Frequently Asked Questions
Answers about product selection, application, certifications, care, and where to find LEINOS in India.
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Trust & Ingredients
Certifications, standards, and the natural ingredients behind every LEINOS product.
Certifications & Standards
- Yes — for the specific products LEINOS publishes a test report on. The strongest published evidence is for LEINOS 280 Countertop Oil, which carries a dated food-contact compliance certificate from WESSLING GmbH (report CAL24-0568511, valid through 29 July 2026) issued against §31 LFGB and EU Regulation 1935/2004 Article 3 — the EU framework for materials intended to contact food. The cured 280 film has been tested by a German-accredited food-chemist laboratory for migration of substances into food simulants, on a specified application (wood worktops, cutting boards), with a defined expiry date. Other LEINOS oils may carry similar reports — request the dated report number per product before specifying.
- EN 71-3 covers nineteen specified elements: aluminium, antimony, arsenic, barium, boron, cadmium, chromium (III), chromium (VI), cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, selenium, strontium, tin, organic tin and zinc. The test simulates ingestion: a defined material sample is held in artificial gastric acid (hydrochloric acid at 0.07 mol/L, 37 °C, 1 hour) and the extract is measured by ICP-MS or ICP-OES against migration limits in the standard. Three material categories apply — Category III (scraped-off material) is the one a wood-finish on a child's surface is tested as. EN 71-3 says nothing about organic toxicants, sensitisers, VOC emissions or mechanical hazards — those are covered by other parts of the EN 71 series and by separate standards.
- Neither, in the way the question is usually meant. BfR Recommendation XXXVI is a German recommendation, not a certification — and its scope is paper and paperboard for food contact, not paint coatings on wood. It is issued by the Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung as advice on which substances are acceptable in paper food-packaging materials under §31 LFGB. It is not a stamp a manufacturer applies for and it does not apply to wood finishes. The correct certification chain for a LEINOS food-contact wood oil runs through EU Regulation 1935/2004 (the EU framework), LFGB §31 (the German implementation), and a dated test report from an accredited German laboratory (e.g. WESSLING).
- The answer depends on the certification type. DIBt national technical approvals (abZ) are issued for a fixed period — typically five years — and renewable only after re-audit by the issuing body. Batch-specific food-contact reports (WESSLING for LEINOS 280) carry a stated expiry date on the certificate face: the WESSLING report cited on this page expires 29 July 2026. Type tests against EN 71-3 / DIN 68861 / DIN 53160 are not on a regulator-mandated schedule, but ISO 9001 quality-management requires re-testing on any formulation change. AgBB chamber tests are triggered whenever a DIBt approval is renewed. The line in practice: every cert has a useful life; the brand-side discipline that keeps cert claims honest is ISO 9001 plus the InVeNa full-disclosure pledge.
- There is no direct one-to-one mapping. India's Bureau of Indian Standards publishes IS 15489 for emulsion paints, and the CPCB regulates industrial VOC emissions — but no Indian standard currently equates to the German AgBB emission scheme or the DIBt abZ for floor coatings. Where Indian green-rating systems take over — IGBC (Indian Green Building Council) and GRIHA — emission-tested products against AgBB or equivalent are accepted for indoor-air-quality credits, on the same basis BREEAM and LEED v4.1 accept them. A LEINOS product carrying DIBt, ift Rosenheim or ihd Dresden documentation translates into points in those Indian rating systems. For non-rated public-sector tenders in India, the EU-side test trail is currently the strongest available; an Indian-side equivalent does not yet exist for natural-paint formulations.
- No, and any certificate that says it does should be read with suspicion. A test certificate is a measurement of a defined sample, on a defined date, against a defined method, for defined substances. EN 71-3 measures migration of nineteen specified elements — passing it tells you nothing about a substance not on the list. DIN 68861-1A tells you the surface survives 26 household chemicals; it tells you nothing about the wear-layer dust at year ten. Even a comprehensive AgBB chamber test ends at day 28 — it tells you the product is below the room threshold then, not over the building's lifetime. The honest reading: a stack of independent reports against tight, well-chosen methods is the strongest evidence available short of an in-situ measurement of the actual room. It documents the floor. It does not promise the ceiling. Documented, not claimed is the architecture of trust, not a substitute for it.
