Baby Oil Versus Turpenoid

Recently I've had students discussing using baby oil to clean their brushes as a safer, less smelly method than using turpenoid.  As I had never heard anything of this nature before - and believe me, I learned from people who knew how to save a dime - I decided to look into using baby oil for your brushes. 

There is lots of information on the interweb about cleaning your skin with baby oil.  In fact, even Dawn detergent has oil in it (that's their secret) because oil helps remove oils.  Therefore it makes perfect sense that baby oil will take paint off your skin.  After skimming through a blogged dialog, this is a comment that I encountered from 2001.

"A word of caution about baby oil:

Yes, baby oil will clean your hands and brushes, but before you use those brushes again, make sure that they are washed out really well with turp before beginning your next painting session.

If you do not wash the baby oil completely out of your brushes, the baby oil will cause "bloom" which causes your painting to develop blotches that can not be worked over.

I learned this the hard way. :( I was using baby oil and going right back into my painting which was a big mistake. I also was using the baby oil to clean my brush so I could use another color during the same painting session. Now I use safflower oil .... which works just a good...but maybe doesn't smell as good.... and safflower oil is okay with oils...as a matter of fact, some colors already have safflower oil in them. :)"

To the individual who wrote this comment: Thank You!  Personally, I think the safflower oil sounds great, but I have no interest in reconstructing this experiment to find out if it's true.  I'm taking her word! 

The variety of techniques are as variable as the artists that use them.  Testing different methods and techniques is the only way to discover what will work best for us individually.  We will all make changes over time as our needs vary with our growth and intentions.  Stay open to the possibilities.  But in the meantime:

Use the baby oil on your hands.... use the safflower oil on your brushes.