I just unpacked the dishes, and they look great. I checked to make sure that they are lead-free and they are. But I do have one complaint: each dish had, not one, but TWO paper stickers stuck to them that were very hard to remove. I mean VERY hard. I tried to gently scrape them off when I unpacked the dishes--a little came off. I ran them them through the dishwasher, no heated or any other drying cycle. I took the dishes out--stickers still stuck. After a few tries, I found the best way to remove the stickers was to spray them with vinegar and water mix (I always have on hand for cleaning), let the spray soak in, then scrub with hot, soapy scrubbing sponge. It took 2 hours to get those *&%# stickers off! SO ANNOYING!! It's a good thing I like the dishes.