Musou Black Water-based Acrylic Paint - 100ml - Made in Japan - Blackest Black in the World

I reviewed this before, but I love this product so much, I just have to review it again: This is verified by both me, and Reddit (for whatever that's worth) to be the BLACKEST most darkest paint on the market. It literally looks like a black hole when dried (key word dried. When applied wet, it looks glossy, so give it time to dry and it'll be the mattest most blackest void paint you can buy). Note that I've used paint from various other sources that claim to be the "blackest" paint: Culture Hustle makes very high quality products, but their Black 3.0 and newer Black 4.0 are NOT as black as Musou Black. They are very dark, I'll admit that, but if comparing photos of Musuo Black and anything from Culture Hustle, you'll see with similar lighting conditions that Musuo Black is distinguishingly darker. There are a few things I've learned about Musuo Black just from using it that I think is worth mentioning: A little goes a long way, but multiple thin layers will result in very dark blacks base. I would do no more than 2 layers, because more after that will be redundant. More importantly, with Musuo Black, you CANNOT use a protective Varnish layer over it! You could, but the result will be your once very black color will become gray with a glossy texture over it. The impact of the black layer is now gone. IF you're looking for a black acrylic paint color that looks very dark (but not nearly as dark as Musuo Black without anything on top of it), I suggest Windsor & Newton's "Ivory Black" then use Glossy / Semi-Gloss Gamvar varnish over top. It actually brings out more blackness due to the varnish. The best method I found for protecting the Musuo Black paint is to frame it with "Museum Quality Anti UV Anti Glare" framing glass. It's expensive, but also, in what few times I've framed something that contained Musuo Black, the most non-reflective glass in the world will still take a LITTLE away from its bare pure black application. Not much, but still there. As a personal aside: I added matte medium for acrylic paint to Musuo Black to see if it could make it even less reflective, but it actually made it MORE reflective and gray in color, which was surprising. So don't follow in my footsteps. If anyone finds a good way to retain "blackness" of Musuo Black as bare when dry, but also applies a protective varnish-like coat on top, then please comment and share, because I experiment with paints and mediums (even unorthodox ones), and for this problem I'm stumped. One year in a dusty room will make it look way less matte. Regardless: Musuo Black is verified by me to be the (current) blackest black color you can buy (other than Vanta Black that we're not allowed to buy anyway). I HIGHLY suggest this item.

Gnarliest black I’ve ever used (and I’ve used A LOT of different blacks in my years of painting). I needed a paint that was thin, highly pigmented, and darker than all my other black acrylic and oil paints. This was perfect. Picture comparison, from left to right: ivory black oil paint, Musou black, and Blick acrylic Mars Black acrylic paint. Amazing and great price.

The photo was taken with a lot of bright light. The camera then tried to tease more contrast out of the image. The model on the left is covered with Musou black. The one on the right is a standard black (Apple Barrel Black in this case). The camera isn't really catching what the eye sees: The Musou black is very, very black, with minimal grays and shading to speak of. You can see some highlights in the Musou black, but it's very dark. In contrast, what looks like a gray and apparently highlighted model on the right is in fact, solid matte black. As you can see, the Musou black is far more matte than an actual matte paint as well. Coverage is good (I use airbrush, and thin it with Createx 4011). It's good stuff, but is a specialized paint - it's probably not ideal for general use by any means. But when you need a shadow that looks as black as you can get it, this is a good tool.

very black, but not the blackest. still reflects some light. it is more durable than you think and looks like black felt. no odor and dries fast

Nice paint, crazy black

A TRUE black which what I needed. Very happy w this purchase

Use this for my paintings and it's the best paint ever reminds me of chalk paint when used on canvas. The coverage is amazing only takes 1 coat which is convenient

I used this in an airbrush to paint some PC parts because I wanted them to "vanish" into the case. With this paint, that effect was achieved! This paint blows my mind! I tested this paint out with a variety of different application methods and found thinning it with Tamiya acrylic thinner in a ratio of 2:1 (two parts paint, one part thinner) that this paint achieved its deepest darkest velvety black while sticking very well and being a bit more durable. This will however cause clogging and spitting issues (at least with my cheap no-name airbrush it did). So be prepared to clean the nozzle every so often. To avoid this intermittent clogging, 1:1 thinning worked perfectly, but didn't achieve the same level of deep black. Brushing, unless on canvas, I'd avoid at all costs because it looks terrible even with the lightest of hand and the best brush. That is, unless you're wanting the brushed look. All things considered, just make sure you understand that this paint is delicate and requires mindful applications. You cannot clean it, bump it, rub it, or otherwise apply any form of abrasive action once it's applied or it will lose its deep black appearance. Using air and blowing dust off is the only method I've found that does not hurt the paints finish. On this note, if you're wanting deep black that can be handled and cleaned, Tamiya XF-1 or TS-6 is the darkest "normal" paint. Just understand the use case scenario for whichever paint you use.