Gennex vs Universal Colorants: Why the Tint System Matters in Paint

Unlike the universal colorants used in many paint stores, Gennex is designed to match Benjamin Moore's paint by using the same resins in the colorants that are found in the base paint. In plain terms, the tint and the base paint are engineered to work as a single system rather than two unrelated parts mixed together at the counter. That's it. You now understand Gennex! If you want to know why that's important you can keep reading.

Why Colorant Systems Matter

Colorants do a lot more than give paint its color. They change how the paint behaves. Universal tint systems are built to work inside many different brands of paint, so they rely on extra solvents and additives to make that possible. Those ingredients can raise VOC content, soften the paint film, affect how the coating cures, and influence how colors fade over time (among other things).

Proprietary systems (like Gennex or C2's system) sidestep those issues because the tints are designed to match one specific resin system. The colorants become part of the chemistry instead of something the paint has to "tolerate." This keeps the dried film stronger, reduces rub-off, improves color stability, and helps coverage, especially in deep colors where you're adding a lot of tint. In the mind of a paint chemist, colorants are just contaminants being added to an otherwise carefully balanced formula.

"I'm a purist as a paint chemist, and when you put in my paint, you contaminate it! I don't care how much or how little you put into my paint, it's a contaminant [...] my objective in designing colorants and color systems is to use as little colorant as possible in the paint so that the properties of the paint are not marginalized in any way."

Tom Hill, Founder of C2 Paint

Gennex matters because it's a reminder that the "color" in paint isn't just about appearance. It's chemistry. The tint system you use affects everything from coverage to durability to how well a color holds up over time. Understanding how these systems differ makes it a lot easier to understand why some paints perform better than others, even when they're tinted to the exact same color.