Great product!

very nice and soft pastels, its easy to work with

for the money, excellent

I was not a huge fan of this brand of oil pastels, but I do have to start that with a caveat. I graduated with my Masters in Fine Art in Painting and Drawing over 15 years ago, unfortunately the same year that a car accident disabled me. It took a while to find my way back to creating again. The last time I worked with oil pastels was in Undergraduate School 20 years ago and there were so few choices back then - CrayPas, and midway through Undergrad their Expressionist series came out. Then there was the beautifully intense, buttery smooth, but financially unattainable (college budget) beyond the small trial packs - Sennelier. Of course I was an art supply snob, but you have to work with what you have. I learned with a light touch that even inexpensive supplies can perform - I once did a self portrait in CrayPa Expressionists that my drawing professors could not believe was oil pastels - the drawing looked so much like soft pastel! A light touch is everything. But quality products do help.I was so excited to see the new cornucopia of available brands of oil pastels in all different price ranges! It was honestly quite overwhelming. Getting 48 colors for less than $18 seemed like it was worth a shot. I collected a range of different sets over the course of weeks as I sought to find the right pastels for me. These were not a horrible fit, but they just did not reach my new higher standards after sampling so many newer brands of oil pastels.I bought brands that were not as expensive and brands that cost more. Of the first sets I tried, this was pretty low on the ranked list of oil pastels that worked for me. I liked how smooth they were when laying down color. They weren’t too tacky or sticky. But they were a bit too clumpy,they shed too many chunks, the selection of colors was not diverse enough, and the pigments were not high enough quality for me. I should have guessed by the price, but you never know and reviews for inexpensive products tend to rate better than more expensive products because expectations aren’t so high.These sticks did not layer as well as I would have liked. Usually smooth sticks like these are easier to layer, but the clumps got in the way, no matter how light a hand I used. Clumps are oil pastels’ speed bumps. I also found that the pigment load was too light in these sticks, or the pigment quality was subpar. Also something must be lacking in the binder or filler products, because these oil pastels were too transparent. Too much paper showed through even with a thick buildup of layers on top. These are not the right set for serious artists. My drawing quality suffered from the texture, transparency, and lack of vibrant pigments in these oil pastels.I’m sure these oil pastels would be great for hobbyists, students, or artists on a budget just playing around in their sketchbook for fun. They also aren’t bad for learning if someone is new to oil pastels. The smaller amount of colors could spark creative play and the discovery of mixing new colors. I already know how to mix any color, so for me, there was not enough saturation and the colors were too earthy. Again, pigment quality is something that serious artists look for in their supplies, and as I mentioned, I am a supply snob.

Good soft pastels