I have just bought them and these are great. I have no problems at all. I assume some sellers sell sets which were badly made and they resell it for the same price as good ones. I found that when you buy artistic materials om Amazon you have to be careful. Because of many bad reviews and my bad experience I do not buy art supplies on Amazon anymore.
Iam on my 8th set of the Caran D'ache 76 pastel pencils. I've only had a issue with 2 pencil out of all of those sets, and that was due to the shipper crushing the corner of my box. These pencils are always my main staple set , and they are absolutely EXCELLENT. They can't be beat and are a dream to work with. If you sell your art work, you are robbing yourself the opportunity to work with these pencils. They are buttery and soft, and more importantly... they are lightfast. Never go by another person's experience, because it will always be different. As a professional artist and Bookbinder myself, I literally own every full set of all the professional brands of pastel pencils, colored pencils and watercolor pencils ( literally ). The only brand I would say to stay away from... is Creta color. They are crumbley, hard, brittle and YOU CANT SHARPEN them without snapping them ( by hand and sharpener) always buy a few open stock and try them your self. I also love my Contè á Paris pastel pencils, but I don't think i have ever seen Jason use them, or even talk about them! They are always forgotten by everyone lol. Have a great day
Thank you so much for posting this! I had the same thing happen to me, with the same colors. I contacted Caran D'Ache, with no response. Abolutely fraudulent to charge this much money for pencils that do not produce pigment. I thought it was just me, but now I know this is most likely widespread, and the company does not care about their customers.
@@kristiofca1 I'd let Jackson's know. In fact everyone who has these substandard products should contact their retailer. Jackson's are a big supplier so if they go back to the manufacturer they're more likely to take notice.
I have no problems with my set. In my opinion it was something with production or quality control and they sold bad product. But these are really good pencils.
I had the same issue with some greens and blues. They would not lay down no color what so ever. I was more than disappointed because it took me over two years to save for them. I would not recommend these pencils. Way over price because of this issue. I had 11 pencils that had this issue.
never had this issue, and i have both the 76 luminance set plus a bunch of the newer pigments bought separetely. i use their white a lot to blend, with other brands too, and none of their pencils, not even the white that i press hard on lol, have broken. handling by the shipping i guess?
definitely something happens with quality control at the factory. for the price of these pencils this is unacceptable. I use faber castell pitt and I am very happy with them.
I had exactly the same issues with my set of 20 Luminance pencils! 3 of them had this issue. :/ I thought I was the only person on this world disappointed with a product by this brand! :o
Yes, as said previously, you saved us a lot of money with this review. Thanks, Jason! I've for a long time been quite annoyed and indignant with Caran d' Ache because of their rediculously overpriced products. I've purchased some of the luminance pencils and some other CDA-items, and I don't find any of them particularly impressive or way better than e.g. Faber Castell and the like. In addition, if Caran d' Ache customer service not even bother to reply, when you contact them to get help with a product problem, they are responsible for, that is really the top of arrogance, if you ask me. Their outragous prices can definitely not be justified, as the quality of their products are only between fair to decent. Their customer service is a joke. So that's it. I'm never gonna buy any Caran d' Ache products ever again. That felt good to decide this. No need to spend time on them anymore. 😄
I was ready to tell you just buy Faber Castell, but you already mentined them! Faber Castell are the best pencils! Their lead holders TK 4600 and TK 9400 are also the best (in terms of performace). The only pencil that I would choose instead of a Faber Castell, are the Pentel mechanical pencils, especialy the GraphGear 500 and the legendary P205.
