How Many Different Colors of Ohuhu Markers Are There?

Last week I reviewed the Honolulu Dual-Trip Alcohol Markers by Ohuhu, which has 320 gorgeous colors. In an earlier post, I shared my initial impressions of Ohuhu's Kaala line, which includes four sets of markers (two with 24 and two with 60). Then I took a deeper dive into the Kaalas after making thank-you cards and drawing a frog. As I mentioned in my posts, the markers in both lines are comparable in performance to high-end alcohol marker brands and have a wide range of beautiful colors. I highly recommend them. The organization, naming, and numbering systems of each line are equally haphazard, which is frustrating, but it doesn't take away from the fact that Ohuhu makes really nice alcohol markers at a very affordable price. 

I recently finished swatching the Kaalas. As I worked on swatch cards, I noticed a few duplications between the sets. (More on that below.) That got me wondering how many duplicates there would be between the 168 Kaalas and the 320 Honolulus. Were my Kaalas duplicates of my Honolulus, just with different tips? Were there any colors in the Kaala line that aren't part of the 320 Honolulus? And if so, how many? Just how many colors of Ohuhu markers are there?

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How many different colors of Ohuhu markers are there?

I made a spreadsheet, gathered my swatch cards and markers, and spent hours scribbling notes and trying to find the answer to my question. It shouldn't have been that difficult. Add number of pens in both sets, then subtract any duplicates. Easy, right? Nope! At first, it seemed like it would be that simple. It was not. 

First, I had to eliminate duplicates within the four sets of Kaala markers. Here are the swatch cards: 

And here is the handy chart I made showing the duplicates between the four sets. 

As you can see, there are 16 colors that appear in more than one of the Kaala sets. Of these, two colors (Warm Grey 140 and Black) are in three sets. So the potentially 168 different colors is actually 150. 

Next, I compared those 150 unique colors to the 320 Honolulu colors. There was a potential of 470 colors, but surely there would be quite a few duplicates, right? Actually, no. The only duplicates were Black, YG40, B290, and E440. I was really surprised. Does that mean there are 466 unique colors? 

No. Because that's when I noticed there are duplicate numbers. B290 is in Honolulu with the name Antwerp Blue, while the same number is Sky Blue in Kaala. They are not at all the same color. E440 is Khaki in Honolulu, but Bronze in Kaala. Again, not the same color. So maybe there are 466 unique colors? 

Still no. Because when I compared the swatches of the two YG40 markers (which had the same color names), the colors weren't the same at all. Not even close. So does that mean there are 467 unique colors and I have to think of Honolulu YG40 and Kaala YG40 as different colors? 

Maybe. Honestly, it took me hours to record all this and I'm not 100% confident that I didn't miss something. And there's an entirely different issue I didn't mention, which is that some of the colors have the same names but different numbers. 

Two of the colors with the same name look completely different, Grass Green and Buttercup Yellow (neither of which look like a buttercup at all, but that's a separate issue). The rest of the the same-name-different-numbers are close if not identical. So that means that we need to subtract 7 colors from our total, brining us to 460. 

So maybe there are 460 unique colors of Ohuhu markers, but I won't swear to it. I could easily have made a mistake. I think I'm safe in saying that there are about 460 unique colors of Ohuhu markers. Of course, they could come out with new colors at any time, or discontinue colors. 

Ultimately, no matter how many colors there are, these are good quality markers at an affordable price. The range of colors is enormous, significantly more than you can get with any other brand I'm aware of.  I can overlook the strange color family (dis)organization, the wacky names, and the illogical numbering system, since the performance is what actually matters.