Customer Reviews

amazing orange lead for sketching. I use it on my moleskine sketchbook and it looks amazing. a nice bold orange color. I highly recommend this lead!

It broke constantly when used in my Pentel Sharp Kerry 0.5 MP. A waste of $3.

This lead is very prominent and dark; great for notes and other things that require dark lines of orange.

For any artist wanting precision out there, this is the equivalent mechanical pencil version of Col-Erase non-photo blue pencil. It's very erasable and it’s a light baby blue color. I totally stocked up on these because I use it a lot for my under drawings. I wouldn't say these leads are easily breakable. It seems to be somewhat in the middle. If I had to give it a scale of 1-10 in breakability, I'd say 7. It’s strong enough to put some pressure on it without it breaking, but breakable enough for those who really put a lot of unconscious force into drawing or writing.

Very nice lead for my purposes; I use it for rough work before inking, because scanners don't pick up this shade of blue when scanning in black & white. It fades over time if exposed to sunlight (see the article on Dave's Mechanical Pencil blog), but this is okay if you work quickly or don't expose it to too much light. It could even be an advantage if you don't want the lines to stay. It's also very easily erasable.

I use the red, blue, and green leads from this line to make color coordinated notes in school. These colored leads are best erasing leads I have found thus far, but if left in direct sunlight will fade very fast. These seem about as strong as the Pentel Ain leads available here, but those do not erase nearly as well.
My only complaint against the green is that I wish it wrote a little darker the first time around and would gladly accept a softer/faster wearing lead for it.
The blue has stayed strong and written dark - no complaints whatsoever.
The red writes dark enough, but the leads that were in my pencil seemed to get dry and brittle after a while (causing numerous pencil jams). However, the red leads that were left at home in my desk drawer did not get dry and brittle so this leads me to believe that the brittleness may be caused by heat from being left in the car.

The only negative review on this pencil must have been a joke - this lead is wonderful and as durable as any 0.5 mm lead. Perhaps they have heavy hands?
This lead is great for underdrawings - I use it especially for comics that need to be inked. It erases so much cleaner than standard lead and makes nice clear markings.

This lead is fantastic for sketching the base of a drawing to be scanned for digital artwork, and it is also very erasable. But, if you plan to make notes with this lead, I would stick to a darker color, because the lead is very light colored.

100% my favorite blue pencil lead, it erases really easy and doesn't mark up the paper unless I really am drawing heavily with it. Its a great technical artists lead, I always recommend it to people. Even if it is hard to find.

This lead is perfect for under sketches and layout drawing, as the scanner doesn't pick up this shade of blue. The colour is a pretty shade of blue and is very easy on the eyes. The lead is also soft and smooth, I haven't had any problems with lead breakage, and it erases really well!

This is not the best colored pencil lead. It breaks very easily, the color is very light, and it is way too expensive for 10 leads. If you are willing to pay it , and upside is that is is really smooth.

This color is actually a deep writable pink rather than a vibrant novelty pink. It is so much stronger than the color eno, I can actually write with it like a regular pencil without breakage!

Overall- pretty excellent. When this is in stock here on JetPens, I usually get a couple packs because it is that good. Creamy and beautiful light shade of blue.

PROS
Light blue is non-repro. I have used this for sketches and my lines do not show up in a black and white copier. I supposed one could use a color copier and this might show up, but I have not tried it.

CONS
I do have *some* breakage when I use this lead in my Pentel GraphGear 1000. However, when I use it in my Uni Kuru Toga automatic pencil I have not noticed breakage. I wish they offered it in a 0.7, they don't so I have to go with Pilot Color Eno Mechanical Pencil Lead - 0.7 mm - Soft Blue for heavier lines.

This the best non-repro lead I've used so far: it's smooth, forgiving, and erases clean even after multiple redraws! Great for any comic artists or illustrators who want a convenient blue lead for their underdrawings.

I am using this in my Pentel Twist-Erase III and it works pretty well. I haven't had any lead breakage and the color is dark enough to write with but not as dark as some people would probably prefer. The eraser on my pencil can erase AIN 2B lead like it was never there but it does leave some marks with this lead although it's not bad if you don't write too hard on the paper.

love the lead, it's brill, doesn't break so easily and give a nice bright color of an artist's coloring pencil (like prismacolor, derwent coloursoft and faber castell polychromos),they are rare and expensive in the uk, but these work nicely for my drawing and another i would recommend pilot color eno leads, they are equal to these

This is awesome! Cyan Blue, and its very smooth & slippery to draw with. The other brand i was using was blue (not sky blue like this) and it was sticky. This is the good stuff! If you want non-photo blue, quit being so stingy and order it!

I love these leads, truly brilliant in comparison to my steadler leads, they are more soft, they give a brill color unfortunately where I live, they are a rare find & were quite expensive but I would say they are well worth it though, the soft blue shade is brilliant and compare to my blue & green staelder leads ( which are very hard to erase & break quite easily) these are superb :D don't break easily so you can draw and write with ease

I really enjoyed this pencil lead. The color is just bright enough for you to see but not bold at all. The only reason for 4 stars is that it is very britle lead. If you push on it the least bit it will break, but it is stronger then a few of the other colors

These are great leads for sketching and artist's guidelines. Although the mint blue (or soft blue) is by far the nicest of Uni-ball's colors, the green, red, orange, and blue are all great alternatives to the traditional Col-Erase erasable colored pencils widely used in animation and illustration for guidelines, initial sketches, and underpinning. I haven't tried the Rose Pink - I would guess that it's comparable, but I can't speak from experience with that one.

It should be noted, however, that these leads are not really designed for everyday writing and are not intended to be archival, so if you're looking or something that will be permanent under bright sunlight, this may not be your best option.

But, for a great many purposes, these leads are fantastic for those of us who prefer mechanical pencils to wooden ones for some tasks. These are are more erasable than the Pentel colored leads and come in more colors. They are on-par with the Sanford Col-Erase wooden colored pencils in terms of both erasability and feel, putting them far ahead of any other colored mechanical pencil leads I have tried to date.

This lead fades almost completely to invisible after several months. This and the other leads from this family also seem to start out soft, then dry out and become hard over time.

I tried these after many years with the Pentel red and blue leads (no green), which were hard and brittle. Unfortunately, this lead won't be of much use.

Beautiful color, I was expecting something that was really light and hard to see, but this color is nice. Not hard to see at all.
I cant wait to color and draw with this.

This is my favorite colored pencil lead...I must have gone through 3 containers already. It's also called "Mint Blue" and is bluish-green in color and very relaxing to the eyes. It's rather soft and breaks easily so use less pressure.

Pur-r-r-r-r-fect! I ordered a pack of these leads on my last order, and was surprised to find a better lead than I expected! (Except that there were only 8 leads in a pack that was supposed to have ten.) My next order will include three packs, which may last me about a year; and I will reorder when I open the last pack.

My local art shop stopped carrying non-repro blue mechanical leads six years ago. The owner said there was no longer any company making them. Her standard lie that meant, "Nobody but a few of you commercial art weirdos uses this, so I'm not carrying it any more." I showed her the pack and she said she didn't have a connection to buy them. I couldn't help noticing that at the time she was standing in front of a display of pens and pencils, that included many Uni-Ball items. If she didn't own the largest art store in town, I wouldn't patronize her Since she took over the store seven years ago she also discontinued Pantone and Lettraset products, choosing to sell to the crafter/hobbyist and student markets in deference to the professional artist market.

Priceless for the artist who likes to sketch before inking their work. Probably the best of all the blue pencil leads out there! Go for it!