Review: Chameleon 52 Pen Super Set

Have you joined in the adult colouring in book craze? I have to admit that I love to colour in and find it relaxing and a good way to let off some creative steam. As much as I enjoy colouring in using any old pen or pencil I can’t help but look for ways to make it a bit more interesting.

For a while, I had been seeing adverts for Chameleon pens – pens that offer multiple shades of a colour all from one pen – and found them fascinating! Just how did they work? I added a set of the pens to my Christmas wishlist and was very lucky to receive them as a gift from my parents.

The set I received included 52 Chameleon Pens covering all the colours of the rainbow, with the ability to make hundreds of different colour tones. The pens are alcohol based and come with replaceable nibs and refillable cartridges which means you don’t need to replace the pens once they run out of ink.

The set I was given comes with a handy workstation/ carry case so you can set up your colouring or artwork anywhere. The collection also includes a detail pen – a double ended pen with a fine 0.6mm & 0.4mm nib for sketching as well as a blender pen –  colourless double ended pen with that is used to lighten or continue blending colour for seamless effects.

So, how do they work? Each pen comes with a mixing chamber which holds a colourless toning medium – you simply touch the nib in the chamber to the nib of the pen you’re using and the medium is soaked into the coloured nib and displaces some of the coloured pigment.

When you use the pen afterwards it may come out colourless to start but the coloured pigment slowly returns making the ombre effect, which looks great for adding more realistic detail to drawings or colouring in books!

Now, I have to admit that it was a bit of a kerfuffle at first to understand how the pens worked and how to use the mixing chamber properly but once I got the hang of it I enjoyed adding depth, light and shade to my colouring.

The Chameleon pens really add something extra to my colouring hobby and I really love using them. However, I wish that they wouldn’t seep through paper so easily which makes it hard to use them on anything except thicker materials like high-quality cardstock.

I award the Chameleon pen set 4 out of 5 stars, and I hope that they develop pens which can be used on regular paper in the future.