Architectural coatings provide improved aesthetics and critical protection to substrates. They are formulated to meet many key coatings properties like opacity, stain and dirt pickup resistance, washability, gloss and color retention, adhesion, low volatile organic compounds (VOC), odor, mildew, cracking resistance, low-temperature applications, etc. Unfortunately, despite optimization for these and other characteristics, unexpected failures may still appear after the paint application, drying and aging, as shown in Figure 1. The phenomenon called “surfactant leaching” is one such failure, which will be discussed in detail in this article.