Friday, April 9, 2010

Smooch Spritz

OK, it's not often I dislike a new product Stampin' Up come out with, but I've done some work today with their 4 new 'Smooch Spritz' sprays and I just don't like them. I thought I'd show you some samples so you can see why and make your own mind up!

First off, the bottle is glass, so if you have a tile floor you'll have to be extra careful! Secondly, I can't quite figure out why Stampin' Up would introduce something (manufactured and labelled by a different company) which competes directly with another SU product. In the Holiday mini, we all fell in love with the Shimmer Paints. They are truly a GREAT addition to your supplies. In fact, they were so popular, that when the mini retired, SU announced they would continue to sell the paints! One of the things I, and many other SU customers, did was to make a shimmer spritz using rubbing alcohol and the shimmer paint. This works like a charm, I love it! So I'm asking myself, why introduce Smooch Spritz which is, essentially, the same thing.

Here's a quick photo of my scrap piece of Whisper White cardstock. I liberally sprayed all 4 spritzes onto the cardstock. I just wanted to see how it sprayed, and what sort of coverage you can expect. The biggest problem for me is the big splotches. Now, if you love splotches, then go and buy it NOW, it loves to splotch!


Smooch Spritz is $4.95/bottle and today I have used the yellow one to experiment with. So the first thing I did was spray a scrap piece of paper (pic above) where I probably pumped it 4 or 5 times, and the 2nd thing I did was spray it over a stencil to see how that turned out. On the stencil, I did probably pum about 8/9 times. So 2 small experiments and almost half the bottle is gone. So that's warning #1 ~ for $4.95, this is NOT going to last very long.

Moving onto the stencil. In order to get good coverage, you have to spray liberally. When you do this, you wet the cardstock which then curls. When the cardstock curls, some of the wet paint seeps under the edges. Not a great look. I did use a pale colour, but I don't really like how this turned out. It's not awful, but when you look at the comparison with the exact same stencil using a sponge and Old Olive ink, I think you'll see the deficiencies of the spray.



Something positive? I think I would follow the lead of some of the samples on the Stampin' Up website and in the catalogue and maybe just use one quick shot of this on the corner of a page, or card. It could just add a nice touch of vintage whimsy, but then again, wouldn't I just use my shimmer paint spray for that? You decide!

9 comments:

LeAnne said...

Drat....I only bought one bottle luckily....I'll see how it does for me. A glass bottle? That's insane!

Cathy said...

Thanks, Emma! This is really helpful information to have and I appreciate your honesty about your experience with the product.

Deb said...

Mine just arrived today and I had the exact same experience.

Cindy said...

Thanks for the heads up on this. I hope the Stampin' Up gods don't read your post and put you in Stampin' Up jail.

Nancy said...

Thanks for sharing this experience, Emma! You provide a real service to your readers with this info!

Unknown said...

I agree TOTALLY Emma!!! I dont like the stuff either! I was totally scared for my order in that it was a glass bottle and the fear that it would break all over my stuff! And then when I sprayed its very splotchy!!! UGH I bought only two colors but maybe we can return them because we arent satisfied???Thanks for your post!

Gayle McC said...

Emma, thanks for the heads-up! I've purchased a bunch from the upcoming mini but that page with the "Smooch Spritz" just didn't do anything for me! I'm glad I went with my gut-feeling. Reading what you have written will certainly save me money for other items! I also read comments from others on the 'Stampin' Connection' and those who commented said the same...very watery.

Candy said...

The Smooch Spray is a little tricky to use but the results can be beautiful...... you need to experiment.I don't like the glass bottle either and if you shake the bottle it will clog up, just swirl it around and will spary nicely. The Shimmer paint introduced in the Holiday mini is also not exclusive to SU!, it is available at my local scrapbook store. :-)

Anonymous said...

Smooch Spritz is Scrapbook Safe - when using the Shimmer Paint with Alcohol to make Shimmer Mist - that is not Scrapbook Safe. Plus the Smooch Spritz is different in that it gives color and really good for a vintage look.