Review: Midori Join Dots

Dot markers/highlighters might seem niche but I think they're pretty useful. 

I loved the colours of Midori's Join Dots so I decided to give it a try. 

 

Each Join Dot is the length of a pen but has 3 different colours that are stackable. 

I bought the Mocha set, which includes mocha brown, cafe latte and greige. 

The round pen tip is quite stiff, this helps in making different thicknesses of lines when used as a highlighter. 

Also, the colours are very pretty. Muted and warm. 

Like with other dot highlights/pens, you can use the pens for making to do lists, highlighting and cute illustrations, making it perfect for diaries and journals. 

I love this set for the colours, and because it's by Midori, the quality is really good. 

The ink did not bleed through the paper, although I did find certain pens did not over when trying to write over it. 

I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for this series and buy other colours. 

What do you think? 

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Review: Pilot KIRE-NA Highlighter Pale Tone Set

It's another highlighter review! 

This time it's the limited edition KIRE-NA pale tone set from Pilot. 

The set includes 5 pale colour highlighters and a flexible ruler. 

 

As a bonus, the deconstructed packaging yields a zipper case you can use to store the highlighters and ruler, very smart! 

The five colours are pale tone and if you're into pastels, this is for you. 

There is a blue, pink, green, grey and yellow and each pen is double sided. 

Highlighter and marker. 

The ruler is interesting. It's flexible and rubbery, even though it's clear. 

It's not my favourite kind of ruler but it's a nice addition, especially with the highlighters. 

The highlighter tip itself is pretty cool. It has plastic strips on the bottom and the top, these serve as built in guides, and keeps dirt away from the highlighter tip. 

Other features include smudge proof ink and finger grips. 

I'd like to use these a bit more, but the zipper case, perfect pale tone colours make this set very interesting. 

What do you think? 

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Review: Kept Quiera Highlighter Tape (Raymay)

I've reviewed a few tape highlighters and the technology  keeps getting better. 

This one from Raymay's Kept line is my new favourite. 

The Quiera highlighter is a dual sided tape highlighter. 

It's 5mm wide and you get 3m of each colour. 
It also claims to be erasable, which is pretty useful. 

 

The tape is so easy to use unlike a previous tape that I tried, where the highlighter colour would not stick on to the paper easily. 

The Quiera works smooth and adheres properly. 

I also did not expect the colour to be that pigmented but it looks like or even better than a marker type highlighter. 

The colours work well when used on top of writing or even when you've applied the colour before writing. Having the option to use it whenever you need to is a great feature.

You can also layer the colours and create a third colour, i.e blue and yellow makes green and you can create emphasis by layering on several of the same colour. 

This is now my new favourite highlighter and is definitely staying on  my desk from now on. 

What do you think? Does the highlighter tape concept appeal to you? 

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Review: Stabilo Boss Original Nature Colors

I've got a highlighter collection going on but there was a special reason I purchased the Stabilo Boss Original Nature Colors set. 

The stabilo name is very well known, even the shape of the highlighter is instantly recognisable. 

The nature colours set comes with 3 highlighters in muted natural colours and 1 black. 

Black? you ask. 

That's the reason I picked up this set. 

It's shaped like a highlighter, but the black is in fact, a marker. 

The black marker is ideal for underlining or outlining but stay tuned to find out what I use it for. 

The 3 highlighters are a beautifully muted. They have now all been made into into my most used pen section. 

As with all Stabilo highlighters, they glide on nicely and dry fast so they are the best highlighters to keep around. 

The black marker uses the same flat nib as the highlights but the ink is very pigmented and fully opaque. 

I use it on my to-do lists to help me focus. 

Finished tasks are blacked out completely so I can concentrate on the remaining items. 

Of course there are a lot of other uses for the black marker but a black marker that works like a  highlighter is pretty rare (at least to me). 

My final thoughts. 

I really like this set, I purchased it for the black marker but stayed for the muted colours of the highlighters. Stabilo really hit it out of the park with this set! 

 

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Review: Daiso Marker Sticky Notes Roll

 

I love a highlighter, I always need something to help me point out important text and information. 

I've used everything from a highlighter, to rulers that have a neon yellow window, to various tapes but this marker sticky notes tape by Daiso is really interesting. 

It's probably one of the few ways to highlight text that is not permanent, that I've seen anyway. 

I picked up 2 colours, Dusty Rose and Lavender Haze, very pretty pastels. 

Each roll is 6mm wide by 5m long and material is polypropylene. 

I think the colours are great, they really stand out and are not too jarring to look at. 

However, the opacity leaves something to be desired. The text turns out more cloudy and less defined, layering the tape deepens the colour but makes the clarity situation worse. 

Overall, I think this a good product, the non-permanent use outweighs it's weaknesses.

This would be useful for library books or for books that you might want to sell later on, i.e textbooks. 

What do you think? Is this a product you might be interested in? 

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Review: Sun-Star Make Mark Highlighter

 

It's another highlighter review. 

I picked up this pretty one from Sun-star's Make Mark,  nuance color marker.  

It’s a cute beige colour and the pen shape is square and flat with different angled surfaces to ensure good grip. 

It’s pretty simple but the entire range is pretty with it’s soft looks and feminine colours. 

The colour glides on easily and dries fast, it also works well over or under different pens. 

Overall, a really good highlighter. 

If you like the colour, definitely one to pick up. 

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Review: Pilot ILMILY highlighter in Night Sakura

 

I love my highlighters. 

Contrary to popular belief, they're a very versatile writing tool. 

Stationery brands agree, and here we have the ILMILY color two color highlighter by pilot. 