I have the full sets of both the Polychromous and the Luminance (*both bought one by one open stock) and can say that they are different. Both are amazing, they just behave differently. The Luminance are easier to blend (like really!) and impossible to smudge. The price tag in Bulgaria (*where I am) is twice as much for the Luminance. I was lucky to buy them before the prices went up and at a discount BUT even like that the price tag is quite, well, unpleasant. My wild guess is that they are this expensive because everything is ridiculously expensive in Switzerland... The Polychromous, on the other hand, are amazing pencils (*really, amazing!!!) and are much more affordable PLUS they have 20 more colors in the full set. They are perfect for fine detailing or any details. The downside is that they are difficult to blend (*they blend, just with a liiitle bit of pressure).
ok ok, calm down. overpriced? sure. only fair to decent?. no. they are the best, you can go in blindly into their product lines and get the best quality. Do you propotionally pay more for it? sure. And as a sienote, polycromos/pitt pencils are not to be relied in regards to lightfastness (their charts aren't astm rated, and they have in fact been proven to be extremely unreliable. you have, for example, 27 three star polychromos that actually perform as a one star, dont believe me? check the in depth analysis made for years now on all brands by the color pencil society of america, and plenty of other artists)
I just got the 76 set today and all the pencils are nice and creamy. I paid special attention to the specific colors you had trouble with in this video. No issues on my end. I know it's 2 years since you posted this video, maybe they improved on their quality control.
I love how diplomatic and polite you are in the face of such tremendous bullshit. I, for one, would be absolutely pissed while writing a long e-mail describing where everyone in Caran D'ache's factories could shove their pencils.
You might try calling their customer service instead of just emailing - maybe you’ll have better luck. I’ve only this week tried these myself (only 4 pencils) and found them wonderfully creamy, but you obviously had a larger sample size! I’ll be looking for your file. That sounds incredibly helpful!
I have a bought few open stock items from Caran D'Ache and was always unimpressed by them (from oil pastels, color pencils and watercolor pencils). They're not horrible, but I just don't get what do they offer better than other brands (like Derwent or Faber-Castell for example). And the prices are hideous. If you're going to ask that price, the pencils better work....that's kind of the minimum to ask.
I love my Pablos. They’re wonderful. The prices for them open stock from dickblick are completely reasonable. I look forward to buying their pastel pencils.
The day Derwent increase their Drawing set color pallete by 100 is the day Luminance lose it's Market, I'm telling you. Specialy considering they already have their lightfast line. Jokes aside, Caran d'ache materials realy are expansive...
Thanks for your videos. Every time I see it you give me an inspiration to draw smthng with my pastels sets. Yes, review video too. Love you and your works P.S. Sorry for my bad english
While I do have one harder pencil in my set, it still lays down color nicely, I just chalked it up to the pigment being different or something. I've always been impressed with the quality of their products, I hope customer service can resolve this. I've bought all my supplies at least two years ago and I haven't needed to rebuy anything. I hope their quality control hasn't been slipping! I'm willing to pay the high price if everything is fine and well, but as soon as even one piece of a set is unuseable, I can't justify the price anymore. It really would be a shame if quality dropped like it did with Prismacolor pencils....
Thanks so much for this video, Jason! No I know I am not the only one with this problem and don't feel so stupid anymore. I bought a 20 pencil set a few months ago and had the same issue with a couple of pencils. No matter what I tried, I wasn't able to get rid of the gritty bits in the lead. I contacted Caran D'ache and learned that their customer service is not very good. They basically wanted to tell me that I was the one with the problem, not the pencils. Every person is different and what is 'buttery' for one person, might not be 'buttery' for another, I was told. I have quiet a few sets of different brands and these pencils are the worst. (Many are buttery, but a handful are very scratchy and useless). As usual I didn't give up and kept emailing and requested replacements but they said the new ones will be the same. Instead they offered me a set of 20 Museum Aquarelle which I agreed to. But it was very annoying to get to this point.
This is a new issue I've noticed. I've been using them for a couple of years and had bought the 84 set and have not had issues. I love my set because they're soft. I recently bought a black replacement and have the same issue. I can't lay any pastel down. I wonder if they're having them made through a new factory?
Ive had this issue with the luminance white, im so stupid i thought it was me not putting the glassine over the paper enough & i had contaminated the pastlemat somehow. I then thought it was because the brown pastlemat doesnt work well with them but never thought too much about it until now. I usually swap with the caran dache pablo white & just carry on! Thanks for the heads up as I will now go back to the shop & tell them with any future pencils.
