For Christmas I was given the set of 0.5 Pilot Juice pens by my brother so I though that I should do a quick review since they’re quite pricey (£17 on Amazon, mine were only £9!!) so you want to make sure that you’re getting something good.
First things first, they’re great gel pens. I sometimes find gel pens too ‘scratchy’ (if that makes sense) and these are not like that at all. They’re similar to the MUJI pens in how they write but I find them to be much smoother as sometimes I have to write over things twice with the MUJI pens.
The colours are also super cute and you get a wide range as well, obviously there’s not as much variety as there is with fineliners or felt tips but I felt like the 12 colours gave me enough options when I was writing my notes. The colours included in the standard 12 pack are Red, Coral Pink, Baby Pink, Orange, Apricot Orange, Apple Green, Blue, Blue-Black, Purple and Black. There are other add-on packs that you can get, like pastels, if you need a wider variety of colours but I’d say that this gives you a good range to start with.
Another thing I love about these pens is that they don’t really smudge (providing you don’t like rub them immediately). I use them to write post-its in my chemistry textbook and they do not seem to smudge at all when I close the pages or accidentally brush them with my hand. This is obviously great because there’s nothing I hate more than having a perfect set of notes apart from they’re all smudged.
My main complaint with these pens (apart from being expensive, which most pens are to be honest) is that they’re not as smooth as fineliners. This is definitely just me being picky because I love fineliners and how smooth they are, so if you use ballpoints or gel pens regularly you will definitely think that they’re great. Personally I just prefer the softness you get with a fineliner type pen, although these pens do seem to help me write quicker than I do with fineliners so that is a bonus. The pens also have a clip-like thing so that it can clip onto your notebook, which is definitely handy if you’re always losing your pens!
Overall I’d give the Pilot Juice pens a 7/10 because they’re still above your average gel pen but I still wouldn’t say they’re worth it for the money unless you’re super into gel pens and even then there are probably other options available.
