UPDATED: I’ve been using these paints for a while now and absolutely LOVE them. In my pictures I provided I compare them to Daniel Smiths “essential set” and honestly the paints are very similar, with the Daniel smith being slightly more vibrant and slightly more transparent. The ultramarine blue granulated so beautifully. I have a video on TikTok about these on my account “Studio_of_Meg” if interested. Definitely a great set for beginners! These watercolors really surpassed my expectations. They are cheaper compared to other student quality/starter sets but have a more modern design and vibrant smooth buttery colors that take little water to activate. The paints were not chalky to me at all and layered nicely! I was even able to use salt in my background of my painting to add in a textured effect, although I will say they didn’t give that classic salt texture some other brands give. Everything in my painting was made with only these watercolors and some white details were from their jelly gouache set that I’ve had for a few months now. I’ve only had these paints for a day but will update my review at some point to review their lightfast results. The set comes in a lovely box that holds the travel set and watercolor brush. However the brush will not fit into the travel box which can be a con for people however I didn’t mind. I bought the green colored version. The green color set is a lovely light mint green color with a beautiful black robin on it. It is very stylish and actually makes me want to use it more because of the cool color and bird haha. A con for me was that the actual set doesn’t stay closed. The top and bottom flaps will open easy with gravity when picked up or turned, but at least the watercolors inside are not able to fall out. A side that is for mixing colors stays on the outside on the back when folded but I haven’t had any mess with that yet. If you were to get this for a younger or messy kid however, you may be worried about cleanup issues. The colored half of the travel container can be used as a water container to clean your brushes which is pretty cool. It would be nice if both halves could of been used that way so you could have one for dirty water and one for clean. The water brush is nice, comes to a very sharp point. You also get rough watercolor swatch paper (6 total). They are really small, so if you were expecting this to come with paper to use to actually make finishes pieces on you’d be disappointed so buy paper if you don’t already have it. When it comes to paper I swatched out the colors on different papers multiple types. The swatch paper it comes with, some basic canson watercolor paper and a sketchbook that wasn’t designed for watercolor. All looked really good, except the sketchbook searches but that is to be expected since the paper wasn’t designed for that. So if you get this and your colors don’t look as vibrant, just try different paper with them. They mix really well too, though I wish I could get more pigment information on them regarding pigment numbers and such. I did switch the burnt umber/sienna because they were labeled in a way that didn’t make sense to me out first. Their sienna looks like umber and umber looks like sienna. Overall I am really pleased with this set!
My opinion is based entirely on the palette/equipment and not on the paints themselves. As soon as I opened it and started inspecting the kit, I knew I was returning it. So I didn't test the paints. However, I will point out that there is no lightfastness information. For some of us, that's important. Although the description says simply that the paints "don't fade," I assume that if there had been real lightfastness tests performed and the results were good, they would be proudly provided. Anyway, I have several nit picks about the design of this kit. Individually they are minor. But altogether, it just made me decide to look for a different palette. 1) The actual palette itself does not close. Both the lid and the secondary mixing area hang down, as shown in the pictures. You cannot securely close the palette. This means you either have to hold it shut with a rubber band if you want to use it independent of the case or you can only use it with the case. 2) Both ends of the case are not water holders. Only the bottom portion is. The top has an unnecessary and useless at the top, which means there are holes that prevent the lid from holding water. As somebody who uses the two-cup rinsing system and bought this excited about that prospect, this was disappointing. 3) The secondary mixing area faces outward. It does not close inwards to face the paints. It folds underneath the palette with the wells facing out. This means that you will have to clean and dry that area every time you're done painting or you're likely to get paint in places you don't want it. It's just an awkward design choice. 4) The primary mixing area arrived with scratches and black marks on it. It just seems like the enamel coating is extremely thin and arrived already scratching off. This doesn't show up well in the picture. It is more pronounced than it appears. 5) My most minor disappointment was that the bird design is only on the palette. It's not on the case. It just appears that way because it's printed on the clear plastic box that the palette comes in.
I would not recommend buying this with the intention of emptying it out to put your own tube colors into. Part of that is because these paints are actually quite nice and it would be a waste. While there is no pigment info, some of them are very easy to identify as the trusty lightfast phthalo blue, phthalo green, ultramarine blue, titanium white etc. I expect several to be fugitive (Prussian Blue and Neon/Opera Pink) as you would expect for those colors in any brand. Phthalo pigments are copper based, and while non-toxic to us, they are toxic to aquatic life/fish. That could be a problem if you wanted to empty these, you would have to dissolve these in water to get them out of the pans. They are glued in really well and will not dump out or be pried out. There are issues with the palette functionality below that may also change your mind. The paints are very vibrant, creamy, easily re-wet and not chalky at all. I will admit I didn't expect much for this price point. So it surprised me that at a fraction of a cost, they are comparable to the highest quality of student grade paints like Van Gogh. I found a lot of the colors were near matches for the Pretty Excellent watercolors, "MeiLiang 36" set here on amazon. Both are really close in performance and that set has been widely reviewed as nearly-professional grade. They blow most watercolors in this price range out of the water in quality. I can't see any reason to buy bargain/kids brands anymore, bye-bye Prang and Arteza. I wish cheap watercolor sets were this good when I was a kid. Minus one star for the functionality of the case, tin and paper. The paper is a very nice quality, I used it to make the color chart in the photo. There are only a 6 pieces of an odd 2"x4"ish size though, uncertain anyone would pick this to paint on vs a sketchbook. However, the paper is a nice thing for a gift because the set has everything needed to get right to painting and swatching out the colors. It seems like they want to advertise this to travelers/urban sketchers, with the product photos showing off portability in someones pocket along with a case that seems to be designed to hold all this stuff maybe in a purse. Sadly the waterbrush does not fit inside the metallic painted plastic case. So it's already less ready to go. Bigger issue is the bottom of the palette folds dirty-side out (the wells face the bottom, folded underneath when done painting). So you would be forced to also pack paper towels or sponges to clean it up. The bottom fold-out palette also can only be flat on a flat surface - ie on a table. This is really great for having a flat fold out tray where paint blobs won't travel at an angle, but they do bead up on this spray painted surface. Mine even had some scratches in it so you could see the metal under the white spray paint. Sadly, you can't use this set's bottom palette on your lap, or on the go because it bends. If you are using it inside on a table, but don't have much time to paint, the last thing you really want is to have to do a detail cleaning on that tray before you close the tin. I decided not to use the tray at all anymore because of the fuss. Normally, I can just leave all sorts of near-dry puddles of paint to re-use later in my container lids. Not the case with that bottom-facing tray, it could get all over your hands/surface. Bottom line, the paints are awesome for a beginner or even a dedicated water colorist on a budget. Not so great for travel, and the bottom flap looks cool but isn't that functional in practice.
First of all, I gotta say that I'm not an artist. I paint for fun. Each single color tray is so tiny but it's so cute and perfect for a beginner like me. Colors are so beautiful and vivid. It's a little bit pricey but I like a whole package. A brush that comes with a package is around No.6 and yes... I read some reviews they said that colors were stained on the brush hair... yes.. it is but it doesn't smear to next stroke if we wash it good(just wash with water). Oh, one more thing I have to say, I'm not this account owner(I'm the wife ;) )