A green carton with a watercolour of a stone viaduct across the middle, printed SAKURA TRANSPARENT WATER COLORS with 12 colors beside it, the Japanese name サクラ透明水彩 beneath, the Sakura blossom mark and an AP seal in the corner. Inside, twelve tubes lie in a white tray, each carrying its colour name in English and Japanese with a number above it.

The tubes are laminate rather than metal, which the carton states in Japanese as ラミネートチューブ入り. It sounds like a detail and it is not. A metal tube creases where you squeeze it, then splits along the crease and dries the paint out from the fold inwards; a laminate tube rolls up and stays sealed. On a set you will use over a couple of years, that is the difference between finishing the tube and throwing half of it away.

Every colour carries a number as well as a name — White 50, Red 19, Lemon Yellow 18, Yellow Green 27, Cobalt Blue 36, Ultramarine 43, Black 49 among them — which is Sakura's own numbering. A shade can be reordered by figure, and it will be the same pigment next time.

This is the dearest tube on our watercolour shelf, at Rs. 179.17 each. Our Marie's Water Colour is Rs. 104.17 a tube and our Faber-Castell Creative Studio Rs. 166.67. What the money buys here is a Japanese artist range, the laminate tubes and the numbering — not more paint, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise.

Transparent is in the name and in the behaviour. These are made to let the paper do the lightening, so a wash glows rather than sits flat, and a mistake stays where you put it. If you want paint that covers, our Pelikan Deckfarbkasten box is the opaque one on this shelf.

The carton lists twelve colours and the tray holds twelve tubes; we do not list a brush with it. We list this set from 10 years up. The Safencia price is Rs. 2,150 with Cash on Delivery across Pakistan, and stock, your city and delivery charges are confirmed on WhatsApp before dispatch.

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