Review: Pilot Juice 0.5mm Apple Green & 0.38mm Apricot Orange Gel Pens

Courtesy of our newest sponsor, the newest gel pen to be released by Pilot comes for review from JStationery. Thanks guys! The gel pen in question is the adorable, aptly named Pilot Juice.This is a 0.5 mm Pilot Juice in apple green. The 0.38 mm is a Pilot Juice in apricot orange.

APPEARANCE

The Pilot Juice is just about my dream gel ink pen body. At first glance, it just looks like a regular gel pen. From afar, it's not unlike the Zebra Sarasa or Pilot G2, with a few different features on it, a slightly different shape. But up close, I heart it. The apple green is a lime green to yellow green blend. The apricot orange is...well...apricot orange. I love both colours. The whole body is slightly torpedo shaped. The grip, top of the clip, the knocker, and the ink is all colour-matched. The barrel is clear plastic so you can see your ink supply (a feature I love). The clip is spring loaded and is a matte plastic, aside from the adorable part that is apple
green and says Pilot Juice in cute writing.

There is also a little hole at the top of the clip so you can hang the pen from a lanyard or attach it to your notebook. Coolness. The grip is quite long and has little circles for added texture. It's not squishy but is rubbery for comfortable grip. The pen is very pretty - cheery and cute. I really like it.

WRITING

Both tips write instantly - no scribbling required to get them flowing, which is nice. I often find needlepoint-type gel pens require scribbling to get the ink flowing, whereas these conical-shaped tips often flow immediately. Both tips are quite fine and the 0.38mm apricot orange is slightly scratchy on paper. Both sizes are true sizes. Good and accurate!

While I really, really like these pens because they're just adorable and comfortable to hold and write with, I am disappointed that the apple green and apricot orange are too light. These two particular colours are so light, they are hardly legible. I imagine the black, brown, etc, will be much more legible.

VERY FAST drying time. Low wetness. Water resistance - colour will bleed a little but will remain legible.

Compared to the Pilot Coleto's apple green and apricot orange, they're far lighter. I prefer the Coleto's colours for day-to-day writing as it is more legible. I have no problem using the Juice colours for decorating my planner and highlighting things and such, however I cannot use these two particular colours for things I must read easily. It's hard to see.

PROS

The Pilot Juice has special ink that is both waterproof and fade resistant. Hallelujah! That was the one thing my beloved Hi-Tec-Cs was missing! They were not waterproof! Alas, the Juice has swooped in and saved the day.

An awesome thing about these already cool pens is they come in THIRTY colours. WOW. Thank you Pilot for not skimping on the colours!! Just like the gorgeous assortment of Pilot Hi-Tec-Cs, the Juices are too. Apricot orange, baby pink, coffee brown, grape, dark red... lovely. I would love to have them all.

They are available in 0.5 mm and 0.38 mm, to satisfy everyone.

CONS

These two colours are hard to read because the ink colours are so light. But that's all. And there are a bajillion other colours to pick from if you want to take notes with these, or write letters.

OVERALL

I think the Pilot Juice pens are great - great shape, comfort, design, and price. I would steer clear of these two colours if you intend to use these for writing exclusively. If you intend to decorate your snail mail or homework or anything else that does not require you to read the writing, these pens (and light colours) will be great and lots of fun. Otherwise, your poor eyeballs will be straining to read the writing. You should pick a darker colour if you want to try one, just to be sure. Then you can venture into the lighter colours!

Don't forget you can get free standard shipping on US orders for any dollar amount, it doesn't have to be over $20! Of course, if you spend $20, you get free shipping anyway. Check out this post for the coupon code!

JStationery - $1.60

These Pilot Juice gel pens were sent for review by Jstationery free of charge for the purpose of this review. I was not compensated monetarily. All opinions here are my own, wholehearted, honest opinions!