Kuretake GANSAI TAMBI STARRY COLORS, 6 colors set, Watercolor paint for Professional, for artists and crafters,Illustrations, Drawing, Lettering, Made in Japan

I have several sets of metallic watercolors, and this one is in a class all it's own. If I could only keep one, I wouldn't have a second thought about it: this would be it! Yes, I've got sets with quadruple the amount of color options, and sets with other special features this is missing...but the quality of these paints are the best I have tried to date.These paints handle well. They can lay down brighter and more opaque than generic paints. These are full pans!! Optionally removable to put into your dedicated palette if you roll like that. So they offer the kind of versatility that a serious artist needs. They don't have that chalky texture like cheapo paints. These are smooth and easy to use.I recommend, especially with metallic (but I actually do this with any pan water color) to keep a small mister spray bottle of water dedicated to your paint collection. Spray some water on the pans a couple minutes before you dip your brush in there. That activates the paint so that your brush is an immediate tool for painting, rather than trying to pull the double duty of delivering moisture to dried-solid paint before it becomes a tool for painting. Trust me, it just works better that way and you get better control. Plus, that has the net effect of being gentler on the brushes and might help your pans last longer.I have seen several dupe attempts at copying this set of paints. I did buy one from here on Amazon after I bought this...just because it has silver...and also I saw a dangerously close looking dupe as far as the packaging and presentation is concerned at the 'Lobby craft store yesterday (which also included a silver). I almost bought it, but nah, I figure there's honestly a good chance it would be the same manufacturer as the other dupe I bought (an all too common phenomenon in the world of store brand and generic brand crafting products--you buy the same thing several times over thinking it's a different product so best to just buy the name brand once).So my only honest complaint about this set is that it is just golds and whites...no good silver, and no coppers and bronzes etc. It doesn't have a full range of the expected, classic metallic pigments that one would desire--but what it does have are going to be the best rendition of metallic golds and whites!! So I think maybe it's best to have a limited palette, but have stellar delivery of what is offered than it would be to have what looks like a great range of colors...but only have a couple of them really perform well, and the rest be disappointing (which is often the case with store/generic brand stuff).I found this set through watching a YouTube video of a color along with an artist named Amy Cesari (she designs yearly planner coloring books). Just mentioning this in case you want to see a professional artist use this product. Often she will color one of her designs and then at the end she loads up a paintbrush with this exact paint, holds it over the completed page, and taps the brush with something (like a dry brush, or a pencil, whatever). So that creates an effect where fine splatters of the metallic paint rain down on the image. It's a beautiful effect.Bottom line: these are seriously good quality paints, and they're more expensive than some sets that look similar but those other sets are lacking in the qualities that these paints offer. Considering these are full pans, made in Japan, and perform so well, they're a great price! I would buy these again. I plan to purchase some of the other sets by this manufacturer, as a couple of them seem to be almost unique as far as the effects they offer. The fact that I saw a store brand obviously trying to copy the packaging for this very set when that store (or any other in my area) doesn't carry this brand of product might say it all. This is the one to get. This is a very special and delightful set of watercolors.

Love these paints and colors. They are very creamy and rich

Love kuretake so much. I wish the colors were more intense but they are very , very good. I guess I was hoping for a thicker gold, as in powder mix. I am very happy with this paint palette.

Nice colors good coverage, easy to work

Ok so overall, this product is worth the money. Shimmer watercolors are not common or expected in color palettes and not too common in general. The formula for these is workable and has incredible pay off for the glitter. The color range is more dramatic on paper, I was worried bc the 04 and 05 look similar in the pan. The coverage is amazing for 01 and 04 just incredibly thick and opaque in one layer. 02 and 03 is a little patchy but a second layer fixes that. Then 05 and 06 are very sheer however that is expected/wanted from the light colors. I compared my acrylic gold ink ($7 on clearance so it's the cost of this whole pallette) to 02 and it's almost a perfect color match. My ink is more opaque but it's acrylic so what do you expect. In conclusion, if you need a gold pallette for those special details: this is the pallette for you. Honestly just buy it for 04 because man that's just such a good pay off for a gorgeous champagne color.

Lots of paint included. I love the shades of gold. High quality and a real gold look.

Beautiful colors! Very metallic AND glittery! I use them to accent my art pieces in certain places. Couldn’t ask for better quality.

***For starters - I apologize for the horrible video quality if you watch it. It's available separately from this review. Also, I am not an influencer, YouTuber, etc.. Nor was I paid to promote these paints. I'm a published children's book illustrator and writer, often relying on my own paintings for reference before finalizing my illustrations digitally. I am also just trying to quickly show you my experience in real time and IRL the best I can. 🥰***So, I quickly painted this little chap with black acrylic ink. The heart was red acrylic ink and I covered it with #904 (a champagne gold) and it covered the red completely. I have tried many expensive and cheap (you know the ones! - D.Smith, Kremer, Sakura, Liquitex, W&N, Prima, Tombow) gold/metallic watercolors, acrylic ink, gel pens, and even calligraphy ink for my illustrations, stationary and watercolor cards. These are, by far, the best gold paints and the best deal I have found! As you can see in the picture, I did not recieve the same box as depicted. All the descriptions were in Japanese, but that's fine. The opacity, color differentiation, and quality are worth it, though these paints are in their own plastic palette, as stated, surrounded by cardboard. They are not glued down, so you can put these in a different holder, but these pans are much too big to fit in a full pan slot. I would say there's slightly more paint than in a full cake pan. I'm highly impressed and wish I'd found Kuretake watercolors before spending a small fortune on other brands over the past years.