Sennelier Matte Thick Gel Medium – A Short Review
Sennelier’s Matte Thick Gel Medium comes in a decently sized tube and feels hefty and high quality.
But once I cracked that tube open and tried using is… well that high quality feel was not the case at all.
The Story
The gel medium had separated inside the tube, meaning what I got in the first squeeze was a bunch of clear liquid that smelled almost of rubbing alcohol.
The second squeeze got me a bunch of white goop that I’d rather not describe.
After attempting to thoroughly remix the liquid and white goop, I then integrated it into my acrylic color. Upon doing so it instantly took on the texture of super chewy gum and required a hell of a lot more mixing.
As I started to paint with it, I noticed these big chunks of what looked like undissolved powder in my paint… almost like when you don’t thoroughly mix cake mix and there’s those little chunks of dry mix left in there… It was from my gel medium! Fun!
This same thing happened to me over and over again while I tested out Sennelier’s Gel Medium…
And after thoroughly letting the paintings dry, I realized the matte medium hadn’t made the acrylic any more visibly matte than the paint is without the gel mixed with it.
And while I’m sure they would claim that it was a defective tube, and it may very well be, that’s somewhat irrelevant. The fact of the matter is it didn’t work. It didn’t work when it should have, especially considering Sennelier is supposed to be all about quality.
To Sum Up
The medium had separated in the tube –> there were unmixed bits of crap in the medium –> the gel didn’t make the paint more matte in appearance –> this has all gone horribly wrong.
I honestly wouldn’t use this product again even if it were free. I don’t have the time to have something so frustrating from somebody who’s supposed to be about quality and charges the moon for that quality.