I used the Regal Matte in our living room and wasn't thrilled with it. If you look down the wall, you can see differences in the sheen where the roller was rolled. And where I spackled, the sheen is totally different than where I didn't. I know the proper way is to prime the whole wall, but it was a huge wall and a very small spackle spot. I've skipped the priming over spackled spots with every paint I've ever used and the BM regal matte was the only one that ever let the spackle spot show through. Also, I agree with christophern that it is hard to touch up. I also haven't found it to be very cleanable - small marks and stuff from my kids do NOT come off. I prefer Duron's Velvet Flat - much less sheen than the Regal Matte (which has quite a bit of sheen in spite of supposedly being "matte"), a nice thick paint that covers completely in two coats max, and I have yet to meet the mark that won't come off of it. We had it in our walk in closet where it got extremely scuffed from shoes being tossed against the wall, etc. I found that the scuff marks wouldn't come off the semigloss trim but wiped off the velvet flat walls with just a wet rag. It's been in our master bathroom getting spattered with toothpaste and hairspray for 6 years now and after a quick swipe with a damp rag, it still looks like it was just painted yesterday. Amazing stuff!

(shaking my head) I've written about full spectrum color for a long time now, mostly on here, but have a sparse amount of info other places too. Full spectrum is the #1 searched keyword for the last two months. The data and inquiries I've received tells me there is a palpable desperation for information. I can only hope that BenM's complete lack of support and concern for in-store level knowledge and materials is doing nothing but pushing customers to Ellen Kennon and other originators and proprietors of full spectrum paint/color. Yet another oops is color consultants (in closed groups on FB) are kind of torqued with the news that once (if ever) the fandecks for Color Stories do come out, they will have to BUY them. Uh, not gonna happen here. Understand EK and the smaller distributors of FS being in a position that they just can not give away full sets of hand-painted palettes. But, we're talking Ben Moore here. Seriously - like I'm going to spend $$ on a fandeck and sell gallons of FS paint for Ben Moore. Let me polish up my crystal ball and speculate how that might play out: Once my cleint or their contractor gets to the Ben Moore store to purchase the FS, what's going to be waiting there for them? Painfully underinformed paint counter staff who will likely say they don't *need* that full spectrum stuff. "A nice can of Regal (or whatever stock they need to off) will do just fine. Why not save yourself $20." And paint stores do have their own agendas and push overstock and discontinued product because it is to their advantage to do so -- the customer's project-at-hand is not always the driving force behind product rec's. Let's not forget about the contractor involved. He has an agenda as well and FS may or may not fit into how he wants things to go. At which point in time, I'll be making a phone call. An hour later and said paint counter staff understand why FS is different and matters. Still not 100% on board but now they're worn down to the point they just want to mix up paint and get me and my client out of their life. Can only hope it's a contractor who is willing to work with me and won't play his established-relationship-with-the-store card and team up against me to convince client to change paint specification. And if that happens, I'm back at square with with the color consultation because you just don't sub regular color for FS without chips, samples, swatches, evaluation/testing -- the whole shebang. Guessing the deck will be about $75. And every time I have an order for BenM FS the same thing will happen because odds are it won't be the same paint store or staff. Every time I'm down at least two hours explaining and educating paint store staff and reassuring my client. No matter how well I am able to bring the counter staff up to speed and reassure client, there will always be an air of uncertainty on the part of my client questioning if the hassle and extra money for an alleged *special* can of paint is worth it. Again, if contractor is not on board, he'll be there thru the whole project with the opportunity to drive home his point of view further undermining my client relationship. I'm suppose to essentially pay Ben Moore for the deck to start this process rolling. A process that will no doubt do nothing but eat time as I have to manage the inevitable. All that just to sell full spectrum paint for Ben Moore. If -- IF -- I have this all correct, let me just say they're outta their freaking minds and completely delusional about who needs to be paying who and for what.

I don’t know how it compares to your paint, but I have BM Aura in a satin & semi gloss finish in my house. It’s some of the least scrubbable paint, especially for the price and considering the sheen level. I can’t imagine anything matte or eggshell by them. I found the Valspar I used in my previous house to be much more scrubbable. I know there are a lot of BM fans out there, but I have not been impressed by my experience with their paint at all.

Matte is washable, Flat is not. I use MATTE for hallways, and more high traffic areas. THe sheen is less than Eggshell and not very noticeable. For dining rooms,formal living rooms etc. Flat is fine.