The best methylated spirits, compared.
Top pick: B2C denatured ethanol 96%, 6 litres Best value: B2C denatured ethanol 96%, 6 litres – About £34.98 for 6 litres, about £5.83 a litre, with 96% printed and a review pool. The denaturant line is not the UK formula. Updated 22.10.2026.
Denatured alcohol on a UK shelf is the liquid still called methylated spirits. In law that retail liquid is completely denatured alcohol: ethanol made unfit to drink, which HMRC allows for heating, lighting, cleaning and domestic use with no user authorisation. Industrial denatured alcohol and trade-specific denatured alcohol are not a DIY purchase. You judge a bottle by the class on the label, the pack you will finish, whether dye will tint pale shellac, and whether the reviews belong to that bottle. Isopropyl alcohol, white spirit and bioethanol fireplace fuel are other products. Spirit burners and shellac want alcohol. Oil paint wants white spirit. Skin, wounds and hand gel are not this category. Purple dye has been optional since 1 July 2013. It marks the liquid and it can colour a pale finish. A mark such as 90 degrees is not a UK percent until the label defines it. Class, pack and dye are set out in the [denatured alcohol buying guide](/hub/diy-supplies/denatured-alcohol/sub/denatured-alcohol-buying-guide).
Denatured alcohol on a UK shelf is the liquid still called methylated spirits.
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Personal buying guide
Question 1 of 2
What should the label say?
The 6 litre B2C denatured ethanol is listed at about £34.98, about £5.83 a litre, with 96% on the title and a bullet that names about 1% isopropyl alcohol, 1% butanone and 1 g of Bitrex per 100 litres. That line is the seller's, and it is not the UK completely denatured alcohol ratio of 3 parts isopropyl alcohol and 3 parts methyl ethyl ketone per 100 parts alcohol. Origin is Poland, and a bullet says the liquid comes in 1 litre bottles. The 4.6 from 512 reviews is the same pool as the 2 litre and 3 litre B2C ASINs, so it is not a separate test of this pack. In that shared file, people clean paint brushes and dilute leather dyes, and one person diluted it for a screen while telling the next buyer to check the screen maker. Perfume and tincture uses were rejected because of the denaturants, and the same texts include a half-full container, a leak and a split box taped shut. The fuel question on the listing is unanswered. It is best value when you want the lowest reviewed price per litre in this set and will treat the denaturant bullet as a non-UK formula.
Pros
Cons
Best for: You want the lowest reviewed price per litre in this set and will treat the denaturant bullet as a non-UK formula.
Less suitable: You need a title that says methylated spirits, an independent review file, or a pale French-polish solvent.
Specifications
Common questions
Is the 6 litre pack one bottle?
The file says volume 6 litres and a bullet says it comes in 1 litre bottles. Included components are bottle and cap.
Is this the UK completely denatured alcohol formula?
The bullet prints about 1% isopropyl alcohol, 1% butanone and 1 g per 100 litres of Bitrex, and says duty-exempt. That is the seller's line. It is not the UK ratio of 3 parts isopropyl alcohol and 3 parts methyl ethyl ketone per 100 parts alcohol.
Are the 512 reviews only for this size?
No. The same star line and the same review texts are in the files for the 2 litre and 3 litre B2C ASINs.
This 3 litre B2C listing is about £21.99, about £7.33 a litre, with 96% on the title and the country-of-origin line set to the United Kingdom. The 2 litre and 6 litre files in the same title family say Poland, and the model token Ethyl1x12 matches the 6 litre file, which is the one that prints the denaturants. This file does not print them. A bullet claims a 1 litre HDPE container, which does not by itself describe a 3 litre pack. The 4.6 from 512 is the shared B2C pool: brush cleaning and leather dyes on the positive side, perfume and a herbal tincture rejected, and delivery faults that include a half-empty container and a taped split box. The listing asks whether it can be used as a fuel and does not answer. You pay more per litre than for the 6 litre pack, on a size whose origin line does not match its siblings.
Pros
Cons
Best for: You want a mid-size B2C pack and will check the label in the box against the 6 litre denaturant line.
