Nuvo Expanding Mousse vs Andy Skinner Lava Paste

I love creating things but for some unknown reason (maybe I was a chemist in another life?) I love to see how products work and I love comparing like with like to see if they give the same results or different, this comparison is all Jen Kray's fault, she asked how the two compare and I wasn't sure so I thought I'd do a test!

As both products were new to me I went in blind with no preconceptions of how the two products would perform, at the start of the comparison I didn't have a preference for either product, but I do now! Before I continue I want to say that my opinions are my own, nobody gave me the products to try or is paying me to try them, I bought them myself and I'm doing this to share with others who are Lava Curious lol! If anybody clicks on my affiliate links below I will get a little money from their purchase but this doesn't cost them anything.

So now I've done my public I'm an affiliate thing, lets start the comparison shall we? I started out taping a 6" x 6" square of black card stock to my glass media mat and dividing it in to two sections. I used a Tonic Nuvo Media Spatula to work with both products, the two products for comparison are Tonic Studios Nuvo Expanding Mouse in Worn Linen (62.5g, RRP £6.99) and Cosmic Shimmer Andy Skinner Lava Paste (50ml, RRP £4.99) both products available from Craft Stash via my affiliate links above.

Consistency wise Lava Paste (LP) is runnier than Expanding Mousse (EM), LP is similar to mayonnaise whilst  EM is more like buttercream, its stiffer to work with and to load on to your spatula.

I first applied the LP to the card and moved on to the EM. I don't know what the actual formulation of either of these products are, but I will hazard a guess that LP has more water in it than EM. By the time I'd finished applying the EM, the LP had soaked in to the card stock a little and I was worried I'd let it dry out too much so I thought I'd start heating the LP first.

Almost as soon as I started wafting the heat gun over the LP it started to react to the heat and 'puff' up there isn't a better term for it its like watching liquid popcorn create a pattern because that's the texture you end up with and its fun!

I've made a little video, this is only my second video so be gentle with me, I have a little way to go yet to get my videos right, the first was just still images with captions, so this one is an improvement and has some real time footage albeit speeded up. I now realise that being right handed the camera should have been on my left, and closer to the piece I was working on and I could do with better lighting and a microphone so I can do some chatting rather than having to caption. I'll get there eventually 😂 For illustration purposes you can see the results, sorry that my hand is in the way and you have to spend a lot of time looking at a large part of me 😊

I put the same depth of mousse/paste on the card using a stencil, it seemed only fair to test them using the same depth of product, I have to say I was amazed at the results. I truly expected them to both perform the same but they didn't!

The EM hardly did anything, you can see from the close up that just a few areas expanded above the initial level, now it could be that you're expected to add a thicker/rougher amount of Expanding Mousse for it to give a dramatic effect, but as I'd be using it with stencils most of the time I tested the products with the things I use them with. There was also a little 'bleeding' under the stencil with the EM, all the heat gun seemed to do on the EM was dry it off, it hardly reacted at all which was rather disappointing and I should add here that both the EM and LP were brand new unopened pots prior to this comparison. There was very little dimension and you could only just feel that there was a difference in texture from the card to the product applied.

Nuvo Expanding Mousse

By comparison the Lava Paste did an outstanding job at rising to the occasion, the same amount of product added as the EM rose to 3 times its height and had lovely popcorn bubble patterns all over, with no bleeding under the stencil, it was easier to apply as well. Once dried it has an absolutely gorgeous texture, its like the kind of patterning you get on blown vinyl wallpaper, you can press down on it (once dry) and the pattern springs back, its a lot more tactile as well, LP invites you to stroke it and play with it, EM left me with a Ughhh what's that reaction, its like running your hand over fluffy hard clouds vs running them over light sand paper, one is nice, the other not so unless you like running your hands over sandpaper lol!

Andy Skinner Lava Paste

If you look at this photo you can see a little more of the dimension of the two side by side, see how much more raised the Lava Paste is compared to the Expanding Mousse? You can also see more of the texture as well.

Expanding Mousse <---                                   -----> Lava Paste

The two swatches and products used.

Once both of the products were completely dry, I decided to add a few mediums to them to see how they would react, I started by masking off a third of the area and spraying it with water to which I sprinkled some Cherry Bomb Nuvo Shimmer Powder on to the surface and gave it another spray of water to move the powder around. The shimmer powder seemed to just sit on top of the dry expanding mousse. On the dry lava paste it sunk into areas, clung to others and allowed the texture to still show through.

Next I painted another third with some Iridescent Red Blue Pebeo Dyna acrylic paint, there was not much difference in how the products took the paint, but it looked less impressive to my mind on the flatter expanding mousse.

The final third of the test swatch I sprayed with Lava Red (how appropriate lol) Cosmic Shimmer Mist and once dry I rubbed a corner with some Empire Gold Pebeo Gilding Wax. You can see from the photo below that the gilding wax covered more of the EM and the card because there was very little texture to hold it above the card stock. By comparison the gilding wax on the Lava Paste gave a much better definition. I just quickly applied both with my finger tip, so wasn't massively accurate because it was just a test piece, I'd be more accurate on a project.

In this photo the Expanding Mousse is on the top of the picture and the Lava Paste at the bottom.

Because the Lava Paste has more texture it seemed to take the things I applied much better than the Expanding Mousse.

It's true to say that there are so many other things I could have tried, gelato's, distress crayons, and a variety of other paints and mediums, and each product may react differently, some things may work better on the Expanding Mouse rather than the Lava Paste and vice versa.

However, the products I've used here are ones I use in my projects (or variations of). One thing in Nuvo's favour is the Expanding Mousse comes in a variety of colours, Lava Paste is only available in the one colour. So me being me I thought I'd fiddle and see if it can be coloured and if it still works in the same way it did in its natural state before being coloured?

I took two blobs of Lava paste out on to my glass mat, and I added a wet medium (Chipped Sapphire Distress Reinker (yes I know I spelt it wrong on my test swatch lol), and a dry medium (Violet Brocade Nuvo Shimmer Powder). Now keep in mind that I didn't use a stencil just wiped on to a piece of card so the depth and coverage was a bit uneven. Both mediums mixed in well on the mat, I applied to the card stock and heat dried, the Lava Paste still did react, but adding the colours in my opinion has interfered with the way the Lava Paste works, so much so it rubbed off the cardstock. The white of the product wants to still fight through as well, giving a chalky washed out look, so I would add the paste neat and colour it afterwards, it gives a much better result.

So there you have it, Lava Paste comes out tops for me and as this is the first time I've played with Mr Skinner's products I can't wait to play some more. I should also add that when I washed the stencil off I used just warm water in the sink and rubbed my fingers on the stencil, all of the Lava Paste came off but some of the Expanding Mousse stayed behind. Sorry Tonic but in this instance you're not my favourite brand. Ease of use,  ease of cleaning and the dimension and texture make Lava Paste the winner hands down. Think I better stock up on the Lava Paste because I can see me going through a lot of it in the not too distance future.