Mijello Mission Gold - Pure Pigment Set - Swatches and First Impressions

Friday, February 23, 2018


Mijello Mission Gold Pure Pigment Set Golden Box


Mijello is a Korean company that was already well known for their quality paint palettes before they launched their own watercolor paints in 2012. According to my little research, their paints received some bad reviews at first for having a lot of fugitive pigments and they have quickly reformulated their line (105 colors) with more reliable and well known pigments. They are still critiqued for the way they name their colors, and I agree the names can be confusing, but as long as they clearly state the pigments used, I have no problem with that. In 2017, they released 21 new colors, which totals 126 today, being 50 of them pure pigment colors.

I have been eyeing these paints for a long time, especially their Pure Pigment Set, that comes in a black cardboard box, with 24 x 15ml tubes, plus 2 x 7,5ml tubes for black and white. Since I don't have access to Amazon (not in viable shipping costs, anyway), I recurred to eBay. To my surprise, I found a second Pure Pigment set, that comes in a golden cardboard box, with 19 of the same colors as the black box, but 7 different colors, 6 of them released in 2017. I looked for this set in their website, but I couldn't find it listed there. I've contacted them to know what the deal was, but they didn't answer me. I searched for it on Youtube and could only find one artist who had any acquaintance with the new colors (this cool guy here). 

Mijello Mission Gold Pure Pigment Set Golden Box


Finally, I've decided to get the new set no one seems to know about and I'm going to show it here! For your pleasure! 
And mine! hehehe

So, my expectations were:
• intensity / richness of color (high pigment load)
• vibrancy / low drying shift (colors don't change much after dried)
• juiciness (they don't dry completely when put on a palette and are easy to reactivate)
• low dispersion / flow (that was a negative, but I was willing to work with that. Apparently, they don't use ox gall in their paints, and I do find that ox gall is really important for flow, although many people avoid it for being animal based)

And were my expectations met? I'd say 95%, yes. And for the better! That is because the flow was not as bad as I expected. I notice a small diference in flow when I use Daniel Smith or M. Graham, but it's not like Mission Gold does not disperse at all, it just disperses a little less. And I definitely can work with that. I think you can see it for yourself in my swatches video (below). 

Mijello Mission Gold Pure Pigment Swatches

In these swatches, I started with a heavy load of paint over the black line, to see how transparent they are, then added water as I go down. After the paint was dry, I added the lightfastness, transparency and staining properties of each paint, as provided by the manufacturer. All this info is in each paint tube, which is nice! But I don't always agree with their info. In some cases, I think the paint is more transparent than they say (for example, Permanent Rose is fully transparent over the black line) and sometimes it's more opaque than they say (Cobalt Turquoise). I hope you can see by the picture (click to see full size).

5 stars - Extremely Lightfast
4 stars - Good Lightfastness
3 stars - Lightfast

The little square informs transparency (empty - transparent; crossed - semi-transparent; full - opaque).
The triangle informs staining (empty - non-staining; half-full - semi-staining; full - staining)

I have not tested the the lightfastness (obviously, lol) or staining properties, but I can tell they are mostly more or less staining, with a few exceptions (Ultramarine, Cobalt Green Deep, etc.)
As you may know, the more transparent the pigment, the more prone it is to be staining, and vice-versa, because of the size of the particles. Also, the finer the pigments, the less granulation you get. And these paints are mostly non-granulating, transparent and staining.

In the swatches image above, I've marked the colors that are NOT in the other Pure Pigment Set. They are:

With the exception of Cobalt Turquoise, the others are all new (2017) releases.

As you can see, they included a new Burnt Sienna, as an alternative to the very critiqued Burnt Sienna No.1 (a mixture of pigments that did not mix to a neutral grey with Ultramarine). This Burnt Sienna, although still not made with the expected PBr7, but with PR102 instead, mixes to beautiful neutrals.

Mijello Mission Gold Burst Sienna 2 and Ultramarine Light


I still have to experiment and play a lot with these brand new babies to see how far they'll take me, but so far I'm in love! They are gorgeous!!!
I've never had so many artist grade paint in front of me before and just looking at them makes me happy!

They are far more affordable (in a set, not individually) than my other artist grade brands. They cost me US87,15, shipping included, which makes US3,63 per tube, 15ml tube! (Not counting black and white, I count them as bonus).

