Hey Sky,
Yeah...BM's new colorants are waterborne, & there's 16 of them. C2 also has 16 colorants, but are the traditional "Glycol-based" variety.

When you're matching "down" into a line with only 10-12 colorants, matching gets a lot more difficult.
(and we do a lot of matching...)
We've tried...doesn't work very well.

No C2-dealer will match C2 down into another brand.
Similarly, I'd be shocked if Aura dealers would "match-down" from an Aura color into a standard line too!
>>> There's just too much lost in the "color-translation" when there's fewer colorants to work with.

There's a lot of "behind-the scenes" reasons, but they're pretty geeky!

Faron

When color is locked down, it won't rub off and burnish like most darker tinted paints do.

You won't be disappointed with Aura.

Michael

Here is a link that might be useful: Colorlock explained

Hey Faron, I appreciated your quick response. I'm pretty geeky myself and I'd love to hear about the behind the scenes reasons. I realize that BM dealers are probably not even allowed to try to color match the affinity paints but I'm sure if I walked into a HD where they don't care, they'd try to match. I'm glad you responded about the matching. I realize too that since these are water based colorants that they probably aren't exact matches for what is used in glycol based, for example maybe they don't have a cyan in water based to compare to the cyan glycol.

Michael, thanks again for your quick response too. Now I understand what they mean by color lock. I thought maybe it was referring to less fading by the sun, but now I see it's chemically linked to the substrate so it won't burnish and rub off.

I'm looking forward to trying this paint and to see what it looks like on the wall.

Sky

Sky, I look forward to seeing photo's.

BM will match in Aura, any of their regular paint colors.
They won't match other paints though. I think there is quite a learning curve for these paints and the new mixing machine. My BM store is very nervous about them when I buy them. But they do it beautifully and the paint is truly better than traditional BM paints. Just wish they had a high gloss. The satin is quite glossy though.
Nikki

Nikki, thanks for the info. I'm waiting for a nearby BM dealer to get their machine in either late Jan or Feb. I'm not crazy about the fact that they will need time for a learning curve to see how the machine works - but I know they will work with me to get the color right, so that's okay. I only wish the BM dealer closest to home had the new equipment- they told me the owner was "thinking" about it but would probably not get it because of the expense. I can't wait to try the paint after everything I have read.

sky

I have used the aura affinity colors, dragonfly, agave, and aventurine. I have been thrilled with all 3 of them. The color matched to the paint chip perfectly and the colors are rich. The paint is awesome to work with. I will never go back. I always used a high quality paint, but I feel that this is worth the extra money. I purchased mine from buyaurapaint.com Gallons are free shipping and they will ship either the same day or next day. They also have samples and quarts. Don't be afraid to sample a few colors.

As an FYI, Aura can be tinted to any color, not just colors in the BM palette.

Paintguy1, yes I realize they color match anything. I'm still struggling with what colors I want in the house before I arrange to have the whole house painted.

Kerryokie, I did buy some paint samples from buyaurapaint and dragonfly is one of them - gorgeous color but probably too dark for my home. I'm hoping that a reasonably close dealer gets his tinting machine soon because I would rather deal with someone local if I can - otherwise I will deal with buyaura since the price is the same and shipping is free. Now that I have the color deck I've choosen a few possibilities and have ordered those samples. Should come in a few days. I'm glad to hear your feedback on how nice the paint is.

Brutuses, I'll post pictures in the Decorating Forum when I'm done - I'll post here as well. It's going to be a couple of months before I get all the ducks in a row to get started. So many projects, so little money and time LOL. I'm sure everyone understands.

Sky

Skypathway, dragonfly is in small doses in my home. I painted my tiny entryway with it. I used a large dose of Mascarpone with it, so it looks dramatic but not dark. I previously had the area painted cream in hopes of making the space look bigger. How wrong I was. Now that I have taken more of a risk with color, the small space has a whole new exciting life.

This may be too late but... for future readers...we just painted our entire house interior with the aura paint. It cost about double in materials compared to regular BM. Our painter asked if we wanted to try a color match with a regular BM paint but we declined because of the depth of color with the aura. When you look at a sample like tamarind af120 in different lights...it casts all different hues and tones of the color and that is an element of the composition of the paint...you could surface match a top color but it would not be the same. In some lights it looks like a golden glaze over a brownish green. In other lights it casts more green and again in other light more brown. It is stunning, rich and deep color. Same thing with the citrine and the meditation....just very rich colors. The bottom line is the ridiculously easy selection of colors given the 144 color palette designed to match each other. That made all the difference in selecting the colors after getting so bewildered by a standard fan deck.

I love, love, love the colors. It feels like a designer chose them and it was just me hanging the 18x18 samples around the house and getting opinion from hub and kids.