Wow. Yes. That is terrible. Thanks for letting us know. As Roscoe mentioned, it will be interesting to hear the response you receive from them. Thank you so much for posting this. :)
I had the same problem with several of the luminance colored pencils. Even replacements I was sent had the same problem. Also, several of my colors are very hard, not soft like any other colored pencils I have used.
Thank you for this video. I have a very small set of the pastel pencils, Generals, and wanted to get a bigger set. Your reviews are always on the top. One would think that the name Caran d’Ache would be the Holy Grail of pastel pencils....I believe I will get the Stabilos from your positive review of them.
Gosh, that really is a problem. I am getting mine out tomorrow to check them all! Mine a quiet new so will do a colour chart at the same time. Thanks Jason. Hope they reply 👏
I have the full Caran d'Ache set and have had no problem like you. One pencil was "faulty" in a way that it would break all the time when I sharpened it. They answered the email and offered to replace it. So no issues there. Looking forward to seeing one of your drawing made with these
I bought the Luminance Set a few years ago and they are great, but when I read the comments and see that they've got the same problems now, I don't think I will buy new ones. I think I would rather switch to Derwents Lightfast. To see how bad the pastell pencils are, it just unbelievable. Do they even have something like quality control? For that price I expect that they check every single pencil!
Thankfully i haven't invested in these pencils because i need my pencils to sharpen the regular way. I have Stabilo and Faber-Castell full sets, some conte and around 30 PanPastels. That's plenty for me.
Thank you for this video and feedback. I will only buy the flesh colors because I dont seem to find the same in other brands. Your swatches were very helpful ❤
Three years late to the party, I watched this video just after I had ordered the full big set in the wooden box (from Amazon Germany). I live in India and art supplies here are mostly extremely expensive, so I wanted to treat myself to this set that I had eyed for a while. So obviously I got VERY nervous watching this video. I made a swatch card once I got my hands on the pencils and to my relief they all seem to work fine 😅 Maybe they have worked on their quality or I just got lucky, I can't tell. I have to say though that some of the pencils have a really amazing texture, buttery soft, while some other colours are a little scratchy. Time will tell how they behave once I have to sharpen them.
I've got the same problem with some Carbothello, the dark blue too. And I've got the same problem with my Luminance, 4-5 pencils have like a rock inside and scratch the paper.... Caran d'ache was really reactive and send me remplacements but the replacements are scratchy too 😅 never get that in others sets even the cheapest one... 😢
I’m not surprised by it because some of my luminance browns were scratchy. Caran d ache told me when inquiring about the new luminance colors that they can’t guarantee their product is real when buying from amazon, which is where i got my pencils from. However i doubt i have a fake set. My pencils are still lovely though.
I'm new to this and I plan on purchasing a set of these pencils, I've also researched and watched videos about this problem that's present sometimes, I'm thinking that if and when I encounter this problem, I might just discard that particular pencil but not the entire brand. I have other sets already, but I haven't purchased this one yet.
Hello, from NZ, I was attempting to locate local suppliers of Caran d’ache pastel pencils when your review popped up. Most interesting and thank you for the information. I belong to a small group of pastel artists. I’ve been hoarding a very few Canan d’ache cubes, having been unsuccessful in locating more of them….thought these pencils may have been good alternative. You’ve got a new follower.
I sharpen them in my cranck handle swordfish. No problems. No problems with the pencils yet. Shocked by your review as they are very expensive! Thank you for this. Will try them in the shop first if i even want to buy more.
Thank you for this review. I agree with you that for the cost you shouldn’t have the faulty pencil and if it is the company should with no argument replace them
I've found these pencils work best when you have a couple of layers of pastel already on your paper. They're super buttery and blend beautifully, bu they need other pastel to grip on to.
I love my caran dache pastel pencils. Fantastic colours and lovely soft pastel. However, their customer service is rubbish. I hope you hear back. I've never had this problem with mine. I had one pencil snap in half. I contacted them but no reply.
