Meet Blush — a pale, faded peony pink so soft it behaves like a warm neutral, delicate without ever tipping into cutesy. Across a whole room it gives that barely-there flush good hotels use, the kind of colour people feel before they notice, and it makes warm wood and aged brass look considered. In a ceramic matte it stays powdery and calm in daylight and turns candle-warm at night, which is exactly what a pale pink should do.

One Hour Ceramic is Wise Owl's luxury interior wall paint — a 100% acrylic matte built on 3M ceramic microsphere technology. Ordinary matte paints get their flatness from crushed mineral particles with coarse surfaces that hold onto stains; the ceramic microspheres here are hard and uniformly round, so the finish stays velvety flat while fingerprints, soil, grease and many other stains wash off with mild soap and water without harming the paint film. It resists scrubbing and burnishing, self-levels to reduce brush drag, and is self-priming on drywall, cured plaster and masonry. Coverage runs 350 to 400 sq ft per gallon, it dries to the touch in about an hour, and it is extremely low-VOC at 50 g/l and low odor, with soap-and-water clean-up.