Less suitable: You need the denaturants printed on this page, or a methylated-spirits title with its own reviews.
Specifications
Common questions
Where does this 3 litre listing say it was made?
The country-of-origin line says United Kingdom. The 2 litre and 6 litre files in the same title family say Poland.
Does the file name the denaturants?
Not on this ASIN. The 6 litre file does. This file's model token, Ethyl1x12, matches the 6 litre file.
Can it be used as a fuel?
The listing asks that and does not answer it. There is no stove claim in the bullets.
The 2 × 1 litre B2C pack is about £21.95, about £10.98 a litre, with 96% on the title, origin Poland and model ethyl1l. A bullet says the ethanol is sold in a 1 litre HDPE container, which fits this size better than the 3 litre sibling, but the included-components line says no. Denaturants are not on this file; they appear on the 6 litre listing in the same family. The star line is again 4.6 from 512, shared across the three sizes. Reviewers keep brush cleaning and leather-dye dilution, and one says the liquid evaporates a bit slower than isopropyl alcohol. They reject perfume because of acetone and other denaturants, and one review rejects a tincture claim for herbal extraction. A cap that did not fit, a container about half full, a leak in the bag and a split box taped shut are in the same file. At nearly £11 a litre you pay a small-pack premium on a review pool that is not unique to these two bottles.
Pros
Cons
Best for: You want two smaller bottles of the B2C 96% liquid and will not use it for perfume or a tincture.
Less suitable: You need the lowest price per litre, a methylated-spirits title, or a review file that belongs only to this ASIN.
Specifications
Common questions
What is in the box?
The included-components line says no. A bullet still says the ethanol is sold in a 1 litre HDPE container, and the title says 2 x 1 litre.
Do the reviews support perfume or a tincture?
No. Reviewers say denaturants, including a mention of acetone, made perfume unsuitable, and one reviewer rejected a tincture claim for herbal extraction. Cleaning brushes is the use they kept.
Did every parcel arrive intact?
No. Texts in the shared file mention a cap that did not fit, a bottle about half full, a leak in the bag, and a split box taped shut.
Across 167 amazon.co.uk reviews at 4.6, Barrettine's 500 ml mineralised methylated spirit is the bottle in this set whose title says methylated spirit, whose colour is violet, and whose review file is its own. Buyers use it in a Trangia meth burner and a camping stove, and one says it burnt clean and hot. The bullets also name French polish, knotting, glass, and degreasing before a sealant. The recurring complaint is the 500 ml size: reviewers call it poor value next to a larger shop bottle and overpriced against a discount shop. One person missed the usual meths smell and blamed the word mineralised. Reinforced tape on the lid was hard to remove, and one review mentions soot on pans after that buyer mixed in water, which is not a maker instruction. Strength, denaturants and origin are not printed. At about £6.13, about £12.26 a litre, it is the top pick when you want a named UK meths bottle with its own reviews.
Pros
Cons
Best for: You want a small violet meths bottle whose title and its own 167 reviews agree, for French polish or a meths burner.
Less suitable: You need several litres at a lower price per litre, or a pale shellac job that cannot take violet dye.
Specifications
Common questions
Does the Barrettine listing name a stove?
Yes. The bullets say it acts as a fuel for special meths burners, and the description says certain lamps if you check the lamp instructions. A listing question asks if it is flammable and the file does not answer it.
Is French polish named?
Yes. The bullets call it the primary solvent when using, cleaning up and thinning knotting and French polishes.
What do the reviews in the file actually say?
The star line is 4.6 from 167. In the 38 texts, buyers mention a Trangia and a camping stove. Glass is a bullet rather than a review theme, and some call the 500 ml bottle poor value against a larger shop bottle.
Bird Brand's 500 ml denatured methylated spirits is about £8.99, about £17.98 a litre, with 4.2 from 30 reviews and only five texts in the file. The bullets name alcohol burners, camping stoves and Trangia, plus French polish, glass and knots, and the seller says the smell is less nauseating than most meths. The texts that exist are thin: fast delivery, a well-packed parcel, and one short line that calls the quality good. The criticism is sharper: one reviewer calls it the nastiest burning meths they had found, another found the bottle top broken and leaking in the package, and a third calls it expensive, with a 7/10 value remark. Colour, strength and denaturants are not stated. The Trangia wording is useful on the listing, though five texts and a leak do not match Barrettine's own 167-review file.
