On August 3, 2016 AVM wrote a comment about the primer she purchased. The following is an email exchange between her and Ted Sosnicki, owner of Green Planet Paints. Ashley gave her permission for her emails to be reproduced.

Review for the 'Green Planet Paints',

Great Paint, not the best primer, August 3, 2016
Reviewer: AVM (VA)
The primer goes on very thin and watery, so even covering a color like taupe was difficult with the primer. The primer also has a stronger smell than I anticipated. The paint, however, is quite beautiful. I purchased "Peace" in flat, and I love how bright and warm the white is. It goes on much thicker than the primer, but a wet edge is definitely better for avoiding the picture frame effect of cutting in and having it dry, however inefficient and inconvenient that is. One gallon was not enough to stretch out and cover our entire bedroom, but since I need to repaint the ceiling, too, I've gone ahead and ordered a 5 gallon bucket to do that job and others. This paint is really beautiful, and I don't have qualms about fumes or anything like that.

Hello Ashley

I would like to fist say thank you very much for providing feedback on our products. We strive to make the safest and most durable coating products possible and are happy to receive any feedback our customers may have. It helps us to try and address concerns with the products and/or service so to better yours and future customer experiences while also helping you to improve your health and environment in a cost effective means.

If I may, I would like to see if I can help address concerns with the products which you have pointed out to us.

Yes, the primer is thinner than the paint as it is a totally different technology. We could make it thicker and are looking at that but have not found a cost effective reason for increase our customers cost if the product is working. Nonetheless I will readdress this with my partner and chemist. I will admit the primer was not designed to hide anything, it was developed more to lock down the substrate and prevent underling toxins from continuing to gas off into a room or space as well as prevent the underlying pigments from bleeding into the topcoat. We are looking to see if there is a cost effective means to give the product more hide while also not increasing customer costs. In most cases like many architectural primers (excluding those designed to hide) colorant can be added to help hide a darker color. So for instance, if you were trying to hide a dark reddish brown or as you pointed out a taupe color and you were going to apply a very light color such as white. You could have the primer colored white in your case or better a light gray for hiding the reddish brown color. Gray seems to hide most darker colors than strict white, but if you have a lighter color like gray, then a white tint would be good.

There is also the bleed through issues as I pointed out which we have to contend with as well when going from one color to another. The clay compounds in the primer are usually lower than a paint as the higher clay's would absorb more of the pigments in the underlying paint. So adding color is the best option in this case to help neutralize the absorption effects. (I will add a paint engineering point at the end of all this that may help make since of all this statement. I find most people do not understand how paints work)

You pointed out that the primer had a “stronger smell than I anticipated” Would you be so kind as to please tell me more about the smell. I know there is a slight odor from the pH increasing raw material, but it would be helpful to get your inputs on all this. Like I stated, we strive to help our customers enjoy the process of painting and the products.

You pointed out “but a wet edge is definitely better for avoiding the picture frame effect of cutting in and having it dry, however inefficient and inconvenient that is. One gallon was not enough to stretch out and cover our entire bedroom“ May I please ask what the size of the bedroom is? All I need to know if length, width and height. If there are any interesting features in the room, that could be helpful too. (items such as one wall is all windows or the closet doors take up all the wall space except for two feet at one end) I would like to see if there was an issue on our end at all. A gallon will normally cover right at or very close to 400 SqFt total on single coat.

As for the cutting in, did you have the opportunity to review the Helpful Hints document on the website?

12. Cutting in using a brush. If you intend to use a brush to cut in corners or edges, we recommend the following action be performed.

a. Do the cutting in prior to applying the first coat of paint via roller or spray gun.

b. Repeat step 12a for the second coat.

c. Be sure to apply each top coat (1) or (2) while the cut in paint is still wet.

13. For the best cut in results using rollers, we have found taping along the area to be cut in and then using a small touch up roller, roll the paint along the tape edge and then rolling the rest of the wall while the paint is still wet, results in a very clean cut line and perfect blend.

Would this be what you were referring to as being inefficient and inconvenient? Just trying to get a better picture of the issue/s.

Again, I thank you very much for all your comments and points and I look forward to your replies as well.

