How are Benjamin Moore Paint Colors Created?

Benjamin Moore paint offers about 3,500 colors. All of these colors are created from formulas which are combinations of paint bases and colorants.

Each paint type and finish (e.g. Interior Acrylic Eggshell, or Exterior Acrylic Trim) comes in four bases: Pastel Base (1B), Medium Base (2B), Deep Base (3B) and Ultra-Base (4B). Each base successively has less white and more room in the can for adding colorants. For example, the Pastel Base is nearly white while the Ultra-Deep Base is more clear. Because of this, each base has a maximum color depth. You could add an entire quart of red colorant to a pastel base and the resulting color will still be pink because of all the white already in the can.

Each base also has a maximum amount of colorant that can be added. Too much colorant relative to the paint can ruin the gallon.

Benjamin Moore uses 12 colorants in its formulas to make its colors. Unlike many paint brands which use a shared colorant system like Color Your World or Huls, Benjamin Moore creates and patents its own colorants. These colorants are:
Black (BK), Blue (BB), Brown (BR), Gray (GY), Green (TG), Magenta (MA), Orange (OG), Oxide Yellow (OY), Red (Rd), Red Oxide (Rx), White (WH) and Yellow (YW)

Benjamin Moore created a brand new proprietary colorant system for its new Aura Paint. They named it their colorlock system because the colorants employ new technology that embeds the pigments much more strongly into the paint film. This explains the far superior hiding and durability of the Aura Paint.

The colorants used for Benjamin Moore Aura are:
Blue (B1), Thalo Green (G1), Magenta (M1), Orange (O1), Red Toner (R1), Organic Red (R2), Oxide Red (R3), Black (S1), Gray (S2), White (W1), Organic Yellow (Y1) (Exterior use), Organic Yellow (Y2) and Oxide Yellow (Y3)

If you ever want to experiment with creating your own paint colors, Myperfectcolor.com allows you to do this with these products:

Create Your Own Color Using Regular Paint
Create Your Own Color Using Aura Paint

This service could be extremely useful if you've already tried some colors and need them to be slightly different. You could take the formula listed on the can and recreate a new color by altering some of the components (e.g. a little more Thalo Green (TG))