South Florida mom spreads the word on natural paint


It wasn't as if Victoria Rogers was a desperate housewife looking for something to fill her empty days.

The mother of four children who go to three different schools has a house-cleaning business. Not exactly a slacker.

But when her twin sister, Valerie Baker, discovered BioShield, a paint that didn't contain toxic chemicals, didn't pollute the environment and performed well, she couldn't help herself. She opened Nature's Paint Store in Oakland Park in February 2007 to sell eco-friendly paints, wall glazes, color washes and wood stains.

Before she opened the store, she was a paint evangelist, preaching to mothers and pregnant women about this water-based paint that had zero VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and contained ingredients like water, chalk and marble. The pigments are from minerals, earth and rocks.

What it doesn't have was also important - acrylic copolymers, antimicrobial agents, preservatives or ethylene glycol. It cleans up with water and the container can be recycled.

"I found some low-odor paints still have VOCs," she said. "When you look at the can of these paints you can see there are still VOCs in there and chemicals that you can't pronounce. They shouldn't be going into the environment."

When one of her cleaning clients asked her to paint, she said she would if she could use BioShield.

"I started my quest to inform people about natural paint," she said. "I felt I couldn't tell enough people. I thought to myself: Why not open a store?"

Although she said some folks were skeptical that a natural paint won't last, she said the texture is thick like a premium paint and covers well. She sells it for $35-$40, depending on which one of the more than 60 dry pigments are added. The paint usually requires two coats and acts as its own primer.

BioShield, which was originally formulated in Germany, does not carry any U.S. certifications from organizations like Green Seal or Greenguard.

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