I just finished ordering all of our products for the online shop and decided that that I’d share some interesting information. There are a lot of products out there to choose from and I wanted to make sure that I was picking high quality items that are also true to their advertising. If a paint says “washable,” is it too much to expect it to actually be washable?? As a parent, I’ve experienced first hand what it’s like when I let my daughter finger paint with “washable” paints, only to find out after doing the laundry that her yellow dress is now practically tie-died with blue and red stains. I’m all about getting messy and don’t even mind stained clothes, but I do mind when a product boldly pronounces itself to be washable when it clearly isn’t.
So here is a little research I did while choosing children’s “washable” tempera paint to sell in my shop.

After narrowing it down to two brands, I did a swatch test and painted red and blue from each brand onto pieces of white cotton. Paint A has better colors, closer to true red and blue which is good for color mixing (but the blue also had a strong chemical smell that turned me off). Both paints are clearly labeled “washable” on the front of the bottles. I let them dry, then threw them into the washing machine with cold water and regular detergent. Here are the results…

So it looks like there is a clear winner! You won’t find any of “Paint A” (Melissa & Doug Poster Paint) in my shop. Paint B is Palmer Washable Poster Paint that will be available in many colors on Make+Believe. If you’re looking for brighter, truer pigments we will also have Palmer Prism Tempera paints that are not very washable, but don’t claim to be!

Update (6/2016): I no longer have the online shop for art supplies, but you can find Palmer Washable Poster Paint here (affiliate link) as well as another great washable brand here.