My order of 17 individual Caran D'ache pastel pencils arrived this morning and two are faulty in the way you show. Interestingly, both are shades of green as you show. 232 - middle moss green and 017 light reseda. I'll update if and when I get a reply.
HELLO MR. JASON AND THIS MARINE GRUNT JUST WANT TO SAY THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS VIDEO AND GIVING US ARTISTS THE HEADS UP ABOUT THE CAREN D'ACHE PASTEL PENCILS BEFORE I SAW YOUR VIDEO I WAS GIVEN A GOOD REVIEW ABOUT THE CAREN D'ACHE PASTEL PENCILS SO THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THE HEADS UP MR. JASON
Hello all, I’ve had similar experiences with varies colors of different brands of pastel sticks as well and pastel pencil brands. Factors can be age,, heat/cold, humidity, and definitely a possibility of a production flaw on specific colors. Lastly, some pastels whether pencils or sticks, some brands work better or match better to specific pastel surfaces than others. I definitely have found that to be the case.
Thanks for the cautionary note. I tend to assume (dumb, I know) that higher price means higher quality. I think I'll try other brands you've reviewed, instead.
That IS surprising. Mine are very soft and buttery, But I bought singles not the set so I don’t know if that makes a difference.I’m sorry that you’ve had this experience. Let us know what CD says about it. It might be good if you let them know that you have a large following on your UA-cam channel and you’ve done a review that shows the problem. That might motivate them to do something about it!
Birdsong same with me! I’ve bought lots of these pencils during the last 3 years, and none of them had this issue, though I also bought singles... I am having a different issue with CD: there’s often a broken lead inside a pencil, and when I sharpen them, the leads just fall out:(((
Irina Artamonova ,I haven’t had those issues, but it’s been a while since I’ve bought any new ones. Sounds like they have a serious quality control problem. That’s too bad, because CD is my favorite brand in everything, the colors are so rich 😀
I have the set of 40 pastel pencils and i have the same problem with 10 of them: 033, 070, 089, 046, 060, 149, 229, 300, 571, 719. Some are bad and others are really bad. I got them on sale 2 years ago but it still pisses me off. The majority of the 30 other pencils ain't that buttery either
Thank you Jason for this, I am glad I haven't ordered any yet. The quality certainly doesn't reflect in the price. Even without the quality, they should never do this anyway. 😮🐯🧐🙀
There is the same issue with some of their darker Luminance pencils e.g. the Cassel Earth 046. Quite disappointed with Caran d'Ache. Also any of their pencils seem to dry out quite quickly and tend to get hard and scratchy, whereas the Polychromos perform beautifully even if they are over 30 years old. (I have got a box of older Supracolor Soft and they are by no means soft anymore). :(
Wow! I was keen to buy these as I love Caran D’ACHE coloured pencils and the water colour museum Aquarelle. I think I’ll just buy more Carbothellos to complete the set..
Thanks for showing this issue. I have a handful of their pastel pencils and cubes, purely for markmaking as I am no pastel artist by any means. They work fine and I also have no issues with my other Caran d ache products ( Luminance, Museum Aquarelle, Neocolor 1 + 2, Neopastel) but all were bought some time ago. I was thinking of adding some more colors to my collection, but it seems the best way is to buy open stock in a real store where you actually can try the ones you want to take home... But I am curious about your update, might want to invest elsewhere depending on their reaction!
Oh my god!!! I would be infuriated with those not working pencils. These are really expensive and i haven't bought this yet because of that. Thank you for the review.
Thank you so much this, I was on the verge of ordering a smaller set just to try out ,is their anyway we can find out their response, I've just had a problem with a sheet of Clairefontaine pastel mat ,there was a tiny mark the size of a pinhead ,contacted them ,they replied straight away asked for photos which I emailed ,they got straight back to me again with an apology and within 5 days I was sent a A3 pad plus some A4 sheets ,a fantastic response
Thank you very much for this review. I was thinking of buying the set with Christmas money, i am so glad i didn't buy them and i won't be buying them in the future either. Think i'll stick to my PITT, carbs and conte pencils. Once again thanks for reviewing them.