Pros
Cons
Best for: You specifically want Bird Brand's Trangia wording on a 500 ml bottle and will accept a five-text review file.
Less suitable: You want a larger independent review sample, or a bottle that has not already leaked in a stored review.
Specifications
Common questions
Does Bird Brand name a camping stove?
Yes. The bullets name alcohol burners, camping stoves, and Trangia and other cookers. They also claim a less nauseating smell than most meths.
What went wrong in the five review texts?
One review calls it the nastiest burning meths that person had found. Another says the bottle top was broken and leaking in the package. A third calls it expensive.
Will it remove paint?
The listing asks that question and does not answer it. The bullets name French polish, knots and glass, not paint stripping.
The 99 degree 2BM tank is the same about £15.44 for 5 litres, so the litre price matches the 90 degree row at about £3.09. The title says 99 degrees rather than 90, the liquid is still described as pink, and the bullets again name household surfaces, shellac and alcohol paints, with the same 15°C to 35°C range and a ban on spraying hot surfaces. Weight and dimensions are missing here and are present on the 90 degree file. The image URL is the same as that other ASIN. The star line is 1.0 from 1 review and the file contains no review text, so you cannot see what failed. A stove is not named. Paying the same money for a higher degree mark, with a single unexplained star and a duplicated image, is a weaker catalogue row than a reviewed meths bottle.
Pros
Cons
Best for: You already know you want the 99 degree 2BM mark and will treat a one-star line with no text as unexplained.
Less suitable: You need review evidence, a distinct pack photo, or UK methylated-spirits wording on the title.
Specifications
Common questions
How does the 99 degree pack differ from the 90 degree pack in the files?
The title says 99 degrees rather than 90. The price is also about £15.44. Weight and dimensions are missing here and present on the 90 degree file. The image URL is the same.
What does the single star mean?
The file records 1.0 out of 5 from 1 review and contains no review text, so there is nothing to quote about a fault.
Is a stove named?
No. The bullets name surfaces, shellac and alcohol paints, and say not to spray the liquid on hot surfaces.
2BM's 5 litre denatured ethyl alcohol is listed at 90 degrees and about £15.44, about £3.09 a litre, in pink with a slight alcoholic scent. The manufacturer line is 2 B.M. S.r.l. The bullets name cleaning, degreasing, dissolving shellac and lengthening alcohol paints, and they say not to spray the liquid on hot surfaces, with a stated use range of 15°C to 35°C. Weight is 5.5 kg and the carton is given as 28 × 17 × 22 cm. There is no customer-review line and no review text, so the low litre price has no amazon.co.uk sample behind it. The bullets say shellac, not French polish, and a stove is not named. The image URL matches the 99 degree listing. Treat the pink 90 degree can as a catalogue row until reviews exist for this ASIN.
Pros
Cons
Best for: You are comparing a large pink shellac solvent on the printed price and will wait for reviews before you rely on it.
Less suitable: You need amazon.co.uk review evidence, a methylated-spirits title, or a burner fuel the listing names.
Specifications
Common questions
What colour is the 90 degree 2BM liquid?
A bullet says the liquid is pink and has a slight alcoholic odour. The scent field says slightly alcoholic.
Does it name shellac?
Yes. The bullet says it is for cleaning and degreasing, dissolving shellac and lengthening alcohol paints. It also says not to spray it on hot surfaces.
How is it rated?
The file has no customer-review line and no review text, so the rating is not stated.
LaFerr's title says denatured alcohol 99% and 5 litres at about £16.03, about £3.21 a litre if you trust the volume line. The item weight says 17 kg, and the number of items is 4. Ethanol is about 0.8 kg a litre, so 17 kg cannot describe 5 litres of this liquid. The bullets repeat the title, call the product type a chemical laboratory item, and name the brand. There is no star line, no review text, no denaturant list, no colour, and no French polish or stove claim. Questions about stains, flammability and surfaces are asked on the listing and not answered. The page does not give you a pack you can specify from the table alone.
