🎨 Cretacolor Pastel Carre 72-Piece Set Review

Cretacolor pastels are similar to Nupastels (Prismacolor). There are a few tints/shades that are not included in my 96 piece NuPastel set, notably pink which I use regularly for skin tones.

My package came with a dented corner. Not enough to worry me. But as soon as I took off all the plastic, almost everything fell out, 1/3 of the pastels were broken. What bothered me the most was that they included guides that marked each color according to its place. Now I have no way of knowing the names. I had to guess which color and which piece went where!

Beautiful, lightfast, solid pastel colors that blend well. Excellent pigment loading. The colors fall lighter than the sticks appear. Definitely a hard pastel that is often compared to Nupastel which is a bit softer. Beautiful color palette. The back of the box states that it has an ASTDM lightfastness rating of II, making it useful for professional work. In addition, it is non-toxic. Several sticks were broken, the box wasn't very strong. Each row contains an insert with color names. Color…

A set of 72 pastels arrived in perfect condition. The packaging is great as each stick is color coded and separated by protective styrofoam. I use Cretacolor hard pastel for the first layer of my pastel paintings both in the studio and outdoors. Great for the first pastel coat over watercolor and alcohol based underpainting and whenever I use multiple pastel coats. The pigments are rich and separate easily from the stick with very little pressure and no harmful airborne dust.