Sakura’s Gelly Roll pens have dominated the colorful gel pen space for decades, and for good reason – they’re always good quality and so much fun! I haven’t really used them since grade school, but figured they would be great for penpalling.

I was kind of surprised to see a new glitter line – to be honest, I felt like glitter pens were played out at this point, I’ve used their classic glitter pen and the shadow pen that transitions from solid to metallic ink as it dries – but I ordered some Stardust pens anyway. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised! I don’t know how they pack so much glitter into this ink but the way it shimmers is so delightful.

I picked a few colors – Copper, Lime, Sky, and Red – in Bold, which is supposed to be 0.5mm but I feel like it’s closer to 0.8-1.0mm. The ink is opaque, which makes it a really nice detailing option for paper-based artwork (though I am not sure if it is archival ink). I wrote about 10 pages using one of the pens and it still has about 25% of the ink left. They do tend to skip, which I’ve experienced with all Gelly Rolls, but you just have to accept that because the range of colors and the quality of ink is unmatched Another downside is that there are no refill options. Once you finish a Gelly Roll pen, it’s basically garbage, which is too bad.

I definitely recommend the Sakura Gelly Roll Starburst pens if you’re already a fan of Sakura and Gelly Rolls. They are normally sold individually for less than $2 and in packs of 6 for around $8-10. I love them for penpalling and art, but they’re a great everyday pen as well.