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A standard paint and sip class in London is a wine glass and a canvas under normal studio lighting. Neon paint and sip is the same idea with the lights switched off — UV-reactive paint that looks completely different once the black lights come on. Same wine, same canvas, different atmosphere entirely. Rembrandt van Wine runs one near Colliers Wood (1 to 30 guests, from £37), and Aura Lab runs a bigger version three minutes from Hammersmith Station that scales to 50.
With 150,000+ reviews — a lot of them, appropriately, glowing — and a 4.9-star average across ClassBento's 15,000+ classes, it's fair to say we know a decent neon session when we see one. Here's what the UV format actually involves, how the two real options compare, and what to expect if you've never painted under black light before.
What makes neon paint and sip different from the standard version
The paint itself is the whole trick: it's UV-reactive, so under normal light it looks like any other acrylic, but once the black lights go up, colours that looked muted suddenly glow. The brushwork you did five minutes earlier looks like a completely different painting once the lights change — that shift is the actual selling point, not just 'paint and sip but louder.' Both classes bring bottomless drinks into the mix too (Rembrandt van Wine offers white, red or rosé wine, plus soft drinks and water), so underneath the lighting change, it's still recognisably a sip-and-paint format. Rembrandt van Wine also gives you a real choice in the format itself: follow along and recreate a famous painting under instructor guidance, or skip the reference image entirely and go freehand. Worth knowing before you book if you've already got a strong preference either way — some sip-and-paint classes only offer one option or the other.
Is it actually dark the whole time?
No — you're not painting blind. The room is lit normally while your instructor talks you through the technique and gets everyone started, then the black lights come up once people are underway, which is when the UV paint starts to glow and the room properly shifts into party mode. No previous painting experience is expected either way; the instructor guides you through the same step-by-step technique as a standard sip-and-paint class, just with a different palette. Both venues ask you to bring something to carry the finished canvas home in — Aura Lab specifically asks for a bag big enough for an A4-sized piece — and Aura Lab also asks guests to arrive on time, since late arrivals can be turned away once the class has started.
What to wear to a neon paint and sip class
This is the one practical detail that's easy to miss: UV light doesn't just make the paint glow. White and pastel-coloured clothing contain fluorescent brighteners that react to black light too, so a plain white t-shirt will glow almost as brightly as the canvas. If you want to blend into the background and let the painting do the talking, darker clothing is the safer bet. If you're the birthday person, the bride-to-be, or otherwise want to stand out in every photo of the night, white or pastel is arguably a feature rather than a flaw. Either way, it's worth deciding before you get dressed rather than working it out under the black lights.
Neon paint and sip for hen dos
The black-light format suits a hen do particularly well — it photographs and films better than a standard daylight studio session, and the bottomless drinks plus music keep the energy up in a way a quiet afternoon class doesn't. Both studios offer private group bookings for exactly this, and Rembrandt van Wine's own listing specifically flags hen do's, birthdays and team-building events as the main reasons people book privately. If you're planning a 'last night of freedom' for a bride-to-be, the format works particularly well as one part of a longer night out — arrive, paint, glow, then head on somewhere else once the black lights come down. It also works for a corporate team night out that wants something with a bit more energy than the standard after-work drinks, though if team building specifically is the goal rather than just a fun evening, a daytime session with more structured group activities is worth considering instead.
Weekend slots for both studios fill up fast, so don't leave it in the dark — book ahead if you can. If a birthday is what you're actually planning rather than a hen do, our guide to paint and sip birthday parties in London covers classes built specifically around cake, DJs and group pricing.
Browse the full range of paint and sip classes in London if you'd rather compare the neon format against a standard daytime session first.
Runs regularly
Shoreditch & Chelsea
1 to 80 guests
£32 - £79
12 years in business
9k followers
