Benjamin Moore advanced gloss and satin finishes
/If you haven't heard of the name Benjamin Moore yet I'm sure the name will soon become familiar to you.
There is a lot of fuss being made as more and more UK decorators switch to Benjamin Moore, it seems to be all my Twitter feed is full of lately, its becoming more like a Benjamin Moore forum!
Benjamin Moore may have only recently been launched in the UK, by Craig Shaw, but are a well trusted and established name in America and Canada. I have already switched to their ceiling paint for most of my work as it has an unrivaled finish for ceilings. Its like UK paints used to be before they started messing with formulas. No flashing or lap marks just a beautiful flat finish.
I recently got sent a tin of each of the advanced satin and the advanced gloss for free for winning a Twitter competition and thought it would make a great opportunity to test these products for myself.
I have heard people saying that its like oil based paint used to be before 2010, when the EU regulation changed and all paint took a sever downturn. But I have to disagree with this statement. It is nothing like oil based used to be, its far, far superior! Its a dream to apply and levels beautifully. It doesn't have the horrid odour or drying time that oil based has either, nor will it go yellow several months down the line.
Another advantage is in some circumstances it doesn't even need an undercoat and will cover even the most yellow woodwork in 2 coats!
My first trial was on an off cut of oak veneer. It adhered well even after just one day, which can be an issue with some water-based finishes. My main surprise was the sheen to the gloss. Very often water-based gloss' are not as shiny as the traditional oil finishes and it becomes a compromise over using oils that will yellow. This is not the case with this stuff. You can see in the image below that held next to a window sill finished in a traditional oil gloss there doesn't appear any difference to the sheen. The bottom sample is the Benjamin Moore finish and even makes the top gloss look yellow (which is only 5 months old and wasn't painted by me).
I have since been using it at home on some woodwork and it is just phenomenal! I can't praise it enough. It will definitely be my go-to finish for woodwork from now on. This yet again is showing the lack of quality when it comes to UK brands, which most decorators have lost faith in the reliability of. No brand even comes close to this. I can see BM becoming a very big UK brand before long.
To read more about Benjamin Moore paints you can head over to their website: Benjaminmoorepaint.co.uk