186)GUIDING PAINT SAMPLES

The sample ordering process is probably my favorite thing about Lick paint. Instead of giving you small tester pots of paint, they provide you with peel-and-stick samples. I wish all paint brands would use these—they are so much easier to use!

I arranged samples in a few different colours, and they arrived in the post a set of days later. It was easy to stick them to the wall and see how they looked in different lights. This also makes it really easy to choose the right colour scheme as you can see how different colour combinations work together.

THE PAINT COLOUR: LICK PAINT PINK 04

The colour I picked in the end wasn’t actually one of the samples I ordered. However, I could see on Lick’s website that Pink 04 was just the perfect shade of pink—not too light and not too dark—so I just went for it and ordered the paint without seeing another handling

When it comes to handling, Lick paint generally performed well with great coverage. The consistency of the paint was lovely, and it went onto the walls really perfectly.

One of the most unique things about Lick paint is the paint tin it comes in. The infamous Lick paint cans have a small opening with a screw-on lid. This made it really easy to pour into the paint tray and easy to close once we had finished pouring. It comes with a wooden mixing stick, so you can easily stir the paint through the small opening.

The drawback to this is that we didn’t clean the lid before screwing it back on, so when we wanted to open the paint up again, it was stuck! I read through some of the reviews on Trustpilot, which said a few other people had the same problem.

The solution to this is obviously to clean the lid and screw area before putting it back on, but I didn’t think of that it the time. Either that or make sure you use the whole can in one go.

The other drawback I found was the smell. I found it to be very strong and quite unpleasant.

After painting the whole room and waiting about five days to see if the smell would disappear away, I contacted customer services. It turns out the paint I received was well past its recommended use-by date, which was why it smelled so bad. There was no use-by date on the tin, so there is no way I could have known this.

I was quite annoyed when I found this out. We had already wasted a lot of time painting, and now we are going to have to paint over it to try and get rid of the smell. This was supposed to be a quick painting project!

DRYING TIME

Lick paint dries in about 2-4 hours. After this time, it’s safe to apply a second coat. After the second coat you will need to wait 24-hours for it to be completely dry, and 5-10 days to fully cure. You shouldn’t hang any pictures or apply anything to the wall until it’s completely cured.