It is my understanding that Advance is more for trim and cabinetry. Advance has a leveling agent that doesn’t allow it to dry as fast and doesn’t show brush marks. It works great for trim/cabinets as I have used it. Is this what he painted your walls with?

Agree with ajrmcr. I think Advance is made in other sheens, but I've never used it on drywall.

Advance is not for drywall. Only trim.

Are you sure it's not just an empty can he just used to work out of? I can't imagine why anyone would choose to use Advance on walls.

Advance is not for walls, at all. It is not any cheaper than Regal Select, it is just a cabinet/trim paint. If he actually sprayed that on your walls, he's professionally incompetent and you should fire him immediately. It takes months to fully cure and you have a mess on your hands.

BM Aura is their waterborne made for walls. Regal Select is their top end traditional latex. Either one would be nice.

You can put Regal on top of Ultra Spec, but it doesn't always look perfect with just one coat. Sometimes the sheen uniformity is an issue. I would suggest trying it to see how it looks. Technically though, he should be applying two coats of what you asked and paid for.

Can't be second guessing the painter when the information keeps changing.

May be that first coat is a tinted primer? There is a primer in the Ultra Spec line.

What does the BM store say? I would ask them your sheen and coverage questions and take their advice.

Regal Select has been a great paint in my experience. My daughter wanted a purple bedroom and I used it to put a royal purple over yellow. 1 coat no problem, no primer. Those are both usually things I tell people they shouldn't do but the paint handled it like a champ. I couldn't believe I didn't see any little pin pricks of yellow sticking through.

Yep; I've never been happy with only one coat. Especially with paint that has any sheen, including eggshell.

I know a lot of paints tout 'one coat coverage'. And, yes, they may 'cover' but it's that second coat that gives depth and makes all the difference, IMO.

OP did say the painter had applied 'the first coat' so that indicates he is planning at least one more coat of paint.

Hopefully that's what actually happened. And that he didn't just switch out for the cheaper paint because he didn't think you'd notice.

He didn't specify the paint he was going to use in his contract?

@wiscokid I had that thought as well... Of course there was added confusion because he usually does Sherwin Williams but I wanted a specific Benjamin Moore white and asked him to get it at BM rather than matching it in SW.

@jellytoast This is the one guy I let my husband handle on his own, and apparently there was a lot of verbal agreement because the paperwork is completely insufficient. He has also been doing a lot of dry wall and texture repair for us as well, which complicates scope of work even more when the two of them start riffing on things in person.

I know I know... Believe me, it has been a point of contention several times and will never happen again, but it is unfortunate that it is too late with the painter. I do have very specific quotes and agreements with every other contractor, and almost all of them have had me go pick out and pay for the materials myself so I get exactly what I want. Certainly wish I had done the same thing on paint.

@sofaspud The trim is already an issue because I originally went a long with my husband when he said he wanted semi-gloss trim. Then I started doing more of my own paint research and realized I wanted satin instead. Well, apparently the one and only thing this painter did on time was buy the paint, and he'd already purchased semi-gloss. I think it will be about $200-250 if I want to change at this point, and I'm very tempted to do that. He did say he could add a certain type of lacquer to dull the sheen a bit, so he did one room that way for us today and then I'll decide if that's OK or not tonight. As I'm typing that out, I realize it will make touchups difficult and honestly sounds like a bad idea compared to spending another $250...

If the paints are different sheens (which they probably will be) you will likely get flashing, where the top coat doesn't cover the bottom entirely. I would do 2 coats to get proper coverage - his bad, not yours.