Brush Basin Review: Handy, but Not Perfect

A review of the GAMENOTE Paint Brush Cleaner

I picked up this brush basin for a recent watercolor class, and overall, I’m pretty happy with it. It’s simple, practical, and a big upgrade from my previous “whatever cardboard I can find” setup.

The basin has three separate compartments, including built-in brush holders. One section is designed for soaking your brushes, and it even has grooves to help reshape the bristles. The third compartment is meant for washing, with small nubs and ridges that help loosen paint from the brush while you clean it.

It also comes with a lid that doubles as a paint palette. The palette has small wells for holding your paints, which is surprisingly useful. You can squeeze out your colors and keep them from bleeding together. Before I got this, I was putting paint on random cardboard, old flyers, or whatever was nearby. The colors would sometimes run into each other, so the wells are definitely an improvement.

That said, I’m still on the fence about the mixing area on the palette. It’s a bit small, especially if you like to mix larger amounts of color.

My main complaint is the brush holder setup. Once you have brushes sitting in the holders and the soaking compartment, changing the water becomes a bit of a hassle. You have to remove all the brushes first, which is mildly annoying when you’re in the middle of painting.

Overall, it’s a useful tool that keeps everything in one place, even if it has a couple of small inconveniences.