Note: This product evaluation is based on personal experience. All products were purchased by Going Green and this article is not sponsored in any way.

Painting is just one of those little things we've always enjoyed tackling together. Over the years we've had the dubious "pleasure" of trying all sorts of conventional paints, polishes and finishes - most of them leaving a "whiff up the nose" and a "bad taste" in the mouth. Up until moving to our present home we had, in fact, never had a chance to test-drive any of the numerous eco-friendly paints out there. This was our first venture in this direction, so we were quite curious to see how things go. In June-July of 2009 we decided to try 2 types of eco-friendly paints which were on the market at that time - SelfCoat and ProNature.

As far as SelfCoat paint was concerned, we had two mini-projects in mind: a tiny little bathroom with melamine walls which we had converted into a laundry and touching up some scuff-marks around the place from the previous owners' dogs and furniture. The paint can be applied to just about any surface in the form of a watery binder layer followed by a thick over-layer. Although one of us did end up with our usual paint-related hiccups, we did have quite a good experience with this paint. For some reason, however, it no longer seems to be on the market (April 2010) so we won't be reporting further about it.

We also decided to try EnviroTouch's ProNature paint in the kitchen.

When we moved into our current home we discovered that the little kitchen was a bright "Transkei" green. Although it was definitely very cheerful, and we actually grew quite fond of it in time :), we eventually decided to opt for something a bit more conventional. We calculated that we would need enough paint to cover around 30 square metres.

We contacted EnviroTouch and asked their advice. Sven suggested that we try ProNature Wall Paint for the kitchen. At a coverage rate of approximately 6m² per litre, we calculated that we would need about 5 litres. We ordered 6 litres just to be on the safe side. Since ProNature Wall Paint does not contain any chemical preservatives it cannot be stored indefinitely and consequently it must specifically be made up for each customer. This is the case even when buying through one of their local stockists. At the time when we wanted to paint (June-July 2009) the total came to R307 (incl. VAT). Out of interest we compared it to the prevailing prices of other well-known conventional paints and found it to be relatively similar.

The paint covered very well and ended up drying with quite a matt finish. Drying, however, took an extremely long time. The paint remained somewhat soft for weeks, which unfortunately meant that it easily ended up with nicks and scratches from the inevitable impacts of kitchen implements. When wiping the paint with a damp cloth we also noticed that it left a white paint smear on the cloth. The vulnerablility of the paint in the first few weeks is one of the small upfront costs to be paid when opting for this paint. It has to be considered, however, in the context of the long-term cost of exposing your family to the dangers of the solvents usually added to conventional paints in order to speed up the drying process. Cleaning up was extremely easy - the paint readily washes off hands, paint brushes and other implements. The paint looked extremely white just after application, but softened to a normal white after curing completely.

As mentioned, we painted the kitchen nearly ten months ago now. In retrospect, however, having made normal use of the kitchen over this time, we would preferably recommend this paint for a less vulnerable part of the house such as a lounge or bedroom. Unfortunately it seems the paint can sometimes stain and marks don't wash off quite as easily as they normally would.

As far as we know EnviroTouch offers the most eco-friendly commercially-available paint in South Africa, containing only natural ingredients such as water, oils and gums. This means that EnviroTouch paints are free of the usual solvents contained in other paints, especially volative organic compounds - VOCs which are well-known for causing health problems such as sick building syndrome. In fact, EnviroTouch claims that their paints are non-toxic.

Healthwise, we didn't notice any significant side-effects while painting, aside from slightly dry mouths which may be due to the essential oils. This is certainly an improvement over the hiccups, sinus-pain and/or headaches which we have typically experienced during our years of using conventional paints.

All-in-all it was a fun experience and a vote of confidence from our side to the eco-friendly paint manufacturers out there!