The Arteza Company contacted me to see if I would be interested in trying out some of their products and reviewing them for my blog and YouTube followers. I was so excited. I had recently seen a number of big time crafters using these products, and I really was interested in trying them out. They sent me (1) a Hobby Knife Set that included 13 blades and 3 holders for cutting various thicknesses and types of materials; (2) a Premium Water Brush Set that included 6 water brushes (3 finer and 3 wider); and (3) a 48 Piece Premium Real Brush Pens Set (similar to Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers). Oh I really wanted to like all the products I was sent. After all, I could even make a commission if any of my followers purchased any of their products with my coupon code. However, I have to be honest about my feelings about these products.
The knife set came with the blades “attached” to a magnet strip that had shifted in shipping, and while I was trying to put it back into position so that the blades would line up with their plastic slots, I cut myself. The set included a cutting mat that looked thick enough to handle even the heaviest duty blade, was so small (~7″ x 3.5″) it was virtually useless. I tried to use two of the blades and while they did cut through the light weight chip board easily, the heavy weight chip board took a dozen passes with the heaviest duty knife.
I’ve tried three of the water brushes so far and they all seem to work as expected, but the little button on the side of each barrel to help control the water flow seems unnecessary (except when first starting off loading each brush with water). As the price for these currently is competitive as compared to Pentel water brushes (which is what I have used previously), these could be ok to buy.
Lastly, the 48 Piece Premium Real Brush Pens Set was a real disappointment. The set that was shipped to me had 4 trays of markers (12 markers in each tray), but 2 of the trays were the same, meaning there were only 36 different colors. When I contacted the company and told them of their error and offered to wait to do my review if they wanted to send me a replacement, they declined. They said to just review what I had received. Ugh – Strike 1. That was not the response I was hoping for. If this is how they treated me, how would they treat customers whose opinions might not be heard? But I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and proceeded to swatch the markers to see how they looked both at full strength and blended out with a water brush. This is when I noticed none of the markers had any names or numbers – Strike 2. There was no way I could share coloring tutorials and process videos sharing the colors I used that would make any sense to my followers with these pens. I decided to keep going anyway and made up color names to label each marker to match my color swatch sheet. Then as I was making my swatch sheet I noticed that some of the colors when blended out changed shades dramatically – Strike 3. This is a significant problem unless you are careful and really think about how a color could shift when watercoloring. At this point I was thinking, well, I could use this if I needed to when my Zig marker set was lacking a color that might be in this set or if one of my Zig markers dried out so I decided to finish my swatch sheet anyway. The last critique is that bristles of 3 of the 36 markers that I swatched out came loose and fell out – Strike 4! I’m done with these.
In general, I think the blades could be ok if you see a need for that many different cutting blades for your crafting, but take care when handling the blades even in the storage case. The water brushes are fine and are currently priced competitively and hold a lot of water (which could be nice if you’re doing big water coloring projects on the go). Lastly, if you want real brush markers at the lowest price, these might be ok but I cannot recommend them. I’d save up and spend a little more on the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.
The following is my video review of these products:
I am so glad that you reviewed these watercolor markers honestly. I have been eyeing them and thought they would save me some money if I bought those rather than the Zigs. Thank you for being honest about them. I’m going to keep saving.
I’m glad my review was helpful to you. Yes, I was really curious about them because a lot of big time crafters were starting to use them, but my experience was not a good one and I wanted to help my readers with an honest review.
Kristina, thank you so much for your honest opinion! You are very much appreciated. I hate when I think oh this is almost as nice ad then find out it was a total waste of money. My hubby said I’m going to nicel and dime us to death, buy the good stuff when you can and be happy. Quality over quantity!
Thanks so much for all you share, xo
April
Thanks so much for the lovely note. Yes, I was hoping they would be just as good or close but at least the pack I was sent was definitely not. I’m all for saving money on extras like my crafting supplies, but I would be upset if I had listened to some of the other reviews I’ve seen and bought these.
Thank you for doing an honest review. I really appreciate your honesty and hope the company sees your issues and considers making the changes needed to make their products better in the future.
Thanks Victoria! Yes, I hope the company is considering making some revisions to their quality control. 🙂
I am so glad to read everyones honest review. I would probably continued to order products if I hadn’t learned all the reviews! I will order good products that are more expensive but great products! Thanks again for all the honest opinions!
Yes, I often try to find deals with my crafting, but sometimes it does pay off to pay a little more for long term better quality and results.
Well done on your honest review of these products,all of the faults you mentioned are really important.
Thanks so much Ann! Yes, if it was just about the aesthetics, then I wouldn’t have cared much but color changes and shedding bristles were too much for me not to mention and warn my readers about.
No go 3 mos no shipment cant track dont know wahat they are doing shipment lost out of stock??? Received tools for clay but no clay still.
Oh no! I hope they get their act together and get you your products.
I watch your video of them .
I dont have much choise so I think I would be happy with those 😀
They actually just sent me a huge replacement set which I am also going to try out. I really wanted to like these, and I am hopeful that perhaps I just got a random dud package and these new ones are better. Fingers crossed!
