Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased this set of 12 icing colors in order to make Christmas Cookies for the holidays. (OK, I just wanted to eat them myself, but I needed an excuse.) The box includes 12 "bold" colors, according to the chart on the side, and are a very good value for the money ... if they produced the colors promised. To be fair, I only used five (5) of the colors: "No Taste" Red, Royal Blue, Kelly Green, Brown, and Black. (No sure why it is advertised as "No Taste" Red, perhaps they offer one with taste?). So it is possible that the other 7 colors delivered the results advertised. In any case, I figured that I would be able to decorate my Christmas Trees (White, Green and Brown), Snowflakes (White and Blue), and Santas (White, Red, and Black) using just these five colors. I have had issues in the past with using the liquid and even the gel food colors that you purchase in the grocery store, in that they just don't get the colors bold enough. So Santa ends up looking kind of sickly in a pink and grey suit. Unfortunately, these weren't much better, only the Black really shined and achieved the color on the box. Green and Red came close, but required almost the entire amount supplied in order to get a couple shades lighter than what is on the box. (When the icing dries, they will darken another shade, but they still don't match the box.) The worst was the Brown, which required the entire supply just to produce enough brown for a dozen tree trunks. The funniest part, is reading the helpful hints from Wilton on the side of the box, which suggests, "For black or brown icing, start with chocolate icing to minimize the amount of color needed." Hello?!? Chocolate icing is already brown, why would I need to add food coloring? (And I can only imagine how terrible the Black would have looked had I taken that approach.) But the biggest issue with this product, is how the colors are applied to your icing. I am used to eyedropper style packages, allowing you to add a small amount at a time. (Because Wilton, like everyone else who makes products like this, always say in the instructions, "Add color a little at a time...") So I was very surprised that the colors are delivered in 12 small pots, like you would see in a painting set. Each pot is sealed with a safety seal, similar to a bottle of aspirin, but gives you no tab or any way to remove the seal without punching through the seal itself. And when you do punch through (I used a toothpick), you end up splattering the color all over everything. And then you do it again when you grab the seal and peel it off. (The product really shines at staining your fingers.) As to how to apply the color, the instructions suggest dipping a toothpick into the color, and then transferring that to the icing. After using about a dozen toothpicks trying to make Santa Red, because you know, once you dip the toothpick into the icing, you can't reuse it in the color pot, I ended up just tipping the container upside down and coaxing out the color with a toothpick. (The gel is thick and won't flow easily.) I used up my entire supply of Red and Black to make the dozen or so cookies that I wanted to decorate. TL;DR I wouldn't purchase this product again. Too difficult to use, and didn't obtain the colors I was hoping to achieve.