Lick vs Neptune: An Honest Trade Verdict

A Hertfordshire decorator compares Lick and Neptune paint on coverage, colour and finish, including a real job where a Neptune colour looked wrong for an hour before it looked right.

There's a saying that something does what it says on the tin. It's meant to be a mark of reliability. You know what you're getting before you open it. But what if it doesn't? What if what comes out of the tin looks nothing like what you expected and sends both you and your decorator into a moment of quiet panic?

That's exactly what happened on a recent job in Hertfordshire. And it's what made me think seriously about how I explain these two brands to customers trying to decide between them.

I introduced both in my earlier post on choosing the right paint. This is the deeper conversation.

Two Brands, Two Different Things

For anyone who hasn't come across either brand yet: Lick is the newer, digital-first paint company built around bold colour and strong coverage, sold through B&Q and online. Neptune is the longer-established name behind a narrower, classic palette, sold through its own stores and online.

Lick and Neptune are both premium paint brands sitting above standard trade emulsions on price and well above them on finish. Beyond that they are doing quite different things, and aimed, whether they say so explicitly or not, at quite different people.

Understanding which one is right for your room is worth knowing before you spend £59 on a 2.5 litre tin of Neptune or £39 on a 2 litre tin of Lick and find out the hard way.

Lick: For the More Adventurous

Lick is built around coverage first and colour second, though the colour range is anything but an afterthought. The pigment is dense enough that it goes on with a consistency closer to cream cheese than standard emulsion, smooth and controlled, with none of the dragging you get from thinner paint. In many cases one coat does what two would with a standard paint.

The colour range is broad. Contemporary without chasing trends, with a strong neutral palette alongside bolder choices. If you know what you want and you want it to go on well and look sharp, Lick is the easier choice of the two. It suits modern interiors, clean lines, and considered spaces that lean forward rather than back.

It's also more accessible than people expect. A good selection is available in store at B&Q in Watford, Enfield, New Southgate and Staples Corner. The full range is available direct from lick.com with standard delivery in two to three working days.

Testing before you commit: Lick's peel and stick testers are £2 and worth every penny. Stick them to the wall, move them around, hold them against your woodwork and furniture in different lights, then peel them off and leave no trace. No dabs to paint over, no ghost patches for your decorator to kill before the finish coat goes on. If you're trying several colours, and you should be, that matters more than it sounds. Dark tester patches on a wall can take two or three coats to cover properly. That's your decorator's time and your money before the job has properly started.

If I'm working on a contemporary space and a customer wants something that feels current without being a hostage to whatever colour of the year someone has declared, Lick is where I start.

Neptune: For the Less Adventurous, in the Best Possible Way

Neptune's range is narrower than Lick's. That's not a weakness. It's a design decision, and an honest one. These are colours for people who want to get it right rather than get it noticed. The kind of palette you'd expect to find in a country house of consequence, built to age well rather than to photograph well this season.

The narrower range also works in your favour if you're less confident about colour. You can't really go far wrong. The shades are complementary by design, which means the combinations that work are built into the collection rather than left to chance.

At £59 for a 2.5 litre tin Neptune sits at the higher end. The price point tells its own story. These are not colours that will date, because they were never fashionable to begin with. They were always just right.

The nearest Neptune stockist to Hertfordshire is Amersham. Worth the trip for a considered project. They also deliver direct from neptune.com.

Testing before you commit: Neptune sample pots are £6. A £6 mistake is significantly easier to absorb than a £59 one. And a sample pot on the wall, in your light, against your woodwork and furniture, over a day or two in different light, tells you things a colour card never can. Buy the sample. Put it on the wall. Live with it. The tin will still be there.

The Honed Slate Story: What Happened on a Recent Job in Hertfordshire

A customer had taken advice from an interior designer friend who recommended a colour she felt would sit beautifully within a neutral scheme, something with depth and character without tipping into the obvious.

The colour was Neptune Honed Slate. The tin was £59 for 2.5 litres.

When it went on the wall it looked nothing like what either of us expected. Dark, with a distinctly 1970s brown quality that neither invited nor reassured. My customer's confidence was visibly shaken. To be honest I couldn't call it either.

But rather than a knee-jerk reaction, I suggested we cut in, which I do as standard practice anyway, and give it time to settle before making any decisions. The paint was open. We had nothing to lose by seeing what it did.

Within an hour or two it had become something else entirely. The brown receded, and something deeper and quieter emerged: a colour that sat beautifully against the white wardrobes, the white skirting boards and the white window sill in the room. That relief, the white woodwork around it, turned what had looked like a mistake into something that felt considered and deliberate. It read as heritage, not dated, and it held its own in every light in the room, morning and evening.

I'll be honest, I was pleasantly surprised. Honed Slate is a colour I would now recommend without hesitation. But I would not have called it from the tin.

Which is exactly why the £6 sample pot exists.

Beyond Paint: What Both Brands Stand For

Coverage and pigment are not the only reasons I reach for these two brands. Both have credentials that go beyond what comes out of the tin.

Lick's water-based formula is low in VOCs (volatile organic compounds), the chemicals responsible for that distinctive paint smell and the air quality issues that come with a freshly decorated room. It is practically odour-free in application, which matters more than people realise when you're working in someone's home.

Neptune paints are crafted in the UK, water-based, and similarly low in VOCs. For customers who care about what goes into their home environment, and increasingly more do, both brands offer reassurance that a standard trade emulsion simply doesn't.

These are things worth asking about regardless of which brand you choose.

The Honest Verdict

I couldn't crown a winner between these two, because the right choice depends entirely on what you're doing and who you are.

Choose Lick if: the space is contemporary or modern, you want bold or adventurous colour, you want strong coverage that goes on fast, or you want more flexibility in where you buy it. At £39 for 2 litres with £2 peel and stick testers it's also the more accessible entry point.

Choose Neptune if: the space is classic or period, you want colours that will still look right in ten years, you're less confident about colour and want a palette that makes the combinations for you, or you're prepared to invest in something that will genuinely age well. At £59 for 2.5 litres the price is higher, but the litre rate is closer than it first appears and the finish justifies it.

On coverage: Lick edges it for ease of application. Neptune more than justifies the price on depth of finish and longevity.

Personally: if I lifted my own habit of reaching for Dulux Trade on a standard job, my wife would go straight to Neptune. And if I'm honest I'd probably follow her.

Both are a significant step up from what most people are used to. Either will make a room look better than it did before. The decision between them is really a decision about what kind of room you want to live in.

If you're decorating in Rickmansworth, Watford, St Albans, Harrow or Hemel Hempstead and you're not sure which is right for your project, get in touch. It's the conversation I have before every job worth doing.

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