I hope this blog post helps you make an informed decision if you plan to invest in this brand. If you want to see how these cuties go on paper, I've put together a video of me swatching them (my first video, so I've made a few mistakes...).




If you have any questions, I'd be happy to respond to the best of my abilities, just leave a comment below ;)

Thanks for reading and happy painting!

__________

EDIT: (Additon info)
This set does not come with the 28 color mixing pamphlet like the first one. But since this set has many of the same pigments as the first one, you could try and make many of the same mixes suggested in that mixing pamphlet.

This is the pamphlet that came with this set (below). It shows the 50 Pure Pigment colors by Mission:

Mijello Mission Gold Pure Pigment

To mix the new colors, you'll have to do your own mixing tests. Maybe start with a big mixing chart like I did, here:

Mijello Mission Gold Pure Pigment Mixing Chart


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23 comments

  1. Hello! Fantastic review! I was planning on buying the Pure Pigment set for some time now, and your review made me aware of the new set! And I really like the color selection of the new one they released since the old set were dominated by very similar reds. Thank you! This helped me out A LOT ❤❤❤~

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    Replies
    1. That is exactly what I was hoping for, to be useful! Your comment made me very happy! And I agree with you, this set seems more well balanced on cools and warms than the first set. Although I must say I love the reds on the first set and I still might get some individually. I also miss Prussian Blue in this new set, being it my favorite blue.

      Delete
    2. Hello, we are Crushon. Many people contact us for New Pure Pigment Set. We changed the title, description, images for New Mission Gold Class Pure Pigment. We have MWC-1517P, MWC-1524P, MWC-1534P. Please check our store in Amazon. Thank you.

      Delete
  2. Thank you for the review! I purchased the same set (should be arriving soon) and was glad to see your review on the newer version. Couple of questions, in the pamphlet, are the 28 convenient color mixes updated since there are new colors? Mind listing the colors if that is not a bother? Did you try those mixes out and find any of them useful? I am trying to decide if I should buy the Mission Gold Studio Palette 55 pans... I am a beginner and am wondering if that is over the top and should just buy a 24 (or more?) palette to set this up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there! Good question! I should add that info in the review: this set does NOT come with the mixing guide like the other one, but since many of the colors are the same, you could use the same directions for many of the mixes (you can easily find a pdf for the guide online). However, I personally don't think it's necessary. The cobalts in this set give us a whole new range of mixes, that you have to play around and test for yourself. I had the same doubts you have "should I get the 55 wells palette?" and finally decided it was too much for me. 26 colors is already quite a lot! As a beginner, one might feel overwhelmed by so many choices. I settled for a smaller 35 well palette (that didn't arrive yet!) where I could put all 26 colors and still have plenty of room for my own favorite mixes, if I chose to add them later. Hope that helps!

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  3. Also, I like how the Mission Gold Studio Palette 55 have plenty of mixing area to practice, although the con would be the palette takes up a lot of space. Do you recomend having all the colors set up like their guide?

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    Replies
    1. I know how you feel, I had the exact same train of thought, lol. Pros and cons, for sure. I personally decided the Con was bigger than the Pro. I don't have much space in my improvised home studio so I decided for a smaller palette (the 55 one is really huuuge). Also, as I said above, I think 55 colors is just too much, well 26 is already much much more than we need! But I like mixing and testing and playing with all the possibilities, not necessarily having them all pre-mixed in a palette, it's just not necessary and even overwhelming, imo. So, no, I wouldn't necessarily recommend that. It's completely up to you though...

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  4. Thanks for replying, confirmed my doubts about that huge palette. By the way, I actually purchased the St. Petersburg White Nights 24 set and bought more colors to add to it after I read your review, but after a couple days eBay had a discount going on and I ended up buying the pure pigment set for $74...Did I need it not really....but nonetheless happy to get it. Nice update on this review! Keep up the awesome work, helped me finalized my decisions haha. Hope to see more updates on your blog!

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    Replies
    1. Wow, that was a good deal! Of course we NEED all of them, but I know how irresistible it can be, lol.

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  5. I looked at the update again. WOW that color chart. How long did that take?

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! That actually took several days, I took my time making a few columns a day and made a few mistakes too, but that's fine, it's just to get to know our colours a little bit and I'm always surprised by some mixtures.