The ILMILY line of pens also includes a ballpen, both products are colour changing. 

There is a primary colour that you write/highlight with and you apply friction with a rubber tip at the other end of the pen to change the colour of the ink. 

I purchased the highlighter in the colour 'Night Sakura'. 

The primary colour being 'Night', a midnight blue and the colour changer being 'Sakura', which is of course, pink!

The night colour is too dark to highlight text but is great for adding colour to a page, the sakura colour is a nice accent. 

Unfortunately, because the friction required is quite a lot, it was difficult to draw shapes using the rubber end. Straight lines are easier and produce a better result. 

Other than minor detail, the night sakura version of the ILMILY line is really nice. 

I'm impressed that the colours are both quite different but they compliment each other and produce a nice effect. 

I'll definitely look out for more of these pens. 

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Review : Zebra Mildliner New Colors 2022

 Here at TN5C, we love our highlighters and especially the Mildliner range by ZEBRA. So when they released new colors in 2022, we simply had to add them to our collection.

There are ten new colors which you can buy in 2 separate packs. Gentleness mild and Natural Mild. 

We picked the NATURAL MILD pack

Here are the new colors 

From top: Mild Dusty Pink, Mild Cream, Mild Beige, Mild Olive and Mild Cool Gray 

Like the original mildliner, they are water based and there is both a thick and thin end

Here are some swatches

As you can see, the colors live up the mildness of Mildliners we know and love.

I picked out some common colors from my collection to see how they compare.

So what do you think of them?

Will you be trying them as well?

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Review: Sharpie S-note Highlighter

 

It's another highlighter review! 

 

I'm a bit fan of highlighters so when I saw the Sharpie S-note , I had to pick them up. 

Sharpie as a brand sells great markers so I had high hopes for these. 

Each highlighter is in a sharpie signature marker case. 

It has 1 end but in usual highlighter fashion, the nib is flat angled which means you can use it to highlight test or turn it to the pointy end and underline text. 

I tried it on a travelers notebook insert and it didn't bleed. 

It worked well with written text too but remember to let the ink dry before highlighting. 

Here's a comparison with mildliner highlighters. 

The sharpie colour is deeper and not as bright as the mildliner, which I think is really nice. 

and finally, I tested it on printed text.

I have to say, I like the colours of this highlighter, especially the yellow. 

The highlighters glide over text easily too and the colour is consistent. 

If I had a complaint, it would be that the cap doesn't close with a satisfying click.

but that's just being nitpicky. 

I would also like to see more colours added to the highlighter range. 

Have you tried this highlighter? what are your thoughts? 

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Review: MUJI Sign Pens + MUJI Highlighters (New colors)

 I was in MUJI recently and could not resist picking up the new highlighter colors alongside the new Sign pens they had.

I did a review of the highlighters previously and these are the 3 new colors; Greyish Cyan, Olive Green and Lilac.

As you can see, the colors are quite pigmented compared the ever favorite MILDLINER. 

Whilst I personally really like these unique shades, I do wonder if they are a little too dark to be used as actual highlighters.

And for those curious, here is the entire lineup of these highlighters from MUJI.

Now let's talk about the new sign pens!

I picked them in these two shades : black + greyish cyan (Yes I really like this color)

Here they are alongside most popular sign pens aka PENTEL sign pens. 

And here's how they compare when used. As you can see the PENTEL sign pen is more like a brush and the tip is more flexible whilst the MUJI sign pen has a more rigid and thinner tip.

I really like writing with the MUJI sign pens and I think they have more unique colors [such as this greyish cyan]. I'll definitely be getting the whole collection next time!

Update: I've since purchase the entire collection, here they are + the swatches

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Review : Pentel FITLINE for Clena Highlighters

 

If you are like me, you probably use up a lot of highlighters on a regular basis. So like me, you must be curious about new highlighters out there too. Today I'm going to review Pentel FITLINE for Clena Highlights. 

Clena pens by Pentel feature an otona [Japanese for adult or grown up] design targeted at fashionable young ladies. Needless to say, the highlighter line is the same and has a very feminine classy look.

The highlighter is double ended with the usual wide highlighter tip on one end and a pen like nib on the other for writing. 

The colors in the range are :

• soft red
• soft blue
• mint green
• gray

Here are the swatches : 

So how does it compare to the ever favorite mildliner range which costs the same? Well, the colors are rather pigmented compared to those offered by mildliner. Function wise, both are about the same. However the cream packaging makes it look more expensive than the white which mildliner comes in. 

Won't you give these a try next time?

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Review: Fusen Marker by Kanmido

Highlighters, there are a lot of different kinds on the market. 

This new release is a highlighter but with one difference, it's not a pen.

The Kanmido fusen marker is highlighter in tape form.

I was very intrigued when it came out and I decided to pick it up. 

It comes in many colours like pink, grey, striped and of course, the standard highlighter yellow, there's also a version for studying/memorising. 

First impressions, the packaging is aesthetically pleasing and compact. 

The tape dispenser and small and flat, similar to a correction tape dispenser. 

 

The instructions are neatly tucked into the packaging.

How to use the tape? It's not as straightforward as using a correction tape dispenser.

It can be a bit tedious.

1. Pull the tape out of the dispenser

2. Align it to the text

3. 'highlight' whilst still holding on to the end of the tape

4. Angle the dispenser to cut the tape

The process can be pretty annoying if you have a lot of text to highlight or if you're using it for an extended period of time. 

So why should you buy this fusen highlighter?

It's removable. 

Should you buy it?

Yes if the removable feature is important to you. 

Otherwise, it would be too much effort to use this fusen highlighter, buying a pen highlighter would be preferable.

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