Review: Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver

After publishing the video of my worn out brushes recently, I've suggestions from viewers to check out the Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver (MCBP)

So I was at Straits Art the other day and saw that they were selling it, just beneath the tubes of Daniel Smith paints. I actually already have a brush soap, the Da Vinci Brush Soap, but the MCBP wasn't expensive so I bought it to try.

That's how the packaging looks like. This is available in 1, 2.5 and 24 ounce, that's 28g, 70g and 680g. I wonder who needs the 680g option.

The one I bought came with 70g of soap in the plastic container.

The Masters' plastic container is better than my Da Vinci's metal tin which is rusting like crazy, and as a result it makes the soap dirty.

These are the instructions on the back. In short, rinse your brush with warm water, clean it with the soap, rinse it clean again. If you want to reshape the tip, after you clean it with water, put some soap back on to re-shape the tip and let it dry.

Here's how my brushes look when they are dry, before I washed them and restore them. The brushes from left to right are 3x Rosemary, 2x Nevskaya Palitra and 2x Wild Plein.

I've had the Rosemary and Nevskaya Palitra brushes since 2014. They are well used, and the Rosemary brushes are almost worn out, especially the two smaller brushes on the left.

Here's how my brushes look when they are wet. Note that some of the puffy brushes are able to maintain a point when wet.

These are the strokes from the brushes before I used the brush soap.

These are how the brushes look after they were cleaned, restored by the brush soap and dried thorough. Because there's soap on the bristles, the puffy looking brushes are now able to hold a point when dry.

These are the two problematic Rosemary brushes. The bottom one is the one with worn out tip. It may look like the brush soap was able to get both brushes to hold their points, but when the brushes are used for painting, the bottom brush goes blunt again.

The top stroke is from the blunt brush. The bottom two strokes are from the Rosemary brush that I thought was blunt but has improved after the cleaning and restore. I was actually quite surprised that I was able to get the point back.

The brush soap can definitely help preserve the brush and make them last longer. But it's not magical soap so it's not going to restore really worn brushes back to their original points.

There's probably no difference between the Masters and Da Vinci brush soap. You can also use the Da Vinci brush soap to restore brushes. The only downside of the Da Vinci is the metal tin that will rust.

Overall, having a brush soap is definitely worth the money. The soap is inexpensive and can help make your expensive brushes last longer. It's a good deal. There's almost no reason not to buy one if you paint with brushes.

Availability

You can check out more reviews of the Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver via these product links:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | Jackson's Art (UK)