There has been a steadily growing body of literature within the conservation research community specifically designed to evaluate the impact of solvents, including water, on both swelling and extraction of acrylic dispersion paint film used in fine art applications. Water and other solvent conditions tested thus far on these acrylic paint films have tended to extract significant, measurable quantities of paint film components, supporting the idea that both traditional easel painting aqueous and solvent cleaning and coating strategies for conserving paintings and painted artifacts that carry these types of paints will severely compromise these materials. To date, only a very limited number of aqueous conditions have been tested, however. In this paper the results of a series of experiments specifically designed to look at pH and conductivity effects of cleaning solutions on acrylic paints are reported. Specifically, Golden Artist Colors’ Heavy Body Tube Colors (New Berlin, New York) and ColArt’s USA Liquitex Acrylic Tube Colors (Piscataway Township, New Jersey) were used as the model test paints. Both digital microscopy and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry were used to characterize the physical changes in these paints in terms of surface area increases and to quantify the surfactant moieties extracted. Results from preliminary extraction experiments suggest that there are clear trends in the swelling of these paint films under short-term immersion conditions as a function of pH and conductivity in the presence of monovalent ions.