Hey gang! Yeah...as I've babbled-about recently (hopefully not TOO much?!?!?), once you've seen an FPE finish, you're kinda spoiled...IMO. I brushed 2 coats of the ECO-Brilliant White on an UNPRIMED pallet-board that was in decent shape. (This was literally from a wooden pallet!) It looks fantastic! Beautifully white and smooth. If I had primed that board, and lightly sanded it, it would've REALLY been a thing of beauty! * The CC is maybe a little better paint than ACE's version, but it's another $15/gal more. The ACE is low-VOC, CC is not. * ACE's Cab/trim paint is ~ $30/gal. * CC normal retail is ~ $40-$45/gal. * FPE ECO runs ~ $50 for a Liter...Eurogallon (2.6 Qts.) is ~ $110. >>> HOWEVER......most people aren't around paint for long enough to do ANYTHING to their system. Sitting in traffic every day does far more harm than a few scattered hours of painting...IMO! Paintguy makes a good point...MOST people haven't seen a TRULY professional paintjob OR HIGH-Quality paint used. >>> Once you DO though....game over. >>> This is like my Hotel-Resort comparison! We were fortunate to stay at Maui's Four-Seasons resort last June. Will another hotel EVER measure-up to that? No way in H#ll. Relevance? Well....in paint & resorts....it's all in the "Eye/expectations of the beholder..." Faron

It absolutely could. Let me clear, I have no clue what you'd get for sure. No one could know until they mixed it and could look at the result. A paint color formula is a ratio. The proportion of each colorant means everything. Knowing a paint color "has a 32nd of an ounce shot of magenta" is useless information, for example. Because you need in depth knowledge of each colorant's strength, density and underlying signature - AND - at the same time, you must have a comprehensive grasp of the math used to determine how much of each colorant goes in the can because the proportion matters. For each brand. For each tint system. For each can of base paint. Colorants and base are the ingredients to a paint color recipe (formula). The next layer to this is understanding substance interaction. In other words, in order to use a paint color formula to predict a dried paint color's appearance, you have to have an intimate understanding of each colorant, each base and how each interacts and affects the other at every specific quantity interval. For every brand. Because each brand has their own special ingredients to make their paint. To your point about magenta, black and gold showing up as a color that's greenish - it's feasible. Because maybe the black colorant has an underlying green signature. For example, I know ICI/Dulux's black leans teal. Maybe the magenta has an underlying blue signature. We could go on and on with different scenarios of possible results from combining just these three colorant ingredients. Think about the fact that every brand uses the same 10 or 12 colorants to mix a range of tens of thousands of colors. This is why every paint color is born in theoretical color space. You need a computer and color data values to create formulas for tens of thousands of paint colors consisting of varying proportions of the same 10 or 12 colorants. So, if you want to predict color appearance, the smart thing to do is use the same color space and data values that were used to create the formula in the first place. Because in order to make the color it has to be defined and described first. Color is defined and described using data values. Color data values quantify how the human eye actually sees color. The paint color formula is nothing more than an insignificant albeit necessary detail in the middle.

I know there are scientific reasons that some color combinations are so pleasing... Correct again. Doesn't matter what primary colors you choose to comprise a color wheel (Red/Yellow/Blue or Cyan/Magenta/Yellow) in every case, harmonious color relationships are mathematical based on varied distances around the wheel. For example complementary color schemes means the two colors are opposite at 180 degrees. Analogous colors are neighbors on the color wheel at an angle of 60 degrees. Triadic means all three colors are equidistant at 120 degrees --- and so on. And that applies to the whole color sphere moving in all the way towards chromatic grays, not just the outside rim of the color wheel. Again, when you start dissecting color at this level, you start to understand how color really works and why it's so important to have a correct understanding of the proper structure of color. This is also where the miscellaneous color systems and processes people conjure up start to fracture into the disparate inaccuracies that they are. For example, just one popular 'method' is to collect a bunch of color chips and take them all home and then perform a process of elimination. When you understand how and why color works they way it does, you realize how ridiculous those approaches are. But. When people don't have the proper knowledge, they're left to their own devices. And when people are left to their own devices, they'll fill in the blanks the best they can. They make stuff up so color makes sense to them. It's an effort to shift color from something that's confusing to somethings that is manageable. Understandable how and why that happens. What's unfortunate is when the unfounded, inaccurate made-up stuff gets traction and takes on a life of its own to the extent that the mass consciousness then start to perceive it as fact. So instead of just one person being confused about color, you have many that are misguided and misinformed. It can be argued that the internet has not been a positive force when it comes to color education. Rather, it's done a lot of damage by providing a platform for the misguided and misinformed to spread their wealth of misinformation.

I've tweaked colors, and even had to mix a bit of a color to match to finish a wall so I didn't have to buy another gallon. If you have some knowledge in terms of working with colors, you can make something lighter, darker, cancel some of the undertones, etc., but only to a limited degree without winding up with a lot more paint. The automated tinting systems will not, to the best of my knowledge, take any starting color other than their base formulas into account. You can manually look at the formulas and get some help in figuring out which way to go, but understand that even two colors next to each other on the same strip may not have the same pigmentation in varying amounts as you might expect. There may be some translation involved. It is a manual process that requires patience (going a tiny bit at a time is better than ever adding too much) and the thrill of a challenge. And a willingness to know when you just can't get there from here and adapt, save it for another room or donate and start over.