KOH-I-NOOR TOISON D'OR 8586 Artist's Soft Pastels (Pack of 48)

If you don't know already, these are actually Koh i Noor's "hard" dry pastels. Don't buy the box labelled "Hard Pastels" if you want the "dry" hard pastels.Anyway, i bought these to go with my Conte Colour Crayons. They're a little bit softer, which isn't a bad thing considering the hardness of the Contes. The colour range fills in the gaps in the Contes really nicely, so a really good complimentary set to add to the palate colour range. They work really well together.So if you want 70 more colours to go with these then get some Conte Colour Crayons.Easy to sharpen to a point and good lay down for a hard pastel.

My daughter has just completed her gcse final piece in these, nice soft quality pastels. Good selection of the basic colours.

The pastels arrived in perfect condition, which was the one thing I was worried about after reading reviews of other makes that had arrived all broken. These are all packed in foam padding so were perfect. They are quite slim pastels but am hoping they will have high pigmentation so hope a little will go a long way.

Although these are excellent quality, they are not actually soft pastels.These are much harder, with a higher proportion of binder.These are almost identical to Conte 'carre', that are more usually described as sketching crayons. They are easier to handle, but you can't get the same layering and blending as soft pastels.I needed some soft pastels to use with pastel pencils for a specific piece of work and ended up buying these, which was pretty annoying.Having said that, Conte carre usually cost around a quid each when bought in a set, so I'm not sure whether to return these or keep to use alongside my Contes.I did actually buy some proper 'extra soft' pastels from the same manufacturer in the end.

These are fabulous soft pastels which I’ve used often. They add to and complement my other pastels. Now I just need a fixative that really works!

Really pleased with this item

Relatively good hence good for serious beginners

Good quality and range of colours.