Watercolor Brush Pen Review

I kept stumbling upon advertisements for these Hootech Watercolor brush pens on Facebook, and Instagram and they all varied in price. After contemplating, curiosity always gets the best of me so l decided to go looking for them at a low price and l found a set on eBay for $17.24 Canadian and the price included free shipping, so l bought a set.
They didn’t exactly arrive visually appealing as the packaging they are stored in was flimsy and l knew right away that they may not be a good find. But keeping optimistic l decided to try them out. The 20 colour set came with a water brush, which is a brush that you can fill with water and use for watercolours, so that was a nice bonus.
I tried to do some research on these “Hootech Watercolor brush pens” with no luck. I couldn’t find any info on the company, or where they come from, but some vendors advertised that they are Non-toxic, water-based pigment ink, odorless and washable. I am assuming that these are a knock off product with little info on them, and l suspected before trying them that they might be of inferior quality.

I decided to try them on Canson cold press 140 lb smooth watercolour paper. I thought by choosing a smooth paper it would be easier to blend the colours.
When first using them l found that they had little to no ink coming out of the brush pens. They were inconsistent and blotchy. Even though l was using smooth paper it seemed like the ink was running out and l really had to work them to get more ink. Yikes…right away l was frustrated and disappointed with this product. I could not image using them on a bigger drawing, as l drew a small tulip and found that the ink was not working right.
I did like that l was able to use the water filled brush on top of the ink as this helped smooth out the colours and blend them together. Although my tulip drawing was small the colours did not work together as much as l wanted them too.
As far as learning how to use them it wasn’t hard, but l was definitely disappointed in the quality even at $17.24, but the saying is “You get what you pay for” right?  What l did like about them was they felt like l was using a marker only it was watercolour and l would like to find a better quality set of Watercolour brush pens so that l can see the full potential they have in a medium.
 I am not sure if l got a bad batch, but in my opinion, overall l rate this product two thumbs down.
 If you have any suggestions or brands of watercolour brush pens that you like, please let me know as l would love to hear your thoughts.
Have a beautiful day,
Alice