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  6. oh wow, thanks for this review on the new set. I saw it on Amazon but had no idea what the difference was. There's no reviews on this set and it's way more expensive ($189 at the time) so I was like, nope....not worth it. :P But since there's a better balance of colors and a better burnt sienna, I will keep an eye out to see if the price drops later.

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    1. Hi Courtney! You're welcome! Thank you for commenting! I never found this set on Amazon. Now that you've mentioned it, I tried again and I see one listing, BUT I'm not sure it's the same set. They used a photo of the set, but the descriptions says 34 x 15ml tubes and waterbrush. Confusing. Mijello has a 34 color set, but not with pure pigment colors only, so I don't know...

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    2. oh wow, you're right...i totally wasn't paying attention to the all the words used to describe the product, I got too excited when I saw the photo :P
      The title says "Mission Gold Class Pure Pigment Water Color MWC-1534P, 15ml 34 Colors with Water Brush by CrushOn"

      but then the Product Description says:
      Set of twelve (12) 7mL colors including: W521?Lemon Yellow, W522 Permanent Yellow Light, W517 Orange, W511 Permanent Red, W513 Rose Madder, W564 Burnt Sienna, W566 Vandyke Brown, W534 Sap?Green, W536 Viridian, W544 Prussian Blue, W545 Ultramarine Deep, W553 Permanent Violet.

      How odd. Well, I looked on eBay and found the product with consistent product number and description for USD $93, so that's probably where I'd get it from once I've saved up a little for it.

      Thanks again for following up and noting the Amazon product.

      Delete
    3. Hello, we are Crushon. Many people contact us for New Pure Pigment Set. We changed the title, description, images for New Mission Gold Class Pure Pigment. We have MWC-1517P, MWC-1524P, MWC-1534P. Please check our store in Amazon. Thank you.

      Delete
  7. Glad to have stumbled upon this blog! Hiho! I have also recently bought the same set! However i bought the palette as well thinking that it will have a color mixing chart inside it. But sadly there is none. I might do some more research in color mixes before i'd use the palette since it is too much to use as of the moment since i'd only fill less than half of the wells. ^_^"

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    Replies
    1. Hi Raffy, you can find their color mixing guide online. You'll be able to make some of the mixtures suggested there with this palette, but not all. Just play with it and find your own convenient mixes! I think you'll learn even more that way.

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  8. Do you know if it’s like the old set regarding colors ?!
    In the old one there was the Asia version, the US version and the European version ... is it the same for the gold one ?!

    Thanks for the blog post very informative.
    (Love your chart !!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello! Thank you!! I'm not familiar with this division: Asian, Ameriacan, European. All I knew was the black box set, I guess it must be the American version, and I talk about the repeats and different colours in the post. As I wrote, there wasn't any information about the gold box set in the official website, so I really don't know.

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  9. the best post of gold set designs, amazing collection of gold set on eJOHRI.

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  10. Recently I ordered the pure pigment set myself and got the gold box as well. Too bad there wasn't a mixing chart, as I could've used it (I'm a total beginner at this), but I managed to download it from their website. They do look lovely and I can't wait to use them and practice my skills ^^
    The price was a lot more expensive than in the U.S., namely 124 euros >.< but considering you get 24 15ml tubes and 2 7ml ones, not bad in all I'd say.

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  11. Hello, thanks for your review! I’m a tots beginner and purchased the same set recently. The colours are so beautiful and vibrant! Although there are some individual tubes I’d like to add to my set, such as the PB35, PB36 and possibly the other yellow ochres listed in the full 50 pure pigment pamphlet, and some of them I can’t seem to find. I am thinking about PR209 (hopefully Jackson’s will have a Black Friday sale!).

    Anyway I’ve been busy swatching, and I’m setting up a colour map of sorts using the cielab hue angles and chroma descriptions on handprint.com. I’m having trouble placing the earth browns, since each of the earth pigments can produce such a variety of colours; it’s hard to know if the paints I have truly correspond to the hue angles in handprint. So I wanted to ask you: do you think the earth browns in the set (PR102 Burnt Sienna No.2, PBR25, Red Brown, PBR7 Van Dyke Brown) are similar to any paints from other brands that you know well? If a similar paint is tested on handprint, I can use that. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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