STABILO – “Pastel Is The New Cool” Highlighter and Fine Liner Review

Reviewed by Alison Rood

For over 50 years, STABILO have been supplying the world with high quality pens.

The brand is known and loved by all ages, from school kids to professionals. From doodlers to report writers.

As a long standing stationery lover myself, I was thrilled to receive a range of their products to try out.

The delivery contained items from their pastel highlighter range which I was over the moon about. I am currently on a big project at work, one which requires lots of notes! Highlighters are a great way to colour code notes based on importance or subject, but I find standard neon colours a bit harsh for my personal taste.

The STABILO BOSS pastel range is a great alternative to those original neon yellows and greens we all associate with the word “highlighter” The set contains; Hint of Mint, Pink Blush, Lilac Haze and Touch of Turquoise.

But don’t be fooled by the word pastel…. The highlighters still pack a punch, just without the neon-ness that us who prefer muted tones don’t gravitate towards. Subtle and stylish, but they still do the job they promise to do.

Within the STABILO pastel range is a cute set, the BOSS MINI Pastel love. They pack the same punch in terms of colour intensity as the original size, but they are, well, mini! They have positive affirmations printed on them such as “be brave”, “collect moments” and “after rain comes sun”. As well as looking good on paper, they will also look pretty nice on my desk too.

I can imagine school kids (or uni kids for that matter!) would be elated to have these beautiful highlighters in their pencil cases, so they would be a great token gift for someone starting a new course or chapter of their life.

The addition of the positive affirmations means that they would also be great for someone who is maybe going through a hard time and needs a bit of cheering up.

STABILO BOSS Pastel range comes in 14 colours, so there is a colour (or COLOURS if like me you would NEED them all!) that’ll suit everyone’s tastes and requirements.

In addition to the BOSS range, there is the beautiful swing cool pastel set. Also available in 14 colours (including blush pink, lilac haze, an dash of lime to name but a few) these highlighters are a great alternative to the BOSS sets as they are slimmer and come with a clip feature. This means that they are perfect for on the go – I plan to keep two clipped into my lab coat pocket for use when I am away from my desk.

Just when I thought the pastel range couldn’t get any better, I met with the STABILO point 88 fineliner pastel set (the 88 point is available in 65 colours, including neon shades for those of you who do like a bit more neon-ness)

With STABILO’S instantly recognisable striped pattern, they look lovely before the pen even touches the paper. These pens are great for note taking, report writing, and I think that they would be amazing for doodling. So if you have any arty ones in the family, this set would be a lovely gift to start them on their way or to enhance their current stationery collection. Colour pay off was brilliant for each colour, although the yellow was a little difficult to make out in certain lights when using it for writing – but I can’t see it being an issue when it comes to using it to shade/colour.

It seems that loving stationery runs in the family because as soon as this package arrived, my 4 year old son had a nosey inside and couldn’t wait to have a turn. I tried my hardest to get him to use them to practice his writing, but he was far too excited by all the colours and wanted to smear them all across the white page in front of him.

So to the parents or carers of any little ones, the BOSS range is great for creating excitement and encouraging mark making. He has since had a go at his writing with the fine liners and he loved those too!

The lids across all of the products “click” on which is perfect for teaching little ones to make sure they can hear “the click” when they have finished using them.

But just in case they take no notice of the “click” rule, the highlighters feature STABILO’s Anti-Dry-Out technology, up to four hours. They are also water based which means that they are easily removed from little hands, tables and (most) other places they may end up.

Rating: 5/5

The products listed in this review are available to purchase using the below links;

STABILO BOSS Original Pastel Highlighters 4 pack – RRP £3.95

STABILO Pastel Fineliners 0.4mm 8 pack – RRP £4.99

STABILO Swing Cool Pastel Highlighters 8 pack – RRP £10.99

STABILO Pastellove Mini Highlighters 6 pack – RRP £12.00

Further information about STABILO (their brand, range of products etc) can be found at https://www.stabilo.com/uk