Rembrandt Soft Pastels Basic Set 300C30.5

I'll begin by saying that I'm very pleased with these pastels. They work exactly as I expected and when I finish these off I'll most likely buy another set, possibly with more colours. The packaging for shipping and storage seems more than adequate for me. None of the pastels were broken and the box seems suitable enough for storage in the long term. Physically the pastels are half sticks meaning, though you could break them in half, I chose not to. The range of colours is nice and I think will be enough to cover many needs. Remember that though they blend extremely well all blending is done on paper so getting consistent colours beyond those in the set is more difficult the smaller the set is. In use the texture is fairly consistent with great coverage for all colours (something cheaper sets don't have). They go on readily but are not so soft they crumble in your hand. They blend very nicely on paper with a tortillon or fingers and aren't so soft they fill the tooth immediately. I've tried them on two watercolour papers, pastel paper and some multi media paper all of which worked fine. They covered pencil and charcoal without issue (though charcoal can blend into them). Overall these do what you expect from a pastel of this type and work nicely. I think they represent good value for the quality and range of colours provided. I'll probably buy them again and might consider one of the bigger sets.

I’m surprised by the quality of these pastels for the price. They are easy to blend and layer (higher quality papers, of course, lead to better results) and the pigments are vibrant. The quality seems to lie somewhere between student and artist grade, leaning more towards artist grade, imo. Nice color selection, as well. The pastels arrived unbroken and in excellent condition. The attractive black box is lined with foam inserts for easy long term storage. I think you can also buy this brand of pastels individually, so that you expand your set over time Overall, I am very satisfied with this product

I got these a few years back, and they still work to this day. The colors are vibrant, and the quality of the pastels themselves is phenomenal. My only complaint is that they tend to break if you have a firm hand. Take care of these, and they're be an excellent addition to your arsenal of art supplies.

First of all, these are great quality pastels, no question about the pigments being vibrant and they look very nice on paper. They even stick pretty good to drawing paper, and on pastel paper they work very well, of course, but I don't see them blending as well as I was hoping they would. Seem a bit hard for "soft" pastels, although definitely they're not hard. Just my take-if you want something "buttery" to spread and blend well, go with the pricier stuff- Schmincke super-soft, for instance. But by no means are these pastels not great, they just do a different job, different coverage- white paper will show through more with these than with the super soft ones. But, very much worth trying, the price is very decent for this many colors and quality.

first off they are not soft, but there not hard like Nupastels , they have a nice edge, I prefer Terry Ludwig or Unison for soft pastel, but I use these right along with those on every project, Just a Hint, if you haven't used sanded Pastel paper Yet , Once you do, your pastel art has a completely different feel and look, Buy some sanded paper !!!

I use these for my college class and they are great! The colors are beautiful and pigmented! For the size, these are great for beginners or someone who wants to try soft pastels out because I’ve already gone through my black and white in a span of 4 months, but I am also an art student. 😅 Your hands will get messy, it’s pastels, but by simply washing your hands it’ll come off.

Be very careful when ordering things online. Because although most of the time you get good stuff, sometimes you get awful quality things like these. I ordered these for my college drawing 2 class, and at first nothing seemed wrong with them, the box had clearly not been opened or anything like that. But my friend noticed that my pastels had a shiny coating to them. and theirs didn't. Keep in mind that these are the exact same set of pastels. I didn't think much of the coating until I tried to use them. My black pastel shattered into sharp chunks that are not at all a "soft" pastel, all of my variations of red, pink, etc that have any red pigment in them all burnish on the paper. (burnish for those who aren't aware is when the pastel turns very shiny and hard and it will not mark the paper at all. You have to constantly scrape it off with an x-acto blade) And then after discovering this, I turned to the cooler blues and purples, only to find that my dark blue had streaks of white running right through the middle of my pastel stick. I would go to mark the paper and half of the mark is white. And then, I find that my dark teal is also burnishing which is really weird because it's not uncommon for red pastels to burnish but blues are downright rare! OH and I almost forgot, my beige pastel was so waxy that it would not blend with the other pastels at all, it just made waxy spots on the paper where other pastels would stick to it, but not blend at all, it was very chunky on the page. So I've had to make do with what I have and finally have the time to post this review. I hope that no one else has such an awful box of obviously reject pastels.

30-1/2 length SOFT pastels in a box were shipped in a bubble wrap envelope. There are a lot of reviews with the pastels broken so I was a little nervous opening the box. The foam slots the 1/2 pastels sit in are not very deep; many weren’t in the slots and 4 were broken. So I blame both Amazon and the manufacturer Rembrandt. Amazon for shipping it in one of those thin bubble wrap envelopes and Rembrandt for boxing them in foam that doesn’t hold them. I’m not sending them back, I don’t feel like dealing with that hassle. I also purchased a box of 20 Sennelier 1/2 length soft pastels that are even softer than the Rembrandts. Again shipped in the thin bubble wrap envelope, but each pastel sits tightly in a foam slot that encases about 3/4 of the pastel. Thankfully none were broken and I would attribute that to the better foam pad the manufacturer put them in. When I buy more I may go the store route.