Kiss my face

OK, so this is a geeky artist posting mostly for my fellow painters.  I bought about 6 bars of this Kiss My Face olive oil soap a while back because I love that it's cruelty-free and that there is no perfume.  And as soap goes, it's been a great thing to use for the bod.  Although, it is "meltier" and hence uglier than other soaps, but who cares, right?

Well, recently, just as a "nothing to lose" exercise, I tried putting a bunch of this soapy mess on some oil brushes that I had forgotten to clean up and which had become just rock hard with paint and medium.  I was reluctant to toss the brushes since they'd cost at least $12 a pop and there were 8 of them, so if artists could do math, that's like a million dollars right there.

Well, this soap is a MIRACLE worker!!  I have salvaged seven brushes completely so far and have hope for Mr. Eight.  So just wanted to give this little product some love on my blog.

Maybe my artist friends are already onto this idea (in which case, hey, why didn't you TELL me?) but in case this is a new notion, here's the scoop.  I just slathered the soap slime liberally on the brush hairs and let sit overnight, rinsed out as much as possible the next day and then (where flexible enough) swirled the brush hairs into the soap again to get even more soap even further in there, used my fingers to shape the brush hairs back into a semi-normal position, let that sit for a few hours, repeat as necessary.

These bars cost about $3 each and are large (8 ounces.)  Compare that to brush cleaning soap from an art supply store that typically retails for $8 for about 3 ounces.  Oh Marketing!