Linseed Oil
- Cold-pressed linseed oil itself is approved as food (US-FDA GRAS). A cured linseed-oil paint film made for wood finishing is not certified as a food-contact surface unless the specific product TDS states it — for example, LEINOS Countertop Oil 280 is third-party tested by WESSLING GmbH (certificate CAL24-0568511) for compliance with EU Regulation 1935/2004 and the German LFGB §31 food-contact law. Always check the product TDS.
- Linseed oil hardens by reacting with atmospheric oxygen, not by evaporating solvent. The cure is slower (24–48 hours per coat, longer in monsoon humidity) but the resulting film is flexible, breathable, and repairable coat-on-coat. Polyurethane evaporates and films fast, but once it fails it must be removed entirely.
- No. Linseed-oil-based finishes wear by surface chalking — a fresh coat keys into the existing film without sanding the old layer away. This is the structural reason heritage timber and oiled floors are restorable for decades.
- LEINOS uses cold-pressed linseed oil at paint-binder grade, not at culinary grade. The starting material is the same plant and the same pressing method; the downstream processing (boiling, additive of drying catalysts where used) is product-specific and disclosed on each TDS.
- Lay them out flat outdoors to dry completely, or submerge in water before disposal. Never crumple them in a bin — oxidation is exothermic and trapped heat can ignite. This is the only meaningful safety hazard around the oil itself.
- Slightly, yes — most under low daylight (north-facing rooms, closets). On dark wood the shift is invisible. For pale wood applications, LEINOS calibrates specific products to limit yellow drift; choose by product TDS, not by raw oil.
Carnauba Wax
- Yes — under both major regulatory frameworks. The US-FDA affirmed carnauba wax as GRAS in 1983 (21 CFR 184.1978) with no use limitation other than current good manufacturing practice. The EU lists it as food additive E 903, and JECFA set an Acceptable Daily Intake of 0 to 7 mg/kg body weight in 1992. A cured paint film containing carnauba is a different matter — its food-contact status is governed by the product-specific TDS (LEINOS Countertop Oil 280 is WESSLING-tested for compliance with EU Reg. 1935/2004 + LFGB §31, certificate CAL24-0568511), not by the wax ingredient alone.
- Chain length. Beeswax esters average around C40 and melt at ~62–65 °C; paraffin runs C20–C40 and melts ~46–68 °C; carnauba esters average around C50 and melt at 80 to 86 °C (DSC peak ~84 °C). The longer, more regular aliphatic chains pack tighter, take more energy to melt, and resist abrasion better. This is what makes carnauba the universal hardener in any wax system that has to take wear — wood floors, car polishes, food glazes.
- Yes — and they are documented. The Brazilian Ministry of Labour, Repórter Brasil and the BBC have reported repeated rescues of workers in carnauba fields under conditions analogous to slavery, with 114 rescues in 2023 alone, a nine-year high. In response, processors, brands and NGOs founded the Initiative for Responsible Carnauba (IRC) in 2018, hosted by UEBT, requiring traceability, third-party verification and absence from the Brazilian Lista Suja. LEINOS sources through European processors participating in IRC. The category-level issue is real, and we name it openly rather than hide behind brand silence.
- Comfortably. Carnauba's melting range is 80 to 86 °C — well above any habitable ambient or applied surface in India, including a sun-exposed terrace deck in Rajasthan or a Delhi summer worktop. A cured hardwax-oil film remains structurally solid at 45 °C and shows no softening or migration. The beeswax fraction (mp ~62–65 °C) also stays well above ambient. This is one of the practical reasons carnauba is preferred over softer waxes in tropical-climate finishes.
