Mixing color into resin looks like an easy shortcut for crafts and art. Plenty of folks reach for heavy body acrylic paint because it’s already on the studio table and budget-friendly. Anyone who works with both materials knows how tempting it feels to fold these together. But as with most studio shortcuts, grabbing the nearest tube can land you in trouble you didn’t see coming.
Heavy body acrylic paint has a base of water and acrylic polymer emulsion. It’s thick, easy to spread, and dries fast on canvas. Epoxy resin, on the other hand, relies on a two-part chemical reaction that creates a hard, glasslike finish. Oil and water don't mix, but neither do cured resin and wet acrylic. If you blend acrylic paint—especially heavy body—into resin, the water in the paint interferes with the delicate chemical reaction. That leads to cloudy pours, streaks, and soft spots where the resin didn’t cure properly. Instead of a smooth, durable finish, you end up with a surface that scratches and clouds up after only a few uses.
Walk into any art supply store and you’ll find pigment paste designed for resin, but these cost more and sometimes take hunting down. Acrylic paint is affordable, comes in every color, and most people own it already. Some online videos show quick mixing tricks that look successful—until you look closer and see micro-bubbles, odd textures, or projects that warped after a few weeks. Doing things the fast way can mean wasted supplies and time, and no one likes to watch their work crumble after all the effort.
Resin wants dry, powdery pigment or specialty colorants called resin dyes. Dry pigment powders blend seamlessly with resin’s components because they contain no water to gum up the works. Alcohol-based resin dyes, often used by professional crafters, dissolve directly into the resin and cure rock solid. They deliver the deep, glossy color people love in resin jewelry, tabletop art, or river pour furniture. Buying the right material changes the final look and durability, and in my own studio experiments, the results couldn’t have been clearer.
A few years ago, I made coasters for gifts using thick acrylic paint to color clear epoxy. They looked good for a day, but tiny bubbles crept up overnight, and one ruined piece even sagged in the heat. That experience pushed me to try resin-specific colorants. The difference? Night and day. No more tacky or sticky cures. The color stayed locked in—no more fading, no more clouding, and best of all, no disappointment.
Begin with small cups and practice pours using resin pigments, even if it costs a little more. Read the manufacturer's list for both resin and colorant compatibility. For those drawn to experimentation, try adding mica powder, which gives gorgeous shimmer without hurting cure strength. Avoid paints with added water or fillers—those just don’t mesh with the resin’s chemical needs.
Shortcuts seem appealing, but materials often don’t play together as nicely as you hope. Smart choices with pigment make the difference between a project that wows and one stuck in a drawer with regrets. Artists deserve their work to last, and that means matching each tool to its best use—resin colorant with resin, acrylic paint with canvas.
