Elsa and Anna's Mini Reviews: Party Favor Watercolor Paint Set

Whew, we're back! It's been a full month now and I think that ought to be enough time to take a break from blogging. To ease us back into the routine, Anna and I have returned to bring you another product in our Mini Reviews series.

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"Okay, who's been using my tiny tape?" She accused as She rummaged around in her Yoobi mini supply kit, something you may remember from our first Mini Reviews post.

Bell stood there guiltily on the shelf, trying in vain to hide the roll of tape behind her back, but her wings couldn't stretch out far enough without looking obvious. "Uh... it might have been me."

She scowled at Bell, but didn't seem very surprised that the amateur inventor had taken the tape. "You guys. Ever since you've broken the Code you're not putting my any of my stuff back."

"Sorry." Bell muttered.

"At least I've got more." She reached into the drawer under the desk in her room (which was put there once college started) and pulled out another miniature tape roll, this time clear instead of blue. That didn't go with the rest of the Yoobi kit.

Anna and I had been chilling right beside her, sitting on the desk and playing cards with the ornament sisters, but it was hard for Anna to resist getting involved whenever she saw a second, different, tiny tape.

"Hey, do you have any more where that came from?" Anna asked.

"Oh no, not you, too." She warned.

"No, I mean like... miniature school supplies. We'll put it back if you do. Promise."

She sighed and searched the drawer again. "Well if you promise, I've got this here. Never used it, actually. It was too small. But it looks like it's the perfect size for dolls."

She tossed something our way, and Anna caught it. It was a case that held a set of paints, six colors, and a brush a human could only hold if they pinched it between two fingers.

"It's watercolor. So stains will wash out if it comes to that. But!" She wagged a finger. "You've got to clean up after yourselves. Okay?"
"Not a problem. I'm sure Elsa and I can find something to do with this. And we will clean up everything."
And the rest of that is history.

We started off by setting up a canvas, one we borrowed from Nessa, back when she had more free time for art. We used slices of notecards as a canvas, as that would be more durable than regular paper, and then got a shotglass for paint water.

First of all, the watercolor paint set is quite cute, although not very sturdy. The paints were tiny dry tablets of color, and they came in a thin plastic tray that also had the brush. The plastic can tear very easily and in fact some of the corners were chipping already. But it's not the quality of the container that counts, right?

The tray is then set into a clear box that is of a different plastic than the tray. This kind acts more like glass. The box does not have a fastener to lock it closed, but rather a snap-in and snap-out feature that falls apart very easily if you drop it. (Which we did. Anna can be a little clumsy.)

Next, the brushes. On the far left is the brush that came with the paint set. Next to that, a human-sized brush that was similar enough to the mini one. Then a true watercolor brush, and on the far right, an acrylic brush. I liked how our mini brush had tougher, smoother bristles than the red-orange human brush. In fact, I would argue that ours is better, as the human brush had fraying bristles that didn't like holding the watery paint.

Finally, a color test. For most of the hues, the gradients were rather nice, and you want that with watercolors. However, yellow, pink, and brown were the problems. Yellow is always hard to see on a white background, so I can't exactly blame the paint set for that. But the pink was translucent and not really... pink, per se? At least not what I think of when someone says "pink". The paints we had looked a lot more like a queen pink. This is what Wikipedia says "queen pink" looks like:

*

Kind of a washed-out, lavender-gray pink. But this is how I imagine pink to be:

*

Also from Wikipedia. Maybe I'm being nitpicky, and I probably am, but I was disappointed with our paint palette's pink.

Brown looks a little blotchy, but that also could be the lighting in this picture. Otherwise, all the colors are gorgeous and vibrant. Very good watercolor paints for something created as a party favor.

Yes, this is a party favor! She said that it wasn't more than a dollar bought alone. You can also buy them in bulk on the Party City website using this link here:

https://www.partycity.com/paint-sets-24ct-420502.html?extcmp=pla%7CGoogle&gclid=Cj0KCQjw_vfcBRDJARIsAJafEnHaxyHVuwWFEBYdJvIalG6BM4ClY6E2t-lryyia8LYv721qx8WxwX8aAsL-EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Now we get to the fun part. Nessa wanted to try the paints and create a landscape... and well... that didn't turn out as well as it did in her head. The lighting made everything in Nessa's painting look really faded, but if you try you can make out grass, a sky, pink clouds, and a sun.

We found out that the paints, due to size or the nature of watercolor in general, are better suited to small, cute symbols, like snowflakes and flowers.

Did I mention that the brush is the perfect size for dolls?

Well, that's it for now. I got to say it's good to be back on the blog. Maybe in doing so I can influence Loki to do the same and type up what happened to him over the summer. Maybe.

Happy painting,

Queen Elsa

* Shades of Pink. Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation. Last edited 30 September, 2018. Accessed 7 October, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shades_of_pink