Createx or Medea?

[bimbogeri]

Just wondered if anyone had a strong preference between the two brands of airbrush paints. I've done a search and it seems that roughly the same amount of people use one as the other - has anyone switched from one brand to the other, or deliberately not used one brand, and why?
I already have two Medea and one Createx paint with the airbrush and compressor I bought, but I think it would be best to carry on with one make.
I'll mainly be doing frenches, I should think, possibly some colour blends and backgrounds for predesigned tips so my main colours are likely to be pinks/natural, lilacs, white, and probably a gold, silver, and black?

The airbrush I have is the one supplied in the home nail art set from airbrushes.com which is currently the PremiAir G35 but mine has a different code. Either way it's a 0.35mm dual action airbrush, if that were to effect which paint might flow through it better.

Thanks for any help!
Lol x

 

[Sarwaa]

Hi,

I prefer the medea paints, I find that the createx can sometimes clog my airbrush Plus I like the lid in the larger medea paints since it is a screw thread one like on Creative's Cuticle Remover, so you can add the paint to your airbrush one drop at a time easily, if you know what I mean :?:

P.S. my airbrush has a 0.2mm nozzle,

Sarah

 

[naturalnails]

Ok, here is what I have found.

I originally used an Iwata HP-B which is a 0.2mm nozzle with the Medea paints. This worked very well but I did not like the spray varnish as I kept getting it to block up. I also found the spraying with white all the time quite a faff. Although I really like the paints.

I then changed over to the Createx paints as they come in lots of different colours and effects - transparent, irridescent, opaque etc.

But my HP-B did not cope with the thicker paints so I bought an Iwata Eclipse which is a 0.35mm and it worked well with the Createx paints.

Recently I have been alternating between both paints but I find that if I use the Medea paints in my Eclipse, I get major bubbling, despite new nozzle and new needle. I have put it down to the different pressure coming through because of the bigger nozzle size - unless someone can enlighten me further.

If this is the case then you may need to have 2 different nozzle sizes depending on which paint you are using.

 

[bimbogeri]

Do you have to use a Createx top coat and base coat with their paints or will a Medea one work?
Only I've found a supplier for Createx but their top and base coats are either by Too Much Fun or Medea. Are they compatible???
And now I'm even MORE confused: I've found two Createx suppliers - All Things Nails, and Creative Nail Place, but they seemed to have totally different colour ranges. So I looked on the Createx website and found that the All Things Nails paints are their standard 'airbrush paints' for any surfaces, and Creative Nail Place stock their nail airbrush paints. Which should I go for??? The standard airbrush paints have a wider overall range, but the nail ones have more french manicure colours (I'd have to mix my own with the standard range as they're all too bright).
Can any Createx users help me out???
Lol x

 

[naturalnails]

I buy all of my Nail Art stuff from Melle at all Things Nails - what she doesnt know about airbrushing aint worth knowing LOL.

Personally when doing an airbrushed French, I only use the white - I use a French varnish base rather than spray a pink.

I use my usual basecoat and I use Melle's airbrush topcoat as it brings out the depth of colours plus for extra staying power I use a super shiney topcoat over that.

 

[bimbogeri]

Thanks Fiona, I hadn't though of that. Spose if I'd had my brain in gear I would have twigged that's what the shimmery pink basecoat is for! D'oh! What is it about trying to do your books that frazzles your brain......?

 

[JackieMc]

Here's my tuppence worth! I started off using Createx paints and my Badger airbrushes cope well with them (my Iwata doesn't like them). I tried many different types of paint and now I prefer Medea. They clean off the skin and out of the airbrush much easier than Createx, BUT, I do still use some Createx colours for certain designs because the colours are much more vibrant than the medea colours. The 'chameleon' colours are WONDERFUL!!!

Regarding the Medea spray varnish - my advice is to bin it!!! I hate it with a vengeance and dont use it, neither do I use Medea's Top Coat (which will scratch the paint if not used with the varnish). I use Melle's (All Things Nails) top coat and haven't found a better one - it's a lovely thick airbrush top coat, doesn't scratch the paint and gives great protection.

Just to let you know, the Too Much Fun crystal base coat is lovely and I use that all the time - it's fine with whatever paints you want to use.


Getting back to the Medea varnish I must tell you this. I held an airbrush class on Monday and one of the ladies brought her own equipment with her. She'd bought it a year ago and used it once. She hadn't cleaned it after using it. I soaked it for a while in Premiair cleaner and after half an hour set about trying to sort it out for her - I wasn't oo worried at this stage because she said she'd used nothing but Medea paints in it and the are SO forgiving if you leave them to dry in the airbrush (which is NOT recommended, by the way!!). It was a nightmare, there was something which resembled dry, rubbery glue in the brush and you would not believe the size of the lump I eventually worked free from the nozzle! She kept swearing she had used nothing but the Medea paints that she got with her kit and then I saw the offending 'varnish'. I asked her if she had sprayed it through her airbrush and yes, she had! Because she'd not cleaned it thoroughly it had completely gummed up her gun, it was a dreadful mess. We threw the damn stuff away there and then!!! So, if you want to continue
using the varnish, PLEASE make sure you clean your gun out THOROUGHLY - it really is nasty stuff when it dries in your airbrush! :irked:

 

[Jaffacake]

Im glad you posted this Jackie, ive been using the varnish which came in my media kit but as i was told to spray from a distance and being a novice i still get paint on surrounding fingers,wrists etc (joking about the wrists LOL) the varnish gets on the surrounding paint and makes it a nightmare to get off!! ive started to try to use just the media topcoat but however hard i try i manage to scratch at least one nail....
I will try Melles topcoat now and hopefully my problems will be solved Do you use the too much fun crystal base coat when you are doing french as the pink? havent seen it so i dont know what colour it is?... xx