How I save brushes with dried acrylic paint (a simple rescue trick)
Dried acrylic paint on brushes is brutal.
One moment you’re painting, the next your brushes are stiff, glued together, and feel completely ruined.
This happens a lot in my house — sometimes because I live with a creative teenager… and sometimes because I am the messy adolescent in the story 😉
Either way, today I’m sharing a very simple trick to remove dried acrylic paint from brushes and make them usable again. It’s not magic, not a secret technique, and it doesn’t require any rare or expensive product — just an easy rescue method that actually works.
The problem: dried acrylic = unusable brushes
When acrylic paint dries on brushes, it behaves a bit like glue. The bristles stick together, become stiff, and you can’t simply wash the paint off because it dries into plastic.
These are the kind of brushes people usually throw away. I almost did, many times in the past.
But then I found an old bottle of hand sanitiser in my car and decided to give it a go.
Before the rescue
The simple rescue trick
Here’s the simple method.
The trick is to use hydroalcoholic gel (yes, the hand sanitiser kind).
I pour a small amount into a cup — no need for much, especially if the bristles aren’t very long.
Then:
Drop the brushes into the gel
Make sure the bristles are fully coated
Leave them overnight
That’s it.
You can check them after an hour or two, move the brushes slightly in the gel, and make sure the bristles stays well covered. You’ll already notice they start to soften.
After the treatment
The Morning After
The next day, the brushes feel much softer.
You’ll notice that the paint seems to have disappeared from the brushes, it’s actually disolved into the gel.
Then, simply wipe off the excess gel and rinse the brushes in clear water.
Now you can test the brushes one by one and see that they are flexible again. Even the worst one is now soft and usable. Not brand new, of course — but absolutely paint-ready.
Et voilà!
Bonus test: reusing the same gel
Just when I thought I was done, I found another small pile of forgotten brushes buried under things on the table.
I decided to try something: using the same gel again, without adding fresh product.
Good news — it worked perfectly. So yes, you can reuse the gel.
EXTRA TIP: it also works on dried acrylic on clothes (test on a small area first).
👉 Watch the full video here.
And if you have your own brush‑rescue tricks, I’d love to hear them.
Thanks for reading — and happy painting ✨
If you enjoy practical studio tips like this one, you’ll probably like what I share on YouTube and in my newsletter, it’s where I document the real, messy, ongoing process:
