Homemade resin products have recently gone viral on TikTok, with tags like #resinbusiness and #resinartist surpassing hundreds of millions of views. The surplus of videos shows people pouring liquid resin in assorted colors into molds to create different shapes such as pyramids, trays, or coasters. The artists often add other decorative items such as glitter, flowers, or anything to personalize their art, before showing off their finished product on the famous video-based social networking service. Following up on the resin trend’s rise in fame, a following backlash against the DIY art and craft has made another hashtag go viral, #antiresin.
One of the main concerns of resin that users found is its potential environmental impact. Although the hardened resin contains fewer levels of toxicity than the material would when uncured, most resins contain a lot of chemicals that are harmful to the environment. The chemicals can especially cause problems if they get into water pipes from a user’s sink. In order to harden the epoxy resin and take it out of its liquid, more dangerous state, artists need to build a mini chemical lab to undergo the curing process. This process brings up the second concern for resin art as liquid epoxy resin can burn the skin, and if users are not extra careful, skin irritation or even allergic reactions can occur. Some creators have expressed their safety concern for working with resin by posting videos exposing the terrible reactions that can occur and warning others.
If you want to try this fun craft for yourself, but are less experienced with mixing chemical substances or have any environmental concerns, do not worry. Instead of using epoxy resin, there are alternative versions that are bio-based, non-toxic, and are more sustainable. Currently, the #bioresin hashtag has over two million views and is slowly catching up to #epoxyresin. With a variety of resin types now on the table, creators can still participate in the creative trend by choosing alternative ingredients and mixing up the famous recipe to be safer and less stressful!