- A wear layer. A cured linseed-oil film is durable, flexible and repairable but relatively soft — chair-leg torque, footfall and abrasive grit will dull it within months on a high-traffic surface. Carnauba co-melts with the oil and crystallises as it cures into a microscopic hard-wax matrix that takes the surface abrasion before the oil binder is touched. A peer-reviewed study in Forests (MDPI, 2020) showed that combining epoxidised linseed oil with carnauba on poplar wood raised water contact angles to 120° and physically blocked pits and ray cells — gains neither material achieved alone.
- Very little, compared with the linseed oil it is paired with. The yellowing of a hardwax-oil film is driven mainly by the drying-oil component — autoxidation of unsaturated fatty acids produces chromophores that shift the cured film toward yellow-green, especially in low light (north-facing rooms, closets). Carnauba's long aliphatic esters are largely saturated and do not participate in that oxidation pathway. On a hardwax-oil floor the wax is not the yellowing agent; the oil is. Choose products LEINOS has calibrated for low yellow-drift on pale woods, per the individual TDS.
Beeswax
- No. Beeswax is an animal product, secreted by Apis mellifera worker bees and harvested from honeycomb. By the strictest reading it is not vegetarian either, although the European Vegetarian Union accepts honey and wax in lacto-ovo diets as a matter of practice. For projects with a fully vegan brief, LEINOS hardwax-oil 290 and adjacent oil-wax products are not the right specification. The honest alternative on the LEINOS catalogue is the oil-resin chemistry family (exterior oils such as 236), which uses linseed oil and natural resins with no animal-derived wax. We do not hide the ingredient and we will not relabel an animal-derived material as plant-based.
- Different role. Carnauba (mp 80 to 86 °C) is the wear layer — it takes abrasion. Beeswax (mp 62 to 65 °C, mean 64.3 °C in Tulloch's 80-sample Canadian dataset) is softer and shorter-chained, average ester C44 versus carnauba's C50, and contributes three things carnauba cannot give on its own: a silk-matt sheen that re-buffs by hand, a plasticised film that flexes through humidity cycles instead of cracking, and breathability. The cured surface stays permeable to water vapour, so a beeswax-bearing floor can release trapped substrate moisture. Pavlič et al. in Coatings (MDPI, 2021) document this linseed-oil-plus-carnauba-plus-beeswax triplet as the canonical hardwax-oil recipe.
- Yes, under both major regulatory frameworks. The US-FDA affirmed beeswax as GRAS in 1978 under 21 CFR 184.1973, covering both yellow (CAS 8006-40-4) and white (CAS 8012-89-3) as flavouring agent, lubricant, and surface-finishing agent at GMP levels. The EU lists it as food additive E 901, and the 65th JECFA in 2005 concluded "no safety concern at the predicted dietary exposure of less than 650 mg per person per day." A cured paint film containing beeswax is governed by the product-specific TDS — LEINOS Countertop Oil 280 is WESSLING-tested for compliance with EU Regulation 1935/2004 and the German LFGB §31 (certificate CAL24-0568511), not by the wax ingredient alone.
- Yes, and they should be named. Three issues recur. First, routine re-queening — conventional commercial beekeepers replace the queen every one to two years by killing the old queen; organic standards (Demeter Biodynamic, Naturland) prohibit lethal queen replacement and require natural swarming. Second, Colony Collapse Disorder — a multifactorial syndrome with 28 to 36 % annual winter colony losses in the US since 2006; the USDA-ARS action plan lists migratory stress and monoculture forage among the suspected immune-suppressing factors. Third, migratory pollination — bees transported thousands of miles to pollinate single-crop farms. LEINOS sources beeswax from European apiarists working under organic standards or equivalent.
