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If you use petroleum jelly as your mould release, be aware that you will need to thoroughly scrub each casting with acetone to remove any and all residue. If you don't you will have a lot of difficulties getting your paints to stick well later. Trust me, this can be a HUGE pain in the butt!!!

A common mould release used by a lot of silicone artists that are equally inexpensive and readily available is ordinary dish detergent. This is mixed, two parts isopropyl alcohol to one part detergent. This mixture is then [best] sprayed into your silicone in light mists until it is thoroughly coated. This can be done with an airbrush or spray bottle, ("Preval Sprayers" work well, too). Usually, two to four coats are applied, making sure to allow the previously applied coat(s) to dry before adding the further layer(s). Although, you could use a regular paintbrush to apply it, spraying it tends to get better results, and you have less likelihood of not disturbing the previous coats. You can speed up the drying of the coating(s) with a hairdryer if you want.

When using the dish detergent as you release it is easy to wash off all traces of the separator with just warm water. Pat your casting(s) dry, and you'll be ready to get painting!

BUT, whatever mould release you use, TEST EVERYTHING FIRST!!! While we can make suggestions based on OUR experience, we can not predict every variable YOU may experience. So, what may work for us may not work for you in every situation. That is why it is important to ALWAYS test, no matter whichever advice you might take. Mistakes can get expensive QUICK!!!