Best regards and thank you very much for using Green Planet Paints® by Go Green World Products, LLC

Sincerely
Ted

Hi Ted,

Wow, thank you for so detailed a reply. It's great you are so passionate about your paint, it is a really great product. Thank you for explaining the main purpose of the primer, it's good to know that it is primarily to prevent further toxins from off-gassing. I'm sure you have that in the description of the primer, which is probably why I purchased it in the first place, I'm afraid I had forgotten that fact, though. The smell I mentioned was just that it was chemically compared to the paint, which has a slightly sweet and fruity smell. I am pregnant, and painting with the primer started to give me a headache and I felt a little anxious about fumes while using it, but not so with the paint.

The wet edge is inconvenient insomuch as you just need to keep up with it. I find it is generally easier to cut in everywhere first (which leads to some drying before you can catch up with a wet roller), and as a result, we did experience a little bit of the picture frame effect. Our bedroom walls' square footage comes in at under 368 square feet, not subtracting for two windows, and we were only able to just squeeze about three walls from one gallon, though we'll need to do some touch ups, and we didn't put paint on very thickly. In all likelihood, it is because I chose to paint with white, rather than a color, and I haven't previously done so, so it is probably an issue with other paints, as well.

Please feel free to post my comments and the points you made in reply. I'm looking forward to finishing up with the big old bucket I just ordered! (I posted a photo of your 1 gallon can on my instagram feed - @hallowedbethyhome-, but I couldn't find you guys to tag you.)

Cheers,
Ashley

Thank you so very much for the quick answer back Ashley.

I am working on your order today and hop to ship today as well.

Very interesting that it did not cover that much, I know the flat is much thicker than the eggshell and you could have thinned it out some too with water, but it should have covered the entire 368 SqFt at 10 mil. I am at a loss. The only thing I can even think of would be the amount of paint used for the cut ins. Just guessing though. If the cut ins were done at say 18 to 25 mil so to keep them wet longer, then that would be almost 2 to 3 times the required amount, but this is just a guess.

Being there is nothing in the primer that would cause anything that we are aware of, there is still the possibility that the underlying paint has something nasty in it and it is reacting to the softening and rejuvenation. I would not be surprise of that at all. Was the smell gone with in 24 hours after applying the primer? I do know the primer has kind of a slight Windex or ammonia smell or at least that is what I notice. But that is when you stuff your head into the pail. It is the pH enhancer that has that smell.

Keeping a wet edge is difficult with this. If you don't like the idea of doing the added prep work, you could try getting a spray bottle and mist the cut in as your working and see if that helps with the issue. Have not tried it my self, but had one applicator tell me that was what he dose.

Thank you for allowing me to post all this and I have talked to hallowedbethyhome but have not had the time to focus on them and get on there. Guess I should look into that one. I know I still need to get the Green Planet Paints FB page up and going too. Lots to do and not enough time to get them dune.

Got to get moving so please take care and hope to hear more from you in the future.

Best regards
Ted

Hi Ted,

I would say the primer smell dissipated after 24 hours, and I would also agree that it smelled a bit like ammonia, consistent with what you've said. I was thinking the trouble I had with the smell might have been due to the fact that I'm pregnant and they say pregnant women have a heightened sense of smell, but the smell was a little strong for my husband, too.

I appreciate all of your time to respond back to me, part of good business is good customer service, and the fact that you care about your product enough to reach out is wonderful. Your paint is great, and I'm happy to encourage friends and family to use it for their painting projects in the future.

cheers,
Ashley

Good morning Ashley,

Yes it is true that a pregnant woman's sense of smell is heightened during and for a few months after the pregnancy. You get the same thing when you go through a high altitude rapid decompression that ruptures your sinuses too (my case) and undergo over 4 surgeries to repair the damage. But, the fact the smell lingered over a few hours tells me the underlying paint has probably 2 solvent based chemicals in it, items such as methane (CH4), ethane (C2H6 or H3C−CH3), propane (H3C−CH2−CH3), acetylene (HC≡CH), ethylene (H2C=CH2), propylene(H3C−CH=CH2), and butadiene (H2C=CH−CH=CH2) just to name a few. When the primer was applied it may have reactivated some of these in the process and yes the smell would go away after about 24 to 48 hours as the new primer dried and locked them out. I can assure you that the product we use to kick the pH up is both organic and safe even though it has that ammonia smell to it. We did find a product to disguise the smell but it would also increase the price of the paint quite a bit.

Thank you for the data and your comments too.

My suggestion is when painting/priming, have fans on to keep the room air circulating, and once you have the paint/primer on, you should just leave the area to make sure you are not breathing in anything that would hurt you or your child which could be coming from the underlying coatings. Just saying.

Best regards
Ted