Varathane Less Mess Ebony Wood Stain & Applicator

Although the “after” is still wet, I am incredibly pleased with the results and ease of the product. I was concerned that the color would not be dark enough to fix this laminate on our tables, but it definitely exceeded my expectations. I hand sanded the tables prior to applying and ensured that it was clean before application. Love that it is an all-in-one product and came out thicker and more pigment than expected. I did apply multiple coats and feel like it will do the job. While wet, it does have sticky texture but worth the value so far! I feel as if our tables are new!

Absolutely obsessed! This was great for a quick fix and worked perfectly for my living room project. It was a little hard to get the product flowing at first, but once it did, it was super easy to use and pretty much mess-free. I’d definitely recommend it for touch-ups, but it would take a lot more time and effort for anything beyond that.

I really like this wood stain pen to touch up spots on my hardwood floors. It takes a while for the product to come out though.

The color matched perfectly and application was very easy. You do have to squeeze the bottle pretty hard to fill the applicator tip but once it's full it applied just fine.

This product is not the best, it's almost impossible to get it out with the attached applicator and if you try to squeeze or shake, it just pops out and splatters everywhere. I had to transfer the content into another container and use it like a regular stain, which defeats the purpose of buying this "easy to use" product. Also, with even the lightest coat it took forever to dry. Took me over two weeks between application and dry wait time for 3 coats to come close to desired colour. Also, the cap was lose and dripping when it arrived.

Great product for my use which was to cover some scratches on black furniture. Sponge applicator worked well after priming it just by pushing down on some cardboard. Used a rag to wipe excess. Dried nicely.

Had to stain some wood pieces for a project I'm working on. I basically never work with wood and didn't want to end up buying a bunch of supplies I'd never use again, so this seemed ideal. It was not. Honest to gosh, I cannot imagine a possible reason to buy or use this product. If someone gave it to me for free I wouldn't use it. Heck, I PAID for the darn thing and went out to buy something else so I wouldn't have to use it anymore! Let me lay out the issues, as I see them: 1) The squeeze- You have to CONSTANTLY squeeze it, at almost full muster, for many minutes at a time (depending on the size of your piece). It is physically exhausting using this product. 2) The time- It took so much longer than it needed to. I had 7 wooden slats that needed stain applied and it took over an hour to get about halfway to complete. That's not counting the hours of drying between coats. To be fair, I was looking to turn these things black, so it needed quite a bit of coverage, but the application is so ridiculously slow and clumsy. 3) The coverage- As I kind of alluded to above, the coverage was not good. At least partially because I had somewhat rough wood and partially because I needed it DARK, but even so, I'd applied 2 coats on each side and still needed at least a couple more. Using this product was so bad, that at this point, 2 coats in and realized I had at least another day of application and drying ahead of me, I just went to the store and bought the smallest can of Minwax liquid penetrating stain they had. I grabbed a cloth, dipped it in the can, and finished these things to perfection in 10 minutes. Easy, peezy, lemon squeezy. There is no possible reality where paying $10 for this "less mess wood stain applicator" and squeezing your forearms into oblivion, applying MANY coats, over the course of days, only to end up with subpar results, is a better option than buying a $10 can of stain, tearing up an old shirt, and finishing the job in 10 minutes, with stellar results. The ONLY possible use case for this product is to recommend to a buddy as a trick to pay them back for a time they wronged you. May gosh have mercy on your soul.

Works great

It’s amazing