- Comfortably. Beeswax's melting range is 62 to 65 °C — far above any habitable ambient or applied surface in India. A worktop in Delhi summer reaches 45 °C in extreme cases; a sun-baked terrace in Rajasthan rarely exceeds 55 °C. Both stay well below the wax's melting threshold. The cured hardwax-oil film remains structurally a solid wax-oil composite, with no softening, no migration and no visible bloom even after years of tropical heat cycling. The harder carnauba fraction (mp 80 to 86 °C) sits even further above ambient. It is in fact the wax's tolerance of warm continental and tropical summers that drove its historical use across Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
- Three things — plasticisation, breathability, and buffability. Plasticisation because beeswax's shorter average ester chain (C44 vs carnauba's C50) and lower crystallinity co-melt with carnauba into a flexible composite that flexes through humidity cycles rather than cracking. Breathability because the beeswax-bearing film stays permeable to water vapour — the same property that lets a heritage encaustic painting survive two thousand years without spalling. And buffability because the softer crystal structure lets the cured surface take a soft cloth and re-set into a silk-matt sheen with hand pressure — the structural reason beeswax-bearing floors and furniture are restorable season by season without sanding off the previous film.
Shellac
- No. Shellac is an animal-origin material — a resin secreted by the lac insect Kerria lacca and harvested with the colonies still embedded in the resin. Published estimates put insect mortality at 50 000 to 300 000 insects per kilogram of finished shellac, depending on harvest method. Under the Jain principle of ahimsa, which extends non-violence to all sentient life including insects, shellac is also not Jain-compliant in the strict reading. Buyers requiring a vegan or Jain finish should specify a plant-protein alternative such as Zein (corn-derived) or ask LEINOS for the linseed-and-wax route, which is fully plant-and-mineral. We do not present shellac as plant-derived.
- The overwhelming majority comes from India. India produces roughly 20 000 tonnes of raw lac (sticklac) per year — at least half of global output, and historically as much as 90 % during the World War I peak. Cultivation is concentrated in the tribal-majority states of Jharkhand (~39 % of national production), Chhattisgarh (~30 %), Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal, supporting an estimated three to six million rural households. The central public-sector research body is ICAR-IINRG (Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums) in Ranchi, founded in 1924. Of every ingredient in the LEINOS natural-paint vocabulary, shellac is the most native to the Indian home market.
- Yes, under multiple international regulatory frameworks. The US-FDA lists purified shellac as a colour additive (21 CFR 73.1) and as an indirect food-contact substance for resinous coatings (21 CFR 175.300 / 175.380 / 175.390). The EU lists it as food additive E 904 at quantum satis in eleven food categories. JECFA evaluated bleached shellac in 1992 as "Acceptable" for use as a coating, glazing and surface-finishing agent externally applied to food. In 2024 EFSA derived an Acceptable Daily Intake of 4 mg/kg body weight per day for wax-free shellac on a NOAEL of 400 mg/kg bw/day. A cured paint film containing shellac is governed by the product-specific TDS — not by the raw resin alone.
- Three reasons. First, shellac seals knots and tannin bleed from resinous woods (pine, redwood, mahogany, teak) in a single thin coat — an alcohol-borne barrier that locks resin extractives in before the next coat can pull them up. Second, it cures fast — touch-dry in 15 to 30 minutes — so the carpenter can move on the same morning, where a linseed-oil coat needs 24 to 48 hours. Third, a cured shellac film is reversible — re-dissolvable in fresh ethanol — so it can be repaired or refreshed coat-on-coat without stripping the substrate. A polyurethane primer, once it fails, has to come off entirely. Shellac stays serviceable for a century.
- Heat is not the constraint. Shellac softens at around 75 °C and melts only at ~120 °C, well above any habitable Indian surface temperature including a sun-exposed worktop or a terrace deck in Rajasthan. The real cautions are different. Shellac is sensitive to prolonged direct water contact (the film softens) and to strong alkalis (which dissolve it) — so it is unsuitable as a top film over a sink, a bathroom floor, or anywhere routine cleaning involves caustic products. The peer-reviewed Polymers paper by Yan and colleagues (2021) confirms the thermal window and notes the ageing pathway: free aleuritic acid slowly self-esterifies as the film matures, raising glass-transition temperature and reducing solubility.
