I have long believed that Close to My Heart has the best stamp cleaner and scrubber on the market. I would love to tell you more and more, but I will let this article by Craft Critique do it for me. You can purchase this scrubber and cleaner on my website.
Review | Close To My Heart My Acrylix Spritz Cleaner & Scrubber Brush
October 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I’m always on the lookout for new stamp cleaners that work well, so I was itching to try this My Acrylix Spritz Cleaner from Close To My Heart with my existing Close To My Heart Acrylix stamps and also with other manufacturers’ ones. I’m also intrigued by the Scrubber Brush, which is sold separately in their catalog (I prefer this since I think it’s best not be frog marched into buying stuff we don’t want when everything is put in a kit ). The Scrubber feels really sturdy and has a plastic cover so that it doesn’t get dusty or stain something inadvertently after a stamp cleaning session.
I’m going to use two different inks to test the cleaning properties of Close to My Heart My Acrylix Spritz Cleaner: Versafine and Rangers. I believe it’s going to be good, also, to test the Spritz with and without the Scrubber brush.
The My Acrylix Spritz Cleaner comes in two formats – a 2 fl oz. with an atomizer ($4.25) and a refill bottle of 8 fl oz. ($11.50). Check for the latest prices with your Close To My Heart consultant.
As for the Scrubber brush ($12.95), I really like the fact that it is described as “Ideal for cleaning all inks, especially pigment inks”. Unfortunately pigment inks can be quite stubborn to remove and leave tell-tale signs on your polymer and acrylic stamps after supposedly being removed.
After spraying around and using the mopping method with paper towel, I found no difference between the Close to My Heart and other similar cleaners and when using pigment inks there’s some residue left in the design grooves as expected. But the cleaner comes into its own when using the brush with it – I’ve noticed that it is slightly better when combined with that tool. It worked very well with archival inks too and the stamps came up really clean.
Despite its effectiveness, the cleaner was gentle with the acrylic stamps and I didn’t feel the need to rinse them ( I do however rinse my silicone, acrylic and polymer stamps even when using the all purpose Staz-on cleaner, perhaps a bit paranoid but it feels to me to be such a strong cleaner ). It feels also that the My Acrylix cleaner has an emollient or moisturizing effect on stamps – some of my clear stamps felt a bit dry but after I cleaned them they seem to be softer to the touch.
My Acrylix Spritz Cleaner is a fairly good cleaner but it comes into its own thanks to the brush. I don’t think one gets good value for the quantity (2 ozs; 56ml) for the little spray bottle; I would personally, instead, get the brush and the refill bottle and use an existing spray bottle I have lying around.
Pros:
- Good all round cleaner
- Doesn’t need rinsing as it seems to me a mild enough cleaner
- Easy to use spray bottle
- Pleasant flowery smell
- Seemed like it moisturized the stamps while cleaning
Cons:
- It needs to be used with the brush tool to really pick up most of the pigment ink residues
- Spray bottle is on the small side as opposed to other cleaners and value for money is questionable as a result
- You need to get the refill to make it a good value
My Acrylix Spritz Cleaner is available from Close To My Heart for $4.25 for a 2 fl oz. with an atomizer, and $11.50 for the 8 oz refill bottle. The My Acrylix Scrubber Brush is available from Close To My Heart for $12.9
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog post!