Pros
Cons
Best for: You are only checking whether a 99% laboratory title exists at this price, and you will not order on the weight line.
Less suitable: You need a coherent pack size, a meths or shellac use, or any review evidence.
Specifications
Common questions
Why is the weight hard to use?
The title says 5 litres and the item weight says 17 kg. Those two lines cannot both describe 5 litres of ethanol. Number of items is 4.
Is it flammable?
The listing asks and does not answer. No hazard sentences are in the file.
Are there reviews?
No customer-review line and no review text, so praised and criticised points are not stated.
The title says Alcopro denatured ethyl alcohol, 12 bottles of 1 litre, at about £12.65, which is about £1.05 a litre if twelve litres arrive. The brand and manufacturer fields both say Generico, so the name on the title and the name in the table do not match. Strength is printed as 90 degrees, not a percent, and a bullet says the liquid is odourless. Weight is 8 kg for a 12 litre title. There is no star line, no review text and no best-sellers rank. Denaturants, colour, French polish and stove use are all absent, and questions about cleaning, flammability and alcohol content are unanswered. The litre sum is the lowest arithmetic in the set, and it is also the least evidenced, which is why it does not take the best value mark.
Pros
Cons
Best for: You are comparing catalogue prices and will not buy a silent 12-bottle case on the litre sum alone.
Less suitable: You need a brand that matches the title, review evidence, or a bottle that says methylated spirits.
Specifications
Common questions
Who is the brand?
The title says Alcopro. The brand and manufacturer fields both say Generico.
What strength is printed?
The title says 90 degrees and a bullet says denatured ethyl alcohol 90 degree, odourless. The file does not give a percent by volume.
Is the low price backed by reviews?
No. There is no star line, no review text and no best-sellers rank in the file.
Shelf prices and star lines are the figures stored from the nine amazon.co.uk files on 21 October 2026. This is not a laboratory test. A star row is amazon.co.uk's figure. A percentage or a degrees mark is the seller's claim. Where two lines on the same page disagree, both are kept and the conflict is a deduction. US and German listings are not used. Isopropyl listings are not scored as denatured ethanol. Shared review text is counted once for the family, not as a separate test of each pack size. The highest score is the top pick. Best value is the lowest stored price per litre on a denatured-ethanol listing that states a strength and has a review pool, and it does not also take the top score.
Amazon evidence
35%Star rating on amazon.co.uk, then whether the review file belongs to that ASIN. Barrettine's 4.6 from 167 is its own file, with 38 texts. Bird Brand's 4.2 from 30 has five texts. B2C's 4.6 from 512 is one pool across the 2 litre, 3 litre and 6 litre ASINs. A missing star line, or 1.0 from 1 with no body, scores this block low.
Spec fit
25%A title that says methylated spirits, a stated strength, named denaturants, and a pack line that could describe the bottle. A 1% isopropyl and 1% butanone bullet is recorded, and it is not the UK completely denatured alcohol ratio of 3 parts isopropyl alcohol and 3 parts methyl ethyl ketone per 100 parts alcohol. A 17 kg weight on a 5 litre title, a Generico brand field on an Alcopro title, and an origin line that disagrees with the rest of the family are deductions.
Review outcome
20%Themes in the stored texts: a Trangia or camping stove, French polish or shellac, brush cleaning, a leaking cap, soot after a buyer mixed in water, and perfume or tincture uses that reviewers rejected. A shared file cannot fill this block three times. No text means no outcome.
Value
20%Stored GBP price per litre on a listing whose volume line is usable. About £5.83 on the 6 litre B2C pack scores the value block among bottles that also have reviews and a printed strength. About £1.05 on a silent 12-bottle title does not, because there is no review file to attach the saving to. Value does not also take the top score.