- It is real and supported by ICAR-IINRG data. Cultivation occurs on roughly 4 to 6 million smallholdings, predominantly tribal households in central and eastern India who farm lac as a cash crop alongside subsistence agriculture. ICAR-IINRG documents per-tree yields of 6 to 10 kg on kusum, 1.5 to 6 kg on ber and 1 to 4 kg on palash, with two crops per year (kusumi: aghani in winter + jethwi in summer; rangeeni: katki in monsoon + baisakhi in summer). A successful lac crop can lift a household income from ~₹20 000 to ₹65 000+ annually — documented in Tata Trusts case studies in Jamtara, Jharkhand. The carbon co-benefit is real too: lac requires healthy host trees to be left standing, which incentivises preserving rather than felling palash and kusum.
Dammar Resin
- It depends on the supply chain — and right now, mostly no. Dammar comes from Shorea trees, the same Dipterocarpaceae family that supplies Southeast Asia's tropical-hardwood timber trade. The traditional sustainable model is the Krui repong damar agroforest in West Lampung, Sumatra — a planted forest tapped non-destructively for resin over two human generations. But RECOFTC and FAO report that this repong damar area has shrunk from roughly 29 000 hectares in 1998 to about 6 500 hectares in 2022, mainly under pressure from oil-palm conversion and a 2008 re-classification that downgraded community rights. FSC and PEFC schemes do certify resins as non-timber forest products in principle, and Indonesia has a PEFC-endorsed national scheme (IFCC), but a dammar-specific chain-of-custody system is not yet mainstream.
- Indonesian dammar accounts for more than 90 % of world supply, and the most commercial grade — damar mata kucing, "cat's-eye dammar" — comes from Shorea javanica in the Krui agroforests of Pesisir Barat, West Lampung province, Sumatra. LEINOS procures dammar through European resin processors who source predominantly from this region. We are conservative about origin claims: where the resin is Shorea javanica from Krui repong, we say so; where it is mixed-grade trade dammar of less specific provenance, we say that instead.
- No, not in the broad sense. Dammar has a US Pharmacopoeia / Food Chemicals Codex monograph that permits narrow food-glaze and clouding-agent uses, but it has no EU E-number, no JECFA Acceptable Daily Intake, and is not on the EU list of permitted food additives. For food-contact wood — cutting boards, worktops in food preparation — choose LEINOS Countertop Oil 280, which is third-party tested by WESSLING for compliance with EU Regulation 1935/2004 and the German LFGB §31 (certificate CAL24-0568511), not the dammar-containing varnish line. The dammar in a LEINOS varnish is paint-grade, not food-grade. The clean compositional disclosure is more honest than ambiguity.
- Three reasons, in honest order. Optical depth — a triterpene-resin film over an oil-bound substrate refracts light deeper into the wood grain than a pure-oil film or a polyurethane film can. Reversibility — a dammar film remains preferentially soluble in turpentine and mineral spirits even after decades of natural ageing, so the finish can be cleaned and refreshed coat-on-coat without sanding the previous layer to dust. Continuity — dammar has been the reference natural picture varnish for 200 years; the chemistry is understood end-to-end. The trade-off is real: modern synthetic ketone resins (Regalrez 1094, Laropal A81, MS2A) outperform dammar on long-term clarity. We choose the natural resin for the natural-paint canon.
- Yes — slightly, slowly, characteristically. The triterpenes that give the film its gloss-depth oxidise over decades into chromophores that shift the cured varnish toward yellow-green. Research in Journal of Cultural Heritage (Elsevier, 2009) confirms this autoxidation proceeds in both light and darkness, slowed but not stopped by dark storage. On dark-toned woods — oak, teak, walnut — the yellow shift sits inside the natural tonal range and reads as patina. On pale or bleached woods choose a hardwax-oil rather than a triterpene-resin varnish; the wax-and-oil films yellow less. The honest framing is: the varnish matures with the wood, it does not stay optically frozen at coat-on day.
- Linseed oil cures into a flexible, breathable, repairable film that is, on its own, relatively soft and relatively matt. Dammar adds two things the oil cannot supply by itself. First, surface hardness and gloss-depth — the triterpene resin co-cures into the oxidising oil network and contributes a harder, glossier surface that takes light deeper into the grain. Second, selective solvent reversibility — the cured varnish remains preferentially soluble in non-polar hydrocarbons even after decades of ageing, so the surface can be cleaned and refreshed without disturbing the oil layer below it. The two materials are complementary: oil binds and penetrates, resin hardens and refracts.
