I’ve spent weekends in my garage, pouring resin over everything from old skateboards to thrift store coasters. Adding acrylic paint into epoxy feels a bit like chemistry and art coming together with stubborn personalities. The swirl of color hits the clear resin, and those early moments look full of promise. Then, things get interesting in ways the YouTube tutorials rarely mention.
Acrylic paint opened up new ways to add life to resin art. The colors pop, the cost stays low, and almost every craft store keeps it stocked in dozens of shades. Epoxy resin, on its own, showcases a glossy shine that’s hard to match. Blending them, artists get to trap vibrant strokes in crystal-clear plastic, locking a moment in time with depth and light refraction. People use this pairing to make river tables, jewelry, wall art, and practical pieces like coasters and cutting boards. The look sells, which is why so many creators keep tinkering with these materials.
It’s not always smooth sailing. Mix too much paint and the resin might turn cloudy. Colors can clump, separate, or cure with nasty surface textures. Unlike resin tints or alcohol inks, acrylics are water-based. Epoxy hates water. This can cause bubbles or keep the resin from curing hard. Try moving a finished piece outside and some turn sticky again, smelling odd and picking up dust with every breeze.
Safety and reliability matter if you’re selling artwork or housewares. If a coffee mug sticks to a resin coaster long after it’s “cured,” you have a problem. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission warns about the dangers of uncured resins leaching chemicals. The environmental impact doesn’t stop there—resin pieces that fail to cure properly can’t be recycled or composted, so they end up in landfill.
Epoxy resin comes as a two-part system: a resin and a hardener. Most brands warn users against blending in anything that isn’t specifically designed for their product. Paasche, a well-known resin company, points out that acrylic paint changes both cure time and the chemical reaction. Resins won’t always harden if acrylic levels rise above 5-7 percent of the mix.
I’ve used less than a teaspoon of paint per cup of resin. Any more and projects felt rubbery or never set. Friends in resin art groups online share the same advice—test in small batches, stick with high-quality, fluid acrylics, and watch the mixing ratio. In some cases, artists prefer resin pigments or pastes made just for this purpose because they guarantee a solid cure and even color.
So, what can help here? Pre-mix acrylic paint with a drop of isopropyl alcohol to break bubbles before adding resin. Let acrylic layers dry completely before pouring resin over them. Seal surfaces with a clear coat before flooding with resin—this stops color bleed.
Growing awareness around safety means more hobbyists wear gloves, use good ventilation, and choose products with clear ingredient lists. Leading with transparency and testing before selling anything keeps both customers and artists safe. Epoxy and acrylic keep drawing creators who love big, risky color, but learning from mistakes and sharing tips in online communities makes better work and fewer headaches.
