Brusho Crystal Color Product Review

Brusho Crystal Color. A whole lot of awesome in a tiny little pot! I originally posted this review January 26, 2015. That was two websites ago. I still have people ask me for a link to the review - as recently as yesterday even - so I thought I'd bring it back and share my thoughts on brushos once more. 

Never heard of brushos? I discovered them on Pinterest. Hahaha! Where else? Everything you ever needed to know can be found on Pinterest! The Brusho® website describes them as: brilliantly intense paint powder that comes in little pots of magic! And they are not wrong. So true! Little plastic pots filled with crystals of beautiful, lush color. And you can use them so many different ways. I began the way I usually do by making a color chart. 

Brushos are activated when they hit water. Literally all I did to make this chart was to put a drop of water on my paper using a mop brush, then I shook/tapped some of the crystals into the wet drop, and waited. The brusho crystals are a fine powder. The little spots you see in random places on my paper are the fine little bits of color that didn't reach the water. And I was a little stingy on the color, these could been brighter and more intense, as you will see as you read through this post. Let me explain 'tapping' color. The photo  above showing the little pots - shows them with the lid closed. I chose to leave my pots that way. I took an ice pick and poked a hole in the lid of the pot. That way I can control how much powder comes out - making my Brushos last longer because I don't waste product. And if I want to open the lid to scoop powder out, I can. 

The first project I made was this tree. I used three techniques. For the tree trunk I used a paint palette and mixed some dark brown crystals with a wet paint brush. Then I just painted on the trunk and some random limbs - just like watercoloring. 

For the top part of the tree, I used a mop brush and spread a layer of water across the area where I wanted the leaves to be. Then I used purple, lemon and emerald green crystals by simply tapping the color straight into the water spread on my paper. Allowing them to spread and mix on their own. Easy peasy. I promise. 

I did the same thing under the tree: wet the area, sprinkled some color, then used a wet paintbrush to mix the colors and spread them a bit. 

You can dry this with a heat gun if you wish, but my understanding is the heat may mute the color. So I left mine to dry while we ate dinner. 

For the next project, I used a sheet of Bristol Smooth Mixed Media paper. Basically what I did was use a mop brush and plenty of water to draw the larger flowers on the paper. The brusho crystals were sprinkled into each area and left to mix. In some areas I used more than one color. In a few spots I used a small paint brush to push color where I wanted it to go. The leaves were added the same way the tree trunk was added in the first project. 

Once this was completely dry, I added tangling with a permanent black pen. I did not have any trouble drawing on the brusho at all. The brusho dried flat and smooth and accepted the pen work with no problems. No skips, no pulls on the nib, no dragging lines. Smooth as could be! The brusho colors were consistently bright, intense and beautiful. I really love the way the purple shows several different colors. The black does the same thing. 

Here is the completed drawing. This paper is 9" x 12" and the colors really are this bright and beautiful in person! Super simple to make. 

Here is a smaller piece made on hot pressed watercolor paper. I made closely spaced blobs of water with a paint brush, then sprinkled the color into the water drops. I used a small brush to fill in the areas, and make it look like the flowers were overlapping. I did have a bit of an issue when I got one wet color too close to another wet color. I had no idea about watercolors and how they work back in 2015. They wanted to bleed into each other. I found that using a paper towel to blot up the excess and create a barrier between the colors worked very well. 

For the background I mixed water and crystals in a paint palette. I made a well of lemon, one of lime green and one of yellow. I used lots of water to create washes, which I spread onto the paper with a wide, flat brush. This piece came together really well once I figured out how to deal with the bleedover in the wet colors. 

Up to this point I used paper made for water. I wanted to experiment on some of the other papers I routinely draw on. Here I used a Zentangle® Bijou® twinchie tile. A small two inch square bit of paper. And I worked backwards. I sprinkled color onto the dry paper, using purple, turquoise and lemon. I prefer the lemon over the yellow. I would have thought they would be similar, but the yellow has a lot of orange in it. I am not a fan of orange. Once I felt I had enough crystals on the tile, I hit it with one spritz of water from my spray bottle. Then I left it to sit and this is how it turned out. Awesome! The paper did not curl, it stayed flat and dried nice and smooth. 

I was so happy with the way the twinchie performed that I moved on to Zentangle ATCs. I began by tangling them with a permanent black pen. Then I liberally sprayed them all with water (and said a thank you prayer that the pen didn't smear.) I sprinkled a color on each ATC. Up to this point I had let the color stay as brilliant as it developed. I wondered what would happen if I blotted up a good bit of the color. So as I sprayed and colored these, I completely blotted them - removing a decent amount of color. Then I added more color, sometimes a second color, and blotted again. This is how they turned out. A little muted but still quite beautiful. 

I love working like this! I took a large sheet of mixed media paper and a mop brush and slopped tons of water all across the paper. I mean lots of water! Then I sprinkled on all my favorite colors - leaf green, purple,  ultramarine and turquoise. I tilted the page and spread color all across the surface, then covered the whole thing with a piece of kitchen plastic wrap. When you use the plastic wrap, feel free to push it gently with your fingertips so it causes these little creases. 

I left the paper intact with the plastic wrap right where it sat and let it dry overnight. The next morning, the first thing I noticed was the plastic wrap had moved and flattened out on the paper. The little texture creases were not there anymore. I was really disappointed. Until I removed the wrap. Even though the creases didn't show in the wrap - they still showed on the paper. This is how it looked dry. And quite frankly I love it! Reminds me of rich, beautiful batiks. I liked it so much I included it as a page in my book More Tangle Starts! 

I took the same steps with this one, except before placing the plastic wrap down - I dropped a lot of sea salt into the wet puddles. Then I added the wrap, scrunched it up into texture creases, and left it to dry overnight. 

This is my favorite piece so far! I removed the plastic wrap, smoothed off the remaining salt crystals with the flat edge of an old Disney World hotel room key (think credit card) and this is how it turned out. A 9" x 12" sheet of Bristol smooth paper. The colors are wonderful and the texture worked better with the salt added. This piece of art is included in my first color book Tangle Starts!

I am really happy with the way the brushos have reacted in the several projects I made. The colors are bright and intense - you know how I am about my color! Here it is five years later and the colors are just as beautiful as the day I made the projects. The brushos lay down smooth and flat and are a dream to draw on. The papers I chose worked well, there was no pilling, and very minimum warping. I liked the results so much in fact that I went online and ordered the rest of the colors the Brusho line has. Now I have them all. 

Though not covered in this post, I have since used the brusho crystals on a gelli plate and they worked great! 

Brusho Crystal Colors can be purchased here.