Kokuyo PASTA Soft Marker Review

I am finally back with another stationery review! I feel as if I been focusing too much on the pen reviews but I still have a handful more fountain pens to cover along with stationery.

This post will be all about the Kokuyo PASTA Soft Markers! These gained sudden popularity after they added even more colors to the collection making it a very good set to get. I have all the colors so far so let us jump into it.

To start off the price of these are $4 each and there is a total of 30 normal colors and 5 neon/fluorescent colors. Thus if you buy them individually it is $140 which is pricey overall. The first ones I bought were from Baum-Kuchen and the rest were from Yoseka Stationery. What I like about them is that these are refillable and the refills cost a little under $3. It is easy to replace the refill and each refill is a pack of two.

The overall shape is rectangular with a rectangular grip section. The other end is very easy to twist to push more of the soft marker out. You can even reverse the twist with no problem. The body comes with a sticker that has the name of the color on it and the cap has the color ID.

Now the major reason why this is a soft marker is that it writes like a smooth crayon but instead of wax or oil, it is water-based and easy to layer. It glides effortlessly on any paper making this an amazing highlighter or drawing marker. I personally started using these for highlighting in my Hobonichi Techo but now I also use them to color when I have too much on my mind and want to relax.

Some colors like the brown one when you layer it a lot will rub onto the other page, so if using this in a planner try not to layer it so much.

Overall I love these but would recommend them if people are looking for a highlighter and or drawing marker at the same time as it is pricey. I personally don't like highlighters but these I lot using all the time. If you love the texture it gives and how smooth it is this is worth the investment!

Stationery Switches Made in 2020

 Hello everybody! Tsubaki here and back with something I didn't realize until recently and that is that I switched a handful of stationery. 2020 was amazing only in the fact that I really took the time to analyze all the stationery I had in my collection. Took me the entire year but the switches I made really helped me overall.

Some major reasons for switches that I used were to access more colors, being able to refill/have available refills, and efficient use of materials.

To start I switched from Zebra Mildliner to Kokuyo PASTA soft markers. Mildliners were great but Kokuyo PASTA has excellent texture, its glides on smoothly, and comes in 40 colors unlike Mildliners with 25 colors, instantly takes the cake. The Kokuyo PASTA can be compared to a crayon and I love it so much. Zebra Mildliners lastly does not have any way to refill them up they dry up or get used up versus Kokuo PASTA having refills for all of their colors and those refills being available at a local stationery shop.

Next, I switched from Kuretake Zig Glue Pen to Nichiban Tenori Adhesive Stamp. I realized after a lot of junk journaling that it would be nice to not have a wet adhesive application since it does need to dry to really stay on the page. The Nichiban Tenori allows me to apply a stamp or a strip of adhesive plus it has available refills. I can use a bit of the Nichiban Tenori and my pictures and bits of packaging and mail will stay on the page whereas it would take a lot more Zig glue to do the same job.

Now for the switch from fountain pen cartridges to converters. I really got tired of having little plastic containers for my fountain pens plus I wanted to use my favorite bottled ink colors! It is less of a hassle to just use up a recyclable bottle of ink than to keep buying refills.

Another switch is from Uni EMOTT Sign Pens to Kuretake Karappo pens. The Uni EMOTT sign pen did go through the paper in my Hobonichi which is the main reason for switching. I like the Kuretake Karappo pens because I can use fountain pen ink samples (3ml to 5ml) and kinda create a much larger range of colors. The Hobonichi is fountain pen ink friendly plus the Kuretake Karappo pens are a bit cheaper than getting the full UNI EMOTT set.

The last switch is from the standard plastic Sarasa vintage to the Sarasa Grand Vintage colors. The Sarasa Grand is made of metal and is built very well with its brass barrel which is perfect for when I take them outside to sketch. Both have refills so this was mostly a material preference.

That is all the stationery switches! The last note is that all the pens and markers switched out I did sell them as they were still good just used. Please don't toss good usable product as someone else can use it. Besides that, I finally feel really good cause I use everything I have now! Please wait to see my entire stationery and pencil case collection in an upcoming post!

Until next time, stay hyped!