Lowes/Valspar Earth Elements Brilliant Metals I love it!

I searched all over the web for reviews or other information on this product and couldn't find any, so when I fell in love with a paint chip at Lowes, I went ahead and painted my sewing/hobby room. The Valspar brochure doesn't give all the application info that the can does, so I thought I'd describe the process here in case anyone else is considering the paint.

The process REQUIRES at least two coats. You apply a base coat in a specified similar color of Valspar interior semi-gloss. I wanted the room in "Starlight," and so got a gallon of "Firelight" in the semi-gloss as directed on the back of the Starlight paint chip. This was $29.00, about what you'd pay for good-quality paint that isn't on sale. The Brilliant Metals paint, in Starlight, however, was $40.00 Yowch! What I didn't realize until I got the paint home was that, while the brochure made it sound like two coats -- one of each -- would be enough, the can tells you to do two coats of the Brilliant Metals. The walls are approx. 400 square feet, and took almost every drop of a gallon of each paint, so I would need a second $40.00 gallon to do that third coat of paint. Right now, I don't intend to do it, but if this were a high-traffic room or one with a lot more natural light that would show up imperfections, I might have to rethink that.

The semi-gloss went on great, and was a terrifyingly bright tangerine color -- yikes! I waited overnight for it to dry and then rolled on the Brilliant Metals. The Brilliant Metals is a separate mixing base -- you don't add anything into it yourself, it comes as a metallic base. The paint reminded me of frosted nail polish. In "hidden" spots above the suspended ceiling, etc. where I hadn't coated the off-white paint underneath with the base coat, you could see that the Brilliant Metals alone would be a semi-translucent (with the emphasis on "translucent") glaze. However, it did serve to tone down the wild tangerine to a lovely peachy color. You can't really characterize it as light or dark because it changes very much depending on how the light shines on it!

Instructions say to cut in only 2-3" around the edges with the Brilliant Metals. Roll on a 4'x2' vertical area at a time, using up-and-down (not side-to-side) motion only, then, when the 2' is done ceiling to floor, go back without loading more paint on the roller and roll in one continuous stroke from top to bottom, as vertically as possible. I'm guessing this helps get the sparkly particles aligned so that roller marks don't show as much. Note that unless you can reach the top without a ladder, you'll need an extension pole to do this one stroke thing. It took a little practice to get the floor-to-ceiling stroke down -- I concentrated on just lightly running the roller over the surface with no pressure at all.

The result definitely isn't something that would work in every room, and I would even be hesitant to use it in two rooms that adjoin. However, for a room where you can have fun with the effect, I have to recommend it. I'm normally a "Sherwin-Williams only" painter, as I have tried other brands and never been as happy with them as with S-W coverage and consistency, but I have to admit that I'm now eying the rest of the Earth Elements pallette and the granite crystals that you can add as a mixer to them for a different effect...

They claim the paint to be low-odor, and, while I've worked with lower, it wasn't as bad as some -- the room I painted is in the basement and one couldn't smell the paint upstairs. Cleanup was latex simple. Dries to touch in one hour, to re-coat in 4.