Acrylic paint catches the eye as an easy color fix in a studio. Tubes last ages on most shelves. Plenty of people want more color options when working with epoxy resin. The temptation hits—just squirt acrylic right into the cup and see what happens. The first lesson comes quick: the results don’t always match the dream.
Acrylic paint’s water base never really becomes friends with resin. Pouring those two together starts off smooth, but as the minutes tick by, resin and acrylic chase different goals. The resin sits there curing, hardening into a clear shell, while droplets of acrylic sometimes float or clump. Colors might look cloudy. Sometimes, bits of separated color pop up as odd streaks or little fish eyes in a finished piece.
From my own early days, I grabbed affordable acrylics to experiment with resin pours. Small batches worked better, but with a big batch and a heavy hand on pigment, curing turned unpredictable. One piece never completely hardened. Another split down the middle with cracks after a few weeks. Online forums echo this: trouble shows up in tacky textures, soft patches, and gloppy puddles.
Chemically, epoxy needs two parts—resin and hardener—to join up, cross-link, and become solid. Water or extra additives get in their way. Add too much acrylic and water breaks up the system. Even a little can stretch out cure time and make finished art more brittle. Fiddling with the mix ratio, as some suggest, doesn’t create much improvement.
Beyond the chemistry, there’s the color. Acrylic lures folks in with bold, wild shades, but resin alone struggles to hold those particles in place. Colors sometimes fade or blur, sinking out of sight. There’s nothing worse than pouring neon pink and ending up with dull bones in a clear slab a week later.
People get better results using powdered mica, alcohol inks, or special resin tints. These aren’t just sold for convenience—they’re made to stay out of the chemical tangle. Researched and tested pigment powders don’t mess with texture. Even basic India ink can mix up with resin and keep its strength without causing sticky patches. Larger art shops now offer tiny resin-safe pigment packs, so color stays bright and solid when cured.
Unpredictable resin pours waste money. You go through resin fast trying to “fix” soft areas, and that adds up quickly. Fixing sticky pours by adding extra coats doesn’t just waste material—it throws off budgets for anyone selling pieces. More importantly, half-cured resin releases more fumes, so safety gear matters. Uncured resin can also cause skin reactions, which isn’t something artists want while cleaning up a mess.
Few artists regret switching from acrylics and water-based paints to actual resin colorants. The up-front cost pays off in less waste, solid cures, and better shine. If someone still wants to experiment, small tests on scraps make more sense than risking a whole piece. Some add tiny drops of acrylic to see how little still works, but the best effect comes from sticking with colorants meant for resin. Sometimes the most creative work happens after someone stops cutting corners and lets the materials do what they were designed for.
