Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you're just starting out with pastels and trying to save money with these, forget it. They are a NOT an economical alternative. Too small, too hard and too many garish colors. Not even remotely artist quality, which some reviews claim. I didn't expect them to be, given the price, but way too many of the reviews give them high marks for quality, without mentioning any of the negatives. These are so small, they're going to be difficult to use for normal sized hands. Seriously, they're 1 inch long (2.7 cm), barely longer than a quarter coin. They're about 1/4 inch thick, about the same thickness as Nupastels, but 1/3 the length and nowhere near the quality. They're not much better than sidewalk chalk- harder, but that's not really a plus for artist pastels. I actually wtf'd when I saw them, as the photos give you no idea about the size. I purchased them with the idea of using them for shading and tinting in encaustic collage but they're way too hard. Also, I can barely use them- there's not much to hold on to AND color with at the same time. There's not a lot of natural colors there, many of them tend towards neon. My cheap old Sargent chalk pastels have a better color range for artists and there's enough to hold on to. I wasn't expecting high quality, not for this price, but these are laughably small. Save them for the kiddies and buy quality. Even if you get fewer colors, you'll get better coverage and you can always blend/mix them. Edited 3/07/18- The more I use these, the more I hate them. The only thing they've got going for them is color variation, and with all the tacky, garish colors, that ain't much. They are much harder than any other pastel I've ever used, harder than sidewalk chalk even. These pastels weigh 3 grams each, one fifth the weight of a regular pastel. The whole package weighs the equivalent of a standard 12 count of artist's pastels. Do yourself a huge favor. If you're at all serious about creating art, buy a package of Kohinoor extra soft pastels, made in the Czech Republic. The 12 count package is around $12, and the 48 count package runs about $40-$45, but the pastels are so much better. Infinitely better actually. The Kohinoor brand is much cheaper than Sennelier or even Dick Blick, but are of comparable quality and will last so much longer than these cheap pieces of...whatever. These are so cheaply made, any savings you get is an illusion.