White Clay
- The mineral is GRAS in the United States as an indirect food substance — used as a constituent of paper and paperboard in food packaging under 21 CFR 186.1256, with no limitation other than current good manufacturing practice. In the European Union kaolin was historically the direct food additive E 559 (anti-caking agent in instant coffee, milk powder, spices) but was revoked on 31 January 2014 under Regulation 1129/2011 — not because of an acute toxicity finding, but because EFSA's 2013 assessment concluded that combined dietary intake of aluminium from aluminium-silicate additives exceeded the provisional tolerable weekly intake. Kaolin remains cleared in the EU for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals (Kaopectate), pigments, paints and ceramics. The mineral has a centuries-long pharmacopoeial track record of low toxicity.
- LEINOS is a German manufacturer formulating in Lower Saxony; the company sources processed kaolin from European industrial-mineral suppliers. The dominant European processor base draws from Cornwall (UK), Czechia and Germany itself — those, together with the U.S. Georgia district and the Kerala (India) deposits, account for the majority of world production. The Kerala deposits at Trivandrum and Kollam are graded by the Kerala Department of Mining and Geology at about 96 % kaolinite — "world-class" by the department's own description — and India ranks among the world's leading kaolin producers, accounting for an estimated 19 % of world production (USGS Minerals Yearbook 2023). For LEINOS India, the specific supply line is processed in Europe; the deposit class is the same chemistry as the Kerala-mined material.
- Three things — and all three matter at the architectural scale. Breathability: kaolinite-bearing clay paints typically run SD-values below 0.05 m, often as low as 0.02 m. A standard acrylic exterior paint runs an SD of 1 m or more — two orders of magnitude less permeable. On a lime-plastered wall this is the difference between a wall that absorbs and releases humidity and a wall that traps moisture behind a polymer film. Mineral compatibility: kaolinite is chemically inert across the relevant pH range, including the high-alkaline environment of fresh lime, so it co-exists with lime, silicate and casein binders without re-reacting. No synthetic processing: the material is mined, washed, kilned optionally and milled — there is no monomer chemistry, no polymerisation, no off-gassing of unreacted volatiles to track.
- Like all open-pit mining, kaolin extraction is landscape-altering — that is the honest line. In India, every kaolin lease operates under the Mineral Conservation and Development Rules (MCDR 2017) and is required to submit an approved Mining Plan with post-mining rehabilitation commitments. At the international voluntary level, the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance Standard v.1.0 (2018) covers all industrial-scale mining of all mined materials except energy fuels — kaolin is in scope. IRMA's site-level audits (IRMA 50/75/100) are currently the most demanding cross-commodity responsible-mining framework available. Compared with the documented forced-labour issue in carnauba (Brazilian Northeast, 114 workers rescued in 2023 alone), industrial kaolin mining is not associated with a category-wide labour-rights crisis. But the mining footprint is real, and the responsible position is to say so.
- Distinguish carefully — this is the specifier-grade nuance most worth getting right. Kaolinite itself — Al₂Si₂O₅(OH)₄ — is a hydrated aluminosilicate sheet mineral, not free crystalline silica. It is not on the IARC silicosis-causing list. OSHA sets a Permissible Exposure Limit of 15 mg/m³ total dust and 5 mg/m³ respirable fraction for kaolin containing no asbestos and less than 1 % crystalline silica (8-hour TWA); ACGIH recommends 2 mg/m³ respirable; the ILO–WHO International Chemical Safety Card ICSC 1144 covers the same condition. Above 1 % crystalline-silica content, kaolin processing is treated under the quartz-dust rule, which is significantly stricter. Cases of kaolinosis (a mild restrictive pneumoconiosis) are documented in Georgia kaolin-processing workers from prolonged occupational exposure — not from applied paint films on walls.