Wow! This is very disappointing. I’ve never purchased a whole set but have purchased several individually. I’ve never come across this issue, thank goodness, with these pencils and I do have the colors you had an issue with. However, I’ve come across this exact issue with a few Nupastels that are so bad I can’t use them at all, luckily those are cheap, but I’ve also come across this issue with my Sennelier soft pastel sticks which are not overly cheap. And just like you describe it, it’s like a grit type defect. Like I said before, very disappointing! Thank you for your post. Hopefully the company will try to rectify the issue ASAP!
I bought a large set of prisma color pencils for a large sum of money and was shocked by the quality. When sharpening the wood tore apart and the lead itself was broken throughout the pencils. I was told to try microwaving them but really for the price! Since I abandoned them I heard they switched factories and after the quality of them just went downhill. Maybe this is what happened here. They are trying to cut corners
This is incredible Jason!! I am using Caran d'ache and I love them but only with paper Canson Mi-teintes touch 350 grs and they work believe me! Please try this paper 😊😉
I have around 40 Caran D'Ache pastel pencils that I bought open stock and mine have no problems, I have the dark green and the golden ochre and they work well. I can't comment on the other colors because I don't have them. I think it's not the norm and I also think they will replace them, most of all if they see this video they can't deny the evidence, and it's in their best interest to sell good products. I am curious to know what they say
I have the Caran D'ache neopastel set and can't say I love it that much, the price was way too high and not worth the extra money when compared to the Mungyo artists extra soft oil pastels or Sennelier oil pastels, was going to try these but glad you have changed my mind, will stick to my Carbs and Derwent pastel pencils.
Normally there is only one intentional dummy color/entry in every set to protect from imitation. Prismacolor- Electric Blue Luminance 6901 - Terre Verte etc. But what you've found is too much and disappointing. If its on sale with good discount, then maybe i can ignore those 4. Beryl still looks pretty acceptable though.
I bought these but they came with instructions that explained that the sand paper is to remove the hard coating that can occur on some of the tips. So I presume this is because people have complained that some won’t draw. So it sounds like some of yours are faulty.
That’s shocking. So glad I found your YT channel and bought the Carbothello as a first set of pastels. I don’t think I’ll bother with the full set of CD’s especially after this review, I may get the odd colour and save myself a fortune. Thanks for all this info Jason 🙂
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You saved a lot of people a lot of money by this video!!! Thank you for this review.
I m not agree, I have this pencils, and they are perfect.
I have just bought them and these are great. I have no problems at all. I assume some sellers sell sets which were badly made and they resell it for the same price as good ones. I found that when you buy artistic materials om Amazon you have to be careful. Because of many bad reviews and my bad experience I do not buy art supplies on Amazon anymore.
Iam on my 8th set of the Caran D'ache 76 pastel pencils. I've only had a issue with 2 pencil out of all of those sets, and that was due to the shipper crushing the corner of my box. These pencils are always my main staple set , and they are absolutely EXCELLENT. They can't be beat and are a dream to work with. If you sell your art work, you are robbing yourself the opportunity to work with these pencils. They are buttery and soft, and more importantly... they are lightfast. Never go by another person's experience, because it will always be different. As a professional artist and Bookbinder myself, I literally own every full set of all the professional brands of pastel pencils, colored pencils and watercolor pencils ( literally ). The only brand I would say to stay away from... is Creta color. They are crumbley, hard, brittle and YOU CANT SHARPEN them without snapping them ( by hand and sharpener) always buy a few open stock and try them your self. I also love my Contè á Paris pastel pencils, but I don't think i have ever seen Jason use them, or even talk about them! They are always forgotten by everyone lol. Have a great day
@@danieljamesbinderystu2968 Great review..thanks so much for that!
