Review on 🎨 MIYA Gouache Paint Set: 56 Colors x 30ml Unique Jelly Cups in a Carrying Case for Artists & Students by Carrie Spencer

A few years ago I bought a HIMI set of 18 on a whim and they were surprisingly good. Good coverage, re-wet if needed, not streaky at all and the palette was well done with plenty of room to blend. So I had a quarantine brain moment the other day when I thought buying this big set of jelly gouache would be a good strategy for self-soothing. (Shopping therapy. It's one thing.) I didn't realize it was a different brand, it only came in a million colors and looked pretty shiny. Unfortunately, this brand is not nearly as high quality. above all. The heavy palette is cheap plastic and has no mixing space at all - the entire case is foam, presumably to cushion exposed cups. So instead of just finding a spot on your desk for that desk-sized thing itself, you need to find a spot for it AND a mixing palette. (And you need it, even if you're just adding water to get the right jelly consistency.) * Also, side curls aren't always stable. Sometimes they close well. Sometimes it's like trying to give a cat a pill. Big heavy palette + open jelly jars with paint inside + unsafe locks = a very big potential disaster just waiting to happen. * The product itself is also wildly inconsistent. Some colors are much better than others at everything. But most are very streaky and difficult to wash off. If you could overlay them that might fix it. But they dilute very easily with water, so your second coat will peel off the first almost immediately and the streaks will get exponentially worse.* Which brings me to the tint power. Wildly incompatible again. In theory, some colors can be layered on top of each other without any problems, but most are so transparent even at almost full saturation that it is impossible to mix light on dark. (That's the beauty of gouache - you can either paint light on dark or dark on light. I don't like either of these with this set.) * Strange drying time. Easily twice the size of my "best" gouache. Between that and rewetting at a touch of moisture it will take MUCH longer to finish. dry shiny. Not in the Firefly sense of "Oh, it shines!" but literally with a plasticine sheen that largely negates gouache's other best quality - a smooth, matte finish. For fifty bucks (at the time of writing this article) you can get more than a few tubes of color mix from a non-jelly brand, and it'll be light years above this stuff in quality. If you have young children and would like some washable paint, maybe. But I think there could be cheaper products for kids that would be better. No more night shopping for me. :)