- Different mechanism and different system fit. Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) delivers very high opacity per gramme but is a synthetic-processed pigment mined as ilmenite or rutile, with a significant industrial footprint and ongoing EU regulatory scrutiny (CLP carcinogenicity-by-inhalation Cat. 2 listing in 2020, partially annulled by the EU General Court in 2022). Calcined kaolin delivers about 60 to 70 % of TiO₂'s hiding power per equal volume in many opaque interior paint applications and is widely used as a partial replacement. Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) is also a mineral filler but is acid-reactive — it dissolves in low-pH environments — which limits it on substrates with monsoon-driven acidic deposition. Kaolinite is inert across the relevant pH range, mineral-compatible with lime and silicate binders, and pseudo-hexagonal-platelet shaped for high covering power — the canonical breathable-paint filler.
Dealer & Partnership
Becoming a LEINOS authorised partner in India — investment, territory, training, timeline.
- There is no franchise fee. Partnership cost is the opening stock order — sized to your region and the projects you plan to serve. Most partners start with a working inventory across the core wood-finish and mineral-paint range. The exact figure is agreed during the second-round conversation, after we understand your business and territory. We work with established retailers, contractors, and design studios at a range of scales — there is no single number.
- Yes — for committed partners. Territory size is calibrated to local market density and your business capacity (a Mumbai sub-district looks different from an entire tier-2 city). Exclusivity is granted in writing as part of the onboarding agreement and protects you from another LEINOS dealer being appointed in the same area for the agreed term, contingent on minimum activity.
- LEINOS India is the official brand portal for the country — pricing and architect-grade enquiries are routed through us. Authorised partners may take orders through their own website / WhatsApp / showroom within their territory, at LEINOS-aligned pricing. Marketplace presence stays under brand control: LEINOS Organic Paints Pvt. Ltd. runs the official Amazon.in storefront, and any partner listing is agreed with us first. One agreed listing per product keeps a single public price on record, so no territory is undercut and no partner competes against a duplicate of their own catalogue.
- Training is complimentary for active partners. The LEINOS India technical lead conducts on-site or video training sessions for your sales team and for crews you work with — covering substrate prep, application protocol, drying windows, system pairings, and how to answer the most common architect questions. Additional walkthroughs on live projects are available on request, no charge.
- Print and digital marketing pack — product brochures, shade swatches, sample boxes (A4 finished panels), Technical Data Sheets (TDS), Safety Data Sheets (SDS), certification stamps, and high-resolution product photography. Partners also receive their dealer listing on the official LEINOS India site once the territory is active.
- Typical timeline from application to first sale: 3–6 weeks. Week 1 — application review and conversation. Week 2 — territory agreement and stock order. Week 3–4 — stock ships from our Delhi warehouse, training scheduled. Week 4–6 — training complete, marketing material in hand, you begin specifying LEINOS for live projects in your region.
- No. Many LEINOS partners stock complementary ranges — that is healthy and expected. LEINOS occupies the premium natural-finish slot in your line-up, not the mass-market slot. We ask that LEINOS is given fair shelf and showroom visibility, not exclusivity of your business. Direct competitors in the natural-finish premium register are discussed case-by-case during onboarding.
Buying & Samples
Where to buy, how to order samples, pricing model, downloads, and technical support.
- LEINOS ships pan-India from our Delhi warehouse — standard delivery is 5–7 working days to most metros and 7–10 working days to tier-2 cities. Tell us your city on the Get LEINOS page, or Talk to LEINOS and we will confirm pricing, lead time, and the right pack mix for your project within one working day. For large projects (commercial, hotel, institutional), our team coordinates direct supply.
- Yes. Architects, designers, and specifiers can request sample panels and small-format product samples through the Talk to LEINOS form — mention the products, colours, and surfaces you are evaluating. A plain product sample usually leaves the same or the next business day. A colour-matched sample with a hand-applied drawdown takes longer — up to five business days, since the shade is mixed and applied for you. Both ship to your studio or project site. For colour evaluation, we also send physical wood-finish swatch panels rather than digital images alone.
