Testing Dimethicone for Acrylic Pouring Cells: KY True Feel (Part 1)

Today is the first part of a 3-part video series where I will be testing various different Dimethicone products to see how they produce cells in our flip cup paintings.

Today I am using:
KY True Feel personal lubricant – ingredients listed as 100% dimethicone

There are various forms of silicone that you can add to your painting. You may have used the spray can siliconeadded to the paint either as a spray, or sprayed it into a bottle and used the liquid with a dropper. I started out this way and it works certainly, but I don’t really like the smell of these products.

I upgraded to the 100% silicone oil in the form of the treadmill belt silicone and it’s been just great. You don’t need a lot, there is no color or smell and it even comes in a perfect dropper bottle. But in the same of science and letting you know all the options, today I will be testing out the skin-friendly version of silicone oil known as Dimethicone. It’s commonly used in hair care products and body lotions.

I’m assuming that it’s use in hair care products has been tested, especially with regard to heating it with hair dryers and flattening irons, therefore, I am assuming that it is safe to gently heat it with our torches during the painting process. However I have no verified data on this, so please use your own judgment and take any precautions that you feel are necessary when adding dimethicone or any additives to your paint.

With that warning out of the way, let’s take a look at the three products I’ve selected for the test and the one that I am using in the painting for today.

So there you can see that the 100% pure dimethicone did produce cells easily in a flip cup situation. The KY product is easy to use with a dropperand very fluid. Colorless and without any smell, it appears to be ideal to use in your pour paintings. More testing to come over the next couple of days.

14 thoughts on “Testing Dimethicone for Acrylic Pouring Cells: KY True Feel (Part 1)”

    1. I used my regular formula of 2:1 paint to Floetrol + water as needed. Then the dimethicone.

  1. The KY came out great n cells yet again color made a difference you didn’t like the painting mainly because of the green. I loved the orange and blue . Which one do we go by? The cells or the color. I’m guilty of seeing the color first then the cells. Again it would be interesting if the three tests were all the same color but you put different brands of dimethicone in each set of colors. I hope I’m getting my point across. Thank you so much for all you do to show many people the art of pouring.

    1. Absolutely, I totally understand. I could have used all the same colors but I didn’t like how the first one came out so it didn’t seem much fun to use them again and make yet another ugly painting! Color choices are the most difficult part for me.

    2. Jenn Skotnicki

      I absolutely LOVED that painting. The colors were amazing. But I love painting with green. Thank you for the tips in the video!

  2. Can I use a hair blower on hot, or a craft heat gun in lieu of a torch? How much distance should be between the torch/ heat gun to tge paint? Thx so much! I don’t want to catch fire!!

    1. The hairdryer probably not because there is too much air, the craft heat gun perhaps yes if it gets hot enough. You want to keep it far enough away that it doesn’t scorch or bubble the paint, but close enough that the heat gently warms the paint and allows the cells to form. You will get the hang of it 🙂

  3. Thanks Deby for your generosity and everyone who gave constructive comments. It simply shade lights into my art potential to develop this newly introduced art style 🙂

  4. Deby, It is not surprising your painting came out overwhelmingly green, you not only put yellow and blue in your cup which makes green, but then you added additional green to it. And you poured the paints into your dirty cup from high over the cup which makes the colors mix even more. Perhaps you should totally leave out the green paint from the mix, and just use the white, orange, blue and yellow, and gently pour closer to the dirty cup. I would think you will still get some green from the mix, but would have more of your blue and yellow and orange coming through. Just something to ponder…

  5. I’ve just started looking into this amazing art form. Your website and videos are perfect for me. So informative, and allow me to look at alternative products to use. You can currently get KY for a £1 a bottle, plus buy some PVA and i can experiment quite cheaply. Really informative and a great voice for radio!

    1. That’s awesome, Gary! We appreciate the feedback and hope you have a great time pouring. 🙂

  6. I too am new to this type of painting. You have been very helpful in answering a lot of my questions. I agree with Debbie on your choice of colors. Like she said the mixture of blue and yellow made enough green that green did not need to be added. But it turned out very pretty to me!!

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