These Pentel Sparkle Pop gel pens were sitting in my Amazon cart for over a month. Whenever I want something that isn’t a “Must Have” and more of a “Nice to Have” I put the item in the cart and give it a waiting period. If I still want it after the 30 days, or 720 hours, or 43,200 minutes then I make the purchase. This gives me the chance to mull it over and curve myself from impulse buying, which is so easy to do with online shopping and the quick Buy Now options.
Thirty-two days later I made the $12.62 purchase. I was like a little kid excitedly waiting for the ice cream truck. Finally, two days later, the pens were at my front door.
Here is my Instagram post using the Pentel Sparkle Pop Gel Pens. Other items I used in the post include – an envelope maker, a circle stencil tool, and a chunky zipper pencil pouch.
This is an honest unpaid review of these pens. Keep in mind – the last time I used gel pens was about 6 years ago. I used the Sakura Gelly Roll Metallic Pens and loved them. This time around I wanted to try a different brand so I went with the Pentel Sparkle Pop Gel Pens.
1. For the most part, the ink flows nice and smooth. On occasion there is a bit of broken, scratchy, or uneven color, but the fix is simple, just tap the tip of the pen to revive the flow. From my experience this is common behavior with gel pens.
2. The colors just pop and look fabulous on white or black paper. It’s sparkly and metallic at the same time, and looks so pretty when it catches the light.
3. Here is my observation of the ink pen colors. These are not complaints, the colors are stunning. The pink, orange, yellow, and silver look as expected. The other colors not so much. The black pen is more of a dark pinkish-red tone more so than metallic black. As for the green pen, I see more of a turquoise color and the blue pen has subtle hints of green to it. The purple pen looks purple but it also has a blue hue to it.
3. The barrel of the pen is nice to hold, it’s not too thick or thin and the rubber grip provides extra comfort.
4. Do a smearing sample test before committing these pens to a project. Cardstock, construction paper, notebook filler paper, journaling paper, etc. all dry at various speeds. The fibers and weight of each type of paper will absorb the ink at different rates, some may dry immediately while others may need more time.
5. There’s only 8 pens in the pack making them around $1.58 a pen, I believe it’s a fair price. But I probably wouldn’t spend much more on gel pens as they aren’t typically my go-to pens.
6. I don’t know if these pens will dry out after a short period of time or how long the inks will last. For example, if I use the Sparkle Pop as frequently as a ball-point pen, which one will I have to replace first?
7. The colors that come in the pack are pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, silver, and black. This is not a gripe at all, but I’d like to mention that these pens don’t have names associated with each color. As dumb as it actually sounds, I like when pens, inks, crayons, paints etc., are named (even if there are only 8 colors). I’d love to be the person to make up the names! Sparkling Grape, Glistening Green, Dazzling Yellow???
8. Would I recommend these pens? Yes, absolutely.
9. Would I buy them again? Yes. But I also like trying other brands to compare quality, color, etc., so my next gel pen purchase won’t be these. I might put the Pentel Milky Pop Pastels and Krazy Pops collection in my cart next.
10. Do I use any other Pentel products? Yes. I have the Milky Pop White gel pen and the RSVP medium ball point pen, I enjoy using both.
I hope this review helps you decide which gel pens to get! Enjoy.
