To store premade tempera paints—whether store-bought or homemade—you’ll need a sturdy, reliable container. Plastic squeeze bottles are especially convenient as they double as applicators, allowing you to easily dispense just what you need, whether for straightforward painting or for pouring to create beautiful marbleized effects. If their lids are secure, they can also be used as mixing vessels. These plastic bottles may be unassuming, but a good-quality product can prove to be more useful than you might think.
1. Foraineam Squeeze Bottles
These 8-ounce bottles will serve you well for all steps of your painting process. Each features clearly printed fluid ounce and milliliter measurements so you can easily stick to your desired ratios when mixing media. The screw-on tops are secure enough to allow you to hold bottles upside down without leakage, so they not only handle vigorous shaking but are also well suited for drizzling or pouring paint. When you’re done, simply cover the bottle’s nozzle with the included red tip to protect leftover paint from drying.
2. Pinnacle Mercantile Squeeze Bottles
If you often mix big batches of paint, you might want to consider larger containers, like these 16-ounce bottles from Pinnacle Mercantile. You won’t have to fill them as often, and their relatively wide, 1⅛-inch mouths ease the pouring process. These aren’t as leakproof as Foraineam’s product, but they store paint very well and dispense liquids smoothly. The plastic is firm but not too stiff, and the bottles hold their shape over time. Red caps for their nozzles keep air out and help prevent clogging. And you can wash these bottles in the dishwasher, which makes cleanup a breeze.
3. Bekith Squeeze Bottles
This is a good choice for the sheer number of items you receive. With 30 bottles that each hold 4 ounces of liquid, this bulk pack is a smart choice for classroom use or other group settings, allowing the convenient distribution of paint. It’s also great for individual artists who use many colors for paint pours. This is the smallest of our bottle picks, but that means it’s more convenient to carry and more comfortable for younger artists to hold. As for their performance, these bottles are pretty resistant to leaks, even if knocked over, and they have red snap-on caps that fit nice and tight for safe storage.
4. Bellemain Squeeze Bottles
These 16-ounce bottles come with uncut nozzles, which makes them ideal for artists who like to be very precise when it comes to dispensing paint. After you’ve snipped the plastic to your desired size, the included red caps will still fit tightly. The bottles themselves are thicker than most of our other options, yet they are still pliable and easy to squeeze without leakage. Bellemain also includes extra red caps, peel-and-stick labels, an erasable marker, and a collapsible funnel to simplify the transfer process.
5. Belinlen Squeeze Bottles
For artists who like to keep extra-organized, Belinlen’s bottles include chalk labels and a pen. You can use these to record your paint recipes or simply label your colors, and the chalk is easily erasable. Like Foraineam’s bottles, these have graduated volume markings, but the numbers are the same color as the bottle so they aren’t as easy to read; still, the measurements are helpful for artists who want to mix paints with precision. We also like that the caps are attached to the bottles so you won’t lose them. The nozzles, as they come, don’t dispense viscous liquids too well, but that can easily be fixed with a quick trim.