The Primrosia Fauna Dual-Tip Markers (Set of 60 for $33.99) is one of those pen sets that kept showing up in my “recommended for you” list on Amazon so I decided to take a chance on them to find out if they are gems or garbage. Simply based on the fact that the set comes with 60 dual-tip brush markers for less than $34 makes me suspect. But the packaging for the set looked decent and functional as a storage container so I was willing to take a chance.
I like to think I’m above being lured in by good packaging but in this case, I completely fell for the packaging. The cylinder container, accented with cute florals and gold foil details looked like a good, functional container.
Unfortunately, in order to fit all 60 pens into the container, they can’t all be face-up. Or face down. To fit all the pens into the container, some have to be brush tip up and others felt tip end up. This makes my OCD itchy. Also, the seam and inner lip are higher than is useful to access the pens as a storage container. It’s pretty but functionally, it makes me sad it’s not as usable as I’d hoped.
On the plus side, the set includes replacement tips and instructions on how to swap out the tips. There is also a bookmark with information to access a swatch template. I think the only way to access these downloadable sheets is to sign up for their newsletter.
These markers look like they were designed to compete with the beloved Tombow Dual Brush Pens, with a fet-tip brush point at one end and a finer tip at the other. The biggest difference, at first glance, is that the Primrosia pens have a fine tip more akin to a Marvy LePen rathe than a fine bullet tip like the Tombow Dual Brush.
Pricewise, a set of ten Tombow Dual Brush Pens are about $27 ($2.70 per pen, review next week!) while the Primrosia Dual-Tip Markers are about $0.57 per pen in the set I purchased. That’s a $2 per pen price difference!
This set is specifically cottage-core with a name like “Fauna” so there are some notable colors missing: no black, no dark jewel tones like burgundy, navy or forest green. If those are colors you are specifically looking for, consider a different set. There are lots of pinks, blues, browns and light colors.
I noted, with dashes, the colors I thought were too light to be usable. Shown below are the colors though based on the caps, they look much darker than they appeared on paper. Seven markers out of a set of 60 is a lot to be unusable. If the set was more expensive, I would have been really mad. As it is, removing seven markers is just about how many I need to remove to be able to store them all brush tip up.
The other thing I noticed was that several of the colors were highlighter bright. I marked the swatches with an (F) for fluorescent. I initially thought there were three but two of the pinks were bright enough to make me reconsider. I think there are four.
The yellow, orange and green are unquestionably fluoroescent. You can decide if the pink is really fluorescent. To me, in a set of “Fauna” markers, fluorescent colors seema little out of place.
In writing samples, I found the brush tips odd. I couldn’t decide if they were too stiff or too flexible but they didn’t react in a way I was comfortable with. I had a bit of trouble maintaining thicks and thins when I expect them. The tips also seem to fray quickly so the extra tips will definitely come in handy.
The felt tip end behaved similarly to a Marvy LePen, if a little bit wider. Hopefully, the felt tip end will be more durable.
Overall, the set is kind of fun but if you have previous experience with Tombow Dual Brush Pens or similar tools, the Primrosia set may be a bit disappointing. A wise man once said, you get what you pay for and in this case, the pens are not as high a quality as some of the name brand options. I think I will gift this set to my preteen neighbor as (hopefully) a gateway pen set.
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