity. It is a very nice substitute for the good old standby - Turp - but without the turp odor and its harmful VOCs. Spike Oil evaporates about as quickly as turp, and much quicker than OMS and with smoother solvent properties. (OMS is much too knife-sharp as a medium solvent, and slow.)My suggestion is to use Lavender Spike Oil to modify paints or mediums. Use citrus brush cleaner or Lavender Oil essence brush cleaner for your brushes, Safflower oil in your brush bath to preserve those brushes... and Chelsea Lavender Spike Oil for the painting process itself.And it smells great, too!Most of my oil painting brushes are tested and great tools. Cheap or expensive, they are cleaned with this product!!Will continue to buy this product for my oil paintingsThe product is used for cleaning oil paint from brushes. It works well and does not emit harmful fumes into the atmosphere.This is my first time trying it so I hope it makes my paintings last I do have to say the smell was very relaxing.This works great as a paint thinner, non-toxic and safe without any harmful carcinogens being inhaled. That is the major reason why I bought this, no worries about contaminating the environment or my health. However, the lavender scent is STRONG. I wore a mask, turned the fan on and cracked a window yet I still smelled the lavender and it triggered my asthma. It also made me really sleepy for some reason. I will have to paint in a separate room, leave my art supplies in there and close the door when I leave so the lavender smell does not permeate elsewhere and trigger me again.It’s a pleasant product to work with when mixing paints. Paints mix very well without the use of turpentine or its smells.I already wrote a review that I would like to remove but I can't find it. The applied retouch varnish damaged my painting attacking greens, reds and yellow... Well, I communicated with an expert from Jerry's Artarama who explained to me that even a retouch varnish is allowed to apply after the painting had at least 3 months to dry. I had been told by a painter that it's ok to retouch varnish after some days... After a research online, I stand corrected. It was my bad! I applied the varnish 44 days after painting - too early! I want to return the honor to the product - Lavender Retouch Varnish is just gr eat; only the artist (me) had a lack of knowledge. Last but not least, the lavender smell - excellent! I don't know if it is the right place to write about the very friendly and helpful customer service of the company Jerry's Artarama. Since I explained to them that I applied the varnish 44 days after finishing the painting they knew that it was my mistake. Even though the company immediately processed a refund for the purchased product.