@@artygracja2097hmm!...in agreement about art supplies from Amazon, 10x out of 10 they will be chinese knock-offs.
YIKES! I have a complete set and love them and have no problem whatsoever. Something is defective, for sure. All the best as you contact them.
i hope they reply to me - but luck is probably needed - they have never replied to me in the past :(
@@wildlifeartjm still no response? I think I'll give these a wide birth
Thank you for this review. I look forward to hearing how Caran D'Ache handles this!
Pppp
Pppp p
Twitter's the best place to complain. Get this going viral among the art community.
Thank you so much for posting this! I had the same thing happen to me, with the same colors. I contacted Caran D'Ache, with no response. Abolutely fraudulent to charge this much money for pencils that do not produce pigment. I thought it was just me, but now I know this is most likely widespread, and the company does not care about their customers.
Where did you purchase them from?
@@gemmachilds969 It’s been quite some time since I purchased them, however I believe it was Jackson’s art online.
@@kristiofca1 I'd let Jackson's know. In fact everyone who has these substandard products should contact their retailer. Jackson's are a big supplier so if they go back to the manufacturer they're more likely to take notice.
I have no problems with my set. In my opinion it was something with production or quality control and they sold bad product. But these are really good pencils.
Me too! Same problem!
I had the same issue with some greens and blues. They would not lay down no color what so ever. I was more than disappointed because it took me over two years to save for them. I would not recommend these pencils. Way over price because of this issue. I had 11 pencils that had this issue.
Thank you sharing this with us a Jason. The swatch cards you did is really useful, saving us from buying the whole. ☺️
Love my Caran Dache pastel pencils, never had this problem thankfully!
I’ve had the same issue with the luminance white, I bought a replacement but it had the same issue! For the price, it’s not good enough.
very sad
never had this issue, and i have both the 76 luminance set plus a bunch of the newer pigments bought separetely. i use their white a lot to blend, with other brands too, and none of their pencils, not even the white that i press hard on lol, have broken. handling by the shipping i guess?
definitely something happens with quality control at the factory. for the price of these pencils this is unacceptable.
I use faber castell pitt and I am very happy with them.
I had exactly the same issues with my set of 20 Luminance pencils! 3 of them had this issue. :/ I thought I was the only person on this world disappointed with a product by this brand! :o
There are 5 Luminance pencils known to have this problem and 7 Derwent Lightfast.
@@super60sand70s Yes.. Something like this shouldn't happen at such a high price point.
Both companies are aware of these problems and are working on figuring out whether it's a pigment issue or pencil construction issue.
@@super60sand70s Hey, that's good to know. I'll keep an eye on that, Thank you!
@@super60sand70s do you know which ones? The only one I found so far is the Luminance Castle Earth. I wonder which other ones ???
Yes, as said previously, you saved us a lot of money with this review. Thanks, Jason!
I've for a long time been quite annoyed and indignant with Caran d' Ache because of their rediculously overpriced products. I've purchased some of the luminance pencils and some other CDA-items, and I don't find any of them particularly impressive or way better than e.g. Faber Castell and the like. In addition, if Caran d' Ache customer service not even bother to reply, when you contact them to get help with a product problem, they are responsible for, that is really the top of arrogance, if you ask me.
Their outragous prices can definitely not be justified, as the quality of their products are only between fair to decent. Their customer service is a joke. So that's it. I'm never gonna buy any Caran d' Ache products ever again. That felt good to decide this. No need to spend time on them anymore. 😄
I was ready to tell you just buy Faber Castell, but you already mentined them! Faber Castell are the best pencils! Their lead holders TK 4600 and TK 9400 are also the best (in terms of performace). The only pencil that I would choose instead of a Faber Castell, are the Pentel mechanical pencils, especialy the GraphGear 500 and the legendary P205.