- LEINOS operates as a brand portal, not an e-commerce store. Pricing varies by dealer location, pack size, project quantity, and applicable taxes — so the most accurate quote always comes from your local authorised dealer. For specifier and large-project pricing, Talk to LEINOS and our India team will share a structured quote within 24 business hours.
- Every product page on this site includes downloadable TDS in English under the "Downloads" section. SDS are available on request via Talk to LEINOS — we send the latest signed PDF directly. For consolidated specifier packs (TDS + SDS + certifications + spec text), see For Professionals.
- Yes, we ship across India. The LEINOS India office and warehouse are in Delhi, with authorised dealers in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Chandigarh, plus stockists in smaller cities — the network is still growing, and we are open to new dealer partners. Where a dealer serves your area, they supply from local stock. Everywhere else we dispatch directly from the Delhi warehouse within 1–2 business days; transit time then depends on your pin code. Talk to LEINOS with your project pin code and we will confirm exact lead time and routing.
- Yes — when used as directed and fully cured. LEINOS finishes are formulated from linseed-based natural oils, plant resins, beeswax, and mineral pigments — no acrylics, formaldehyde, or solvent thinners. Specific products carry EN 71-3 (toy safety, heavy metals migration) and DIN 53160 (saliva and perspiration resistance) certifications, which apply to children's furniture and toys; see the certifications on the relevant product page. For food-contact wooden surfaces (cutting boards, butcher blocks), LEINOS 280 Countertop Oil is the recommended finish — see /products/countertop-oil. Full ingredient transparency: /natural-paints.
- LEINOS products are formulated in Germany and meet the following European standards where applicable: EN 71-3 (toy safety), DIN 68861-1 (wood surface resistance), DIN 53160 (saliva/perspiration), DIN EN 927 (exterior wood coatings), and EU Decopaint Directive 2004/42/CE (VOC content). They do not carry an Indian ISI mark, and none applies: the ISI mark is mandatory only for the product categories notified under a BIS Quality Control Order, and natural wood and mineral coatings of this kind are not among them — our consignments clear Indian customs on the European documentation. If a tender or project specification calls for a specific Indian test report, Talk to LEINOS and we will confirm what can be arranged. The full certification chain — what each cert means, the testing institute, and per-product certificate IDs — is documented at /natural-paints/certifications-standards.
- Conventional paint binders are typically acrylic, alkyd, or polyurethane — petrochemical polymers requiring solvent thinners and emitting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during cure and over their lifetime. LEINOS finishes use plant-based binders (boiled linseed oil, natural resins, beeswax) and mineral fillers (chalk, marble powder, slaked lime, titanium dioxide). No formaldehyde, no isocyanates, no acrylic resins, no solvent-borne thinners. Full breakdown: /natural-paints/natural-vs-synthetic.
- LEINOS 668 Tinting Concentrates and select mineral paint products (lime, silicate) can be tinted on-site by authorised dealers to NCS reference codes and similar systems. The pre-defined LEINOS palette covers 244 shades across 10 collections (see /colours). For a specific NCS or Pantone reference, Talk to LEINOS with the code — we will confirm whether it can be matched with our tinting system and which base product to use. Note: custom-tinted mineral paints have different application characteristics than pre-mixed shades — your dealer or specifier will advise.
- Yes. For architects, designers, contractors, and large project sites, the LEINOS India team offers: pre-specification consultation (product selection for your substrate, climate, and end-use); on-site application training for contractors handling LEINOS for the first time — the technical team is based in Delhi and travels to site, most often across Delhi NCR, and has run trainings as far as Dehradun, Mumbai and Bangalore; mock-up panel approval before full project commitment; and post-application care guidance and re-coat scheduling. Talk to LEINOS to schedule — mention project size, location, surfaces, and timeline.
Written by the LEINOS India technical team, in collaboration with
Reincke Naturfarben R&D, Lower Saxony.
Still have questions?
Our India team responds within 24 hours on business days. Architects, contractors, and homeowners welcome.