Buy the class on the label before the litre headline. Denatured alcohol on a UK shelf is methylated spirits: completely denatured alcohol, ethanol made unfit to drink. Industrial denatured alcohol is not a DIY purchase. Judge strength as printed, dye on pale shellac, the pack you will finish, and whether the reviews belong to that bottle.
Denatured alcohol on a UK shelf is the liquid still called methylated spirits. In law the retail product is completely denatured alcohol: ethanol made unfit to drink. Excise Notice 473 allows that liquid for heating, lighting, cleaning and domestic use with no user authorisation. Industrial denatured alcohol and trade-specific denatured alcohol are not a DIY purchase. Notice 473 forbids purifying completely denatured alcohol or making it drinkable.
Isopropyl alcohol, white spirit and bioethanol fireplace fuel are other products. Spirit burners and shellac want this class of alcohol. Oil paint wants white spirit. Skin, wounds and hand gel are not this category.
Perfume and tinctures need ethanol sold for that use. Stored reviews rejected both because of denaturants. A duty-exempt sentence is not an HMRC letter, and a 1% bullet is not the UK formula.
The three B2C sizes share 4.6 from 512. A leaking 500 ml is a bad parcel. A leaking multi-litre can is a fire risk. Keep neither, and do not redistil the liquid or make it drinkable.
The first check is the class. Retail methylated spirits is completely denatured alcohol. HMRC allows it for heating, lighting, cleaning and domestic use with no user authorisation. Industrial denatured alcohol and trade-specific denatured alcohol need authorisation, and industrial denatured alcohol must not be used for heating or lighting. Notice 473 forbids purifying completely denatured alcohol or making it drinkable.
Read the strength the seller prints. Trangia names methylated spirits for Great Britain, with a practical floor around 70% alcohol. Smith & Rodger describes 94% completely denatured alcohol for shellac. Barrettine and Bird Brand do not print a percent. B2C prints 96%. 2BM and Alcopro print degrees, which is not a UK percent until the label defines it. LaFerr prints 99% and a 5 litre title beside a 17 kg weight and four items, so the pack cannot be specified from those lines.
Three typical situations, each with a recommendation from this comparison.
You want a small bottle whose title says methylated spirits, for a meths burner or French polish. Barrettine, 500 ml, is the top pick at about £6.13, with 4.6 from 167 reviews on its own file. It is violet, so it can tint a pale finish. Strength and denaturants are not printed.
You want alcohol for shellac or French polish, and you need to know whether dye will tint pale timber. Barrettine names French polish and is violet, so leave it if the finish must stay pale. The 2BM bullets name shellac and say the liquid is pink, with no usable review file. This set has no reviewed clear meths.
You want litres for brushes and glass, and you will read the denaturant line. The B2C 6 litre pack is best value at about £34.98, about £5.83 a litre, with 96% printed. The 4.6 from 512 reviews is shared with two other sizes, and the printed denaturant line is not the UK formula. Shared texts include leaks.
The top pick is the Barrettine mineralised methylated spirit, 500 ml, at about £6.13. It scores 9.0, the highest here: the title says methylated spirit, the colour is violet, and 4.6 from 167 reviews is its own file. Bullets name French polish and meths burners. The 500 ml size is the usual complaint, and strength is not printed. Best value is the B2C denatured ethanol 96%, 6 litres, at about £34.98, about £5.83 a litre, with a shared 4.6 from 512 reviews. The denaturant bullet is not the UK completely denatured alcohol formula. A silent 12-bottle title at about £1.05 a litre does not take that mark.
B2C denatured ethanol 96%, 6 litres
About £34.98 for 6 litres, about £5.83 a litre, with 96% printed and a review pool. The denaturant line is not the UK formula.
Editorial
Peter F. is the editor for DIY & tools at productscompared.co.uk. Comparisons in this category are checked against amazon.co.uk listings, review evidence and public UK sources.
Guides on what to look for, how to use a product, and common mistakes.
Public UK sources and the amazon.co.uk listings compared on this page. Shelf prices in the product files were stored on 21.10.2026.
This page contains affiliate links to amazon.co.uk (tag pcuk26-21). If you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices, stars and review counts are the amazon.co.uk figures already stored for this set. This is not a laboratory test.
