Hello my poor Holly friends, Lodda here from loveacrylicpainting.com. Today I'm going to be showing you a DIY recipe for a paint or an acrylic retarder. So if you're kind of familiar with acrylic paints and if you've encountered cracking, if you've had cracking in your paintings, then you're going to want to watch this video. So anyways, do you sometimes get cracking, paint cracking or your paints might dry too fast when you don't add an acrylic retarder? Or I can even know if that's the way you say it. Kind of sounds like retarded retarder? Oh my gosh. Okay, you know that English is not my first language. So sometimes like the words just don't come out of my mouth the way that I would like to. So please excuse my way of expressing myself. But anyways, let's get back to the topic. The retarder that I want to make or that I want to show you how to make is going to help you avoid these cracks in your paintings. So it's a liquid mixture that you'll be able to add into your pouring medium and your acrylic paint mixture so that your paints can dry a little bit slower and that will help you avoid those cracks on the surface of your painting. Also you can use this mixture to add a little bit to your paint, you know, your acrylic paint and prevent those paints from drying up too fast if you're going to have them stored somewhere, you know, for a while. You can add this and that will prevent your paints from drying too quickly. So let's get on with the recipe. It's a super easy recipe and again, yes, you can buy a retarder at Michaels, at Hobby Lobby, at a craft store, but it's going to be expensive. And like you always know, I like to make things the cheap way. I like to save money. So let me show you my DIY version. All you're going to do is mix vegetable glycerin, 100% vegetable glycerin with water, not coke, okay, not coke, water. This is just one of my husband's coke bottles. I don't have anything anywhere else to put it. So water, okay. And the ratio is going to be one ounce of glycerin, two nine ounces of water, okay. So it's a not one to nine ratio, okay. One part glycerin, nine parts of water. And all you're going to do is mix those two really well. And there is your retarder. Awesome. It's just like super easy. If you want to know where to find this vegetable glycerin, just check the description box below because I'll put a link there. And I always appreciate you guys buying or purchasing all your materials and supplies with my affiliate links. Yes, I do get a little bit of a commission, which is just nothing. It's like a few cents. But it adds up and it helps me continue to make videos for you guys and continue growing this channel for you. So it's kind of like a win-win situation. You don't get charged any extra for using my affiliate links like the price is going to be the same whether you buy it directly on Amazon or whether you click on my link and then purchase. But the difference is that it does help me make a little bit a tiny bit of revenue so that I can continue making these videos for you guys because it's not cheap, okay. Takes a ton of time. And my husband hates that I do these videos. Yeah, he, not that he hates that I do the videos, but it's just so time consuming and yeah. I also have a family. I have kids. I have stuff to do. And making these videos is very time consuming. So it at least helps me continue making these videos for you. So yeah, and it keeps hubby a little bit less grumpy. So yes, I appreciate you clicking on those links and purchasing from me that way. So now let me kind of talk to you about why this works. So glycerin is a humectant. I think that's how you say it. It just helps attract moisture from, from the environment. So it keeps that moisture kind of trapped in. It brings those moisture or water molecules from outside to the inside. So a lot of skin products have glycerin for that same reason. And if you're kind of concerned about glycerin, about using glycerin in your poor paintings, don't be, okay. Because glycerin has actually been used in acrylic painting for a very long time. People have used, or even some paints contain glycerin to prevent them from drying out too fast. So glycerin is an ingredient that has been added to acrylic paints for a very long time. So don't get too worried about adding the glycerin to your paints. Now if you add too much, you can get into some issues, okay. Where your paint will, I don't know, I read somewhere. I think it was the JustPaint.org website. So anyways, it's just this like really old PDF. And it does mention that they view, that you can use glycerin. And if you use a little too much, it will break up the binders or something like that. So, okay, long story short. Just don't use too much, okay. And this is a great way because we're actually diluting it. We're not adding glycerin, straight glycerin into our paints. We're actually diluting it with water. And it's just a very small amount when ounce to nine ounces of water. So very little glycerin versus water. And you don't have to add a ton of this into your pouring medium. So just use a little bit. I have, I'm still in the process of testing this and refining it to kind of find the exact ratio. But the hard thing about that is that I use different pouring mediums for different techniques. And people use different pouring mediums. Like one artist might use one and another one might use a different one. So it's very hard for me to say, oh yeah, just add this amount for these many ounces of pouring medium because I don't know what they're adding to their pouring medium. You're going to have to experiment with this and see what is the best ratio for you and your pouring medium. But at least you have this already made. And you know how much to make. And then it's just a matter of saying, testing it out and adding a teaspoon, a table spoon, adding a little bit more, adding a little bit less and then just kind of seeing what works for you. But let me just bring you something. Hold on, just that. Also, you can see that glycerin actually doesn't cause any issues with your paintings. This is one pouring medium that I used. No cracks at all. Like it just dried extremely well. It cost no issues. And then here's another one. Which don't mind this bottom part I added. I was doing some testing there with some liquid varnish. But on the top, you can see that the surface is just like, oh my gosh, it's so smooth. So like the paint flowed so well on there. And it just looks pretty and no cracks at all. This is just a great recipe. Anyways, I'm going to have to do more testing. But yes, try this out with your pouring mediums and just play around with it and see how you like it. Let me know in the comments if you like this video. Again, please subscribe. Please share this video. Please give it a thumbs up. You know what you have to do. Check the links in the description box below because I also have a ton of resources for you. And I have this new poroholic shirt. If you guys want to check it out or want to get one for yourself, go ahead and also go to my website, loveacirlicpainting.com and then just go to my shop. That's right there on the menu bar. And you'll be able to find this shirt right there. If you're a poroholic just like me, then this is an awesome shirt to get. Anyways, that's it for today. Hopefully you enjoyed this video. Let me know what you'd like to see next. And my poroholic channel and I'll see you in my next video. Bye.