Himi / Miya Jelly Gouache: Unboxing, First Impressions and Review

I recently got my hand on the Himi / Miya Jelly Gouache set. Since this is my first time using Jelly Gouache, I decided to record it as I unboxed, swatched, mixed and tried painting with it for the first time. 

Even though I’ve been painting with Gouache for over 2 years now, I’ve primarily worked with Winsor & Newton Designer Gouache so, I was quite excited to try and play around with Jelly Gouache. 

So without further ado, here are my thoughts and first impressions!   

Overall thoughts: 

This is a beginner's gouache set with a pretty impressive range of colours. The paints are quite thick and creamy. Overall I enjoyed swatching, mixing and working with them. They turned out relatively opaque and moved really well on paper.  

The box that I got came with a set of 18 colours and it retails for about INR 1199. For a beginner, this one was very impressive and I would recommend it if you’re just starting and don’t want to invest too much. Read on to learn more about my experience with the Himi / Miya Jelly Gouache Jelly Gouache set or check out my video to see it in action! 

The Packaging:  

The Himi / Miya Jelly Gouache Jelly Gouache set comes with 18 paint tubs neatly stacked in a sturdy and beautiful box. I got the pink one but it does come in a few different coloured boxes. The box feels nice but it is a bit heavy, so that’s something to consider if you’re planning to carry it around with you. The box also has a palette attached to the lid which I think can come quite handy. The paints come in tubs sealed with a foil top. Once you open all the tubs, it’s basically a palette of Gouache paints. 

As someone who uses an airtight palette myself, I see the perks in this instead of having to squeeze paints out of a tube every time you want to paint with it. 

I find having my paints squeezed out and stored in a palette easier and more efficient to work with because I get more control over how much paint I pick up. It also helps to be able to see all the colours visually when I’m painting. 

The Himi / Miya Jelly Gouache set is also available in 36-colour and 56-color sets. 

The colours itself: 

I thought the palette itself looked gorgeous with a good mix of colours. Personally, I felt it had more greens than I would use for my style of painting but it was still a very good mix. It also comes with 2 whites which is very thoughtful since you tend to use a lot of white when mixing paint shades in Gouache. Also, one of them is Titanium White and the other is Zinc White. 

Swatching the paints:

To watch me swatch all the paints to understand their opacity, how they move on paper and how well they mix with water and other colours, check out the video!

The paints are quite thick and creamy and quite wonderful for a beginner's gouache. Although some of them are a little too thick and can be hard to pick up, I noticed that these are also the more opaque ones. 

Just like any other beginner's gouache, I did find that the paint had more binders than pigments but the paints were very easy to work with and moved well on paper. I also tried adding water to see how they mixed and moved. The colours are also very vibrant and nice. 

I also swatched them all out on a strip of black acrylic gouache to test their opacity. Overall the paints were reasonably opaque. Of course, Some are more opaque while others need a bit of layering. This is pretty typical of gouache where some colours, especially the lighter ones, tend to be less opaque compared to the darker colours. 

Overall I’m actually quite impressed! 

Mixing and Painting with Himi / Miya Jelly Gouache Jelly Gouache:

The next step is to mix some paints and see how they are to actually paint with. I used the palette that came with the box. I used a palette knife to pick up colours instead of a brush because there are relatively large tubs and I didn’t want to accidentally contaminate the paint. 

The colours did mix beautifully and once you got the right consistency, they were wonderful to work with. The paint felt really nice and creamy on the brush. They were easy to pick up and did not drop off the brush but at the same time, they were also very easy to move around, pick up and work with.  

With this set, I found that it performed better after I took the colours on a palette and mixed them before I used it than directly off the palette. 

In the video, you can watch me paint a simple illustration on a background wash to test the paints. Ignore the bit where I did not mix enough paint for the background wash but remember, it’s always good to mix more than you need. It is almost impossible to mix the exact shade of colour twice! I also have a video on more gouache mistakes you can avoid that you can check out if you’re a beginner who’d like to learn from my mistakes. ;)

As I painted with them I found that these are some of the best beginner gouache paints I’ve worked with. They are very thick and creamy but not gluggy. They move and layer quite well on paper. I did notice that the background got activated quite easily but this is something that will get better as you practice and get your consistency and timings right. 

Final thoughts: 

I’m very impressed with these paints, and the way they mixed, moved and performed. They are beginners' gouaches and it is different from a professional grade gouache but having said that, if you’re a beginner who doesn’t want to invest too much to start with, this is definitely a great bet! The range of colours is great and I really liked how the piece I painted turned out. Do check out the video to see the Himi / Miya Jelly Gouache set and if there are any other gouache or watercolour paints you’d like me to try and review, do let me know and I’ll be happy to oblige!