Again, cheap art supplies are no bargain! Stick with suppliers who stand behind their products, no questions asked.
So true! Although I will say that the company, after several months, did come back to me and apologized for what had happened. They offered to send me a replacement package and told me that my account manager had been let go. Whatever the case, I think these supplies are OK but I wouldn’t recommend them for serious crafters or artists.
I ordered the set of 48 colour watercolour brushes over a week ago. I placed a second order for some water brushes and they arrived within 4 days. I am still waiting for the 48 watercolour brushes, and despite several messages on their Facebook page and several emails, I have been ignored. So I am going to have to go via PayPal to get a refund. I shall never buy from them again.
Oh I am so sorry this happened to you! I guess they are still dealing with spotty customer service. I thought/hoped they had gotten better. I know they had fired one of their workers, but I guess there are still others that don’t follow their 100% customer satisfaction policy. Argh!
I ordered the watercolor set
Something went wrong with shipping UPS said I needed to contact Arteza been trying to contact by phone and by email absolutely no response very frustrating
I am so very sorry this is happening to you. I hope they follow what they claim to be their company philosophy of customer satisfaction and get back to you soon.
I ordered a 96 set on September 3rd and have been waiting for tracking information. I finally got a response from multiple emails to the company that they tracked my order and it was delivered to my front porch on the 6th. My husband is home all day and watches for things to be delivered. There has been no delivery and I am waiting to validate the address they dropped the package, since the tracking information only says a city and state.
I’m glad they finally replied to you. Hopefully you’ll get your package and if there was a mis-delivery they’ll be able to find it. I have a similar situation going on with another vendor for diamond painting…. ugh the mail is just not reliable.
You were right about the way they treat customers. I accidentally bought highlighter instead of pen which was what I needed. After purchasing the item and paid for it on line, I realized that it was the wrong product. So I immediately Email them and asked if I can exchange my item for the one I wanted. The lady who responded said that she would check with the shipping dept and see if the can cancel it before shipping. She never got back to me and two days later I get an email from amazon that my highlighter were on there way. I email her again about what happen about my exchanging the product. She reply it was too late because the order process was completed. But in the documents from Amazon they didn’t process the order till two days later which it could have been cancelled. Apparently, this lady forgot to check with Amazon and the order was processed. She never got back to me to let me know if she could stop the order. She just sent me an Email telling my that the order was process and couldn’t cancel. Indicative that it was fail effort on her part cause she didn’t even try to contact me about what I can do to exchange the product. I am sending the highlighter back but I will not buy anything from them.
I’m so sorry you had to go through this. It’s so frustrating that a company could have so easily corrected something and provide decent customer service, and they simply don’t.
They are a terrible company.
So sorry if you’ve had a bad experience with them too
I wish saw this before I spent almost $80.00 on some of their products. I haven’t received them yet. As soon as I get the items, I’m sending them back without even opening the packages.
Thanks for sharing your honest feedback!
Unfortunately we opened ours and they refuse to refund them. I so wish I had seen this before purchasing them.
I’m sorry you are going through this.
Oh no! Sorry for the late response, but I hope you actually did try them. I have heard that some people have had better luck with their products and that they have made improvements. Anyway, thanks for your feedback too. Hugs, Kristina
I so wish I had red this review before purchasing the brush markers. My daughter needed them and they are such poor quality it is ridiculous. The nibs are not good at all. They streak really bad. I contacted them immediately about it. They told me that they could do nothing for me since the box had been opened already. How does one check the quality of your product without opening the box and testing out the product. This leads me to believe they know they have bad quality products and that is why you can’t return them once you have made your purchase. So I am stuck with a 96 set of markers that I will probably just donate to the school. She will not use them, says they will destroy her art.
Oh I am so sorry. That is awful that they are not standing by their products. Truly, how could anyone check the quality without opening the box?!
Wow I am stunned at all these reviews, I have had nothing but excellent customer service from Arteza, I also have many of their products and have had no problem with the quality.
There are a huge amount of positive reveiws about Arteza on the internet, it is not a fair judgement to make on a product just by one persons review. I read many, many reviews about products before I then make a decision whether to buy. I have also many other art products from well known much higher priced companies, not all of those have turned out what you may have expected from the higher end market. I live in the UK, maybe we get better customer service by Arteza here then in the US!! To give you an example I ordered their 72 set of Coloured Pencils on May 9th at 6:39pm, they are arriving this morning, Saturday 11th May, and all my products have been the same and arrived in perfect condition. I recently bought the Woodless Waterclour Pencils and they are beautiful.
I just wanted to show there are good opinions of Arteza, not all negative. I am also completley neutral, I dont test Arteza products or any other art products, I am just an ordinary crafter.
Thanks for sharing your opinion and experience. I’m glad you have had good experiences with their products. Unfortunately, my experience was mixed and I felt like it was my duty to share my experience honestly to my followers/subscribers. Unfortunately, others (whose comments you can also see in the comments of this blog post) have also had mixed and some negative experiences.