I have been refurbishing my house for a while now but it is only recently that I got around to redecorating as there were so many other jobs to do with the structure of the house which took priority over painting and wallpapering.
Obviously it has been a while since I have had to buy any paint and I was horrified with just how much it actually cost in the DIY shops. After spending a small fortune buying paint for my walls I was absolutely loathe to spend the premium that brands such as Crown and Dulux charge as I had already paid this to buy my wall paints.

I didn't want to cut corners after having spent so much money doing the house up for it to look bad just as I was coming to the home run but my thoughts were white is white at the end of the day and as it was an own brand by such a big supplier I thought that it must be decent or else they wouldn't be selling it.
The emulsion was cheap especially compared to other brands and I managed to get a huge 10 litre pot of it for only £16.98 which I thought would be large enough to do my entire (fairly small) house and the price was incentive enough for me to buy it and give it a go. I thought that if it was useless then at least it would work as a good undercoat and I could buy a smaller tub of branded emulsion to just go over the bits that weren't looking as good as they could have been.

Painting ceilings is a shop that I absolutely detest and so I put it off for ages before finally deciding that I could procrastinate no longer. I got all my equipment such as brushes and my roller and got to work. The first thing which I noticed immediately was that this wasn't quite as thick and luxurious looking as the Dulux stuff that I had got to cover my walls but as the Dulux stuff was all slightly covered and this was just a brilliant white going over a white I hoped that this wouldn't mean that it was going to take several coats to do the ceilings.

I loaded up my tray and got to work with my roller. As anyone who has decorated before knows when you repaint your ceilings when they haven't been done in a while the difference is amazing. Although they looked white to me before I started painting I immediately could notice the colour difference between this and the stuff that was up. The ceiling obviously hadn't been painted in a long time and had a yellowish tinge to it. After only rollering for about 5 minutes the difference was plain to see.

I have to say that I was quite impressed with this as to begin with I was sceptical as to how well it would work. This covered up dirt and grime that had been up God knows how long and it made a huge difference in the rooms. I had been worried that I might have had to give the ceilings two coats each but I managed to get away with only one on each of them with only a little bit of touching up needed with a brush here and there. Another thing that I really liked about this emulsion is that although it is supposed to be a matt brilliant white it does have a slight sheen to it which isn't too noticeable unless you really look but it is definitely there and I think it makes a big difference with hiding any little imperfections as the light sort of bounces off it and fools the eye into not noticing them.

I was also quite impressed with the drying time of this and I found that it was touch dry within an hour or so when using the roller. When touching up with the brush it did take a little bit longer to dry but it was never more than a couple of hours for the bits where I started painting to be dry. It also didn't smell too badly and although I always made sure to keep the windows open while using it when it was dry it just left a slight smell behind which I actually quite like and it definitely wasn't over powering or pongy.

I think this emulsion was an absolute bargain when you compare it to the price of some others and it would be ideal for someone who has a lot of painting to do. It can be used on both walls and ceilings and although it doesn't look as thick as some others I think it does the job just as well and I wouldn't hesitate in buying it again next time I have some redecorating to do.