I'm a big fan of these pencils, so much so that I'd love to give them five stars, but they have one flaw that really bothers me and for that reason I can't, so before I tell you how awesome I found these, let's get to the negative.

These pencils badly need the name of the colour to be printed on the pencils themselves. The colorus are on the back of the box and the pencils themselves there are numbers, but as an artist I can tell you that often colours look different on the page and you tend to remember them by name. It's a lot easier to remember 'burnt umber' than '702' or whatever. If this could be changed, these would be a perfectly amazing set of pencils and definitely five star!

Here's why.

I'm a heavy leaner and some of the professional grade pencils I have not only wear down so quickly when using them, but also are constantly snapping as I lean on the pencil. They are designed to be softer and more blendable, but for my style I prefer a harder pencil.

These pencils have a pretty hard lead and didn't break at all despite my heavy style. Despite that, I found they still put a lot of color on the page with a nice pigment and were pretty blendable too. I also appreciated that they 'set' quickly and after a minute of waiting, didn't smudge when I rubbed my hand over them. There is a little dust though, so make sure to blow it gently off the page before touching your work.

What's really amazing is the sheer variety of colours in this box. They really give a great range of lights and shades for each color, which I haven't seen in any of my other pencil boxes. They would definitely benefit from an extra white or black pencil, but it's worth the sacrifice to get the metallics (gold and silver in there).

Pros:

- Hard pencils don't snap easily.
- Sharpen well without breaking.
- Pigmented and blend well.
- Amazing variety and number of colored pencils.
- Don't smudge.

Cons:

- Need to add color names to pencils.
- Could benefit from a box/case for the pencils.

I'm going to be using these again and again as having that variety in slight changes to each color is so important, especially if you use adult colouring books like I do. I also feel these will last longer, due to the hardness of the lead. Great set!

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Note: I received this product at a discounted rate in exchange for an unbiased, honest review as provided here. As a consumer advocate, I believe in providing quality and honest feedback and receiving a product at a discounted rate will never affect my opinions.