I have the full sets of both the Polychromous and the Luminance (*both bought one by one open stock) and can say that they are different. Both are amazing, they just behave differently. The Luminance are easier to blend (like really!) and impossible to smudge. The price tag in Bulgaria (*where I am) is twice as much for the Luminance. I was lucky to buy them before the prices went up and at a discount BUT even like that the price tag is quite, well, unpleasant. My wild guess is that they are this expensive because everything is ridiculously expensive in Switzerland...
The Polychromous, on the other hand, are amazing pencils (*really, amazing!!!) and are much more affordable PLUS they have 20 more colors in the full set. They are perfect for fine detailing or any details. The downside is that they are difficult to blend (*they blend, just with a liiitle bit of pressure).
ok ok, calm down. overpriced? sure. only fair to decent?. no. they are the best, you can go in blindly into their product lines and get the best quality. Do you propotionally pay more for it? sure. And as a sienote, polycromos/pitt pencils are not to be relied in regards to lightfastness (their charts aren't astm rated, and they have in fact been proven to be extremely unreliable. you have, for example, 27 three star polychromos that actually perform as a one star, dont believe me? check the in depth analysis made for years now on all brands by the color pencil society of america, and plenty of other artists)
I just got the 76 set today and all the pencils are nice and creamy. I paid special attention to the specific colors you had trouble with in this video. No issues on my end. I know it's 2 years since you posted this video, maybe they improved on their quality control.
I’m not surprised. Caran dache usually fixes any quality control issues fast.
This was so helpful Jason!! Also your comparative color swatches is a super idea. I will be doing that(making swatches) next week. Thank you!!😊
I love how diplomatic and polite you are in the face of such tremendous bullshit. I, for one, would be absolutely pissed while writing a long e-mail describing where everyone in Caran D'ache's factories could shove their pencils.
lol i have emailed them about the issue
@@wildlifeartjm Good luck with receiving a response.
You might try calling their customer service instead of just emailing - maybe you’ll have better luck. I’ve only this week tried these myself (only 4 pencils) and found them wonderfully creamy, but you obviously had a larger sample size! I’ll be looking for your file. That sounds incredibly helpful!
😱 this is shocking, thank you for sharing
I have a bought few open stock items from Caran D'Ache and was always unimpressed by them (from oil pastels, color pencils and watercolor pencils). They're not horrible, but I just don't get what do they offer better than other brands (like Derwent or Faber-Castell for example). And the prices are hideous. If you're going to ask that price, the pencils better work....that's kind of the minimum to ask.
I love my Pablos. They’re wonderful. The prices for them open stock from dickblick are completely reasonable. I look forward to buying their pastel pencils.
Thanks for this. Definately wont be buying these. Far to expensive for what they are. Love my carbothellos and think ill go for pitt pencils next.
I've had the same with some of their Luminance pencils. Very frustrating and not what you'd expect from them
Anyone who had this should inform the company i cant believe they wouldnt fix it!
Oh noooo! I was just about to purchase a set of luminance.....looking very forward to it in fact.....i am so sorry to hear this
The day Derwent increase their Drawing set color pallete by 100 is the day Luminance lose it's Market, I'm telling you. Specialy considering they already have their lightfast line. Jokes aside, Caran d'ache materials realy are expansive...
Thanks for your videos. Every time I see it you give me an inspiration to draw smthng with my pastels sets. Yes, review video too. Love you and your works
P.S. Sorry for my bad english
While I do have one harder pencil in my set, it still lays down color nicely, I just chalked it up to the pigment being different or something. I've always been impressed with the quality of their products, I hope customer service can resolve this. I've bought all my supplies at least two years ago and I haven't needed to rebuy anything. I hope their quality control hasn't been slipping! I'm willing to pay the high price if everything is fine and well, but as soon as even one piece of a set is unuseable, I can't justify the price anymore. It really would be a shame if quality dropped like it did with Prismacolor pencils....
Thanks so much for this video, Jason! No I know I am not the only one with this problem and don't feel so stupid anymore.
I bought a 20 pencil set a few months ago and had the same issue with a couple of pencils. No matter what I tried, I wasn't able to get rid of the gritty bits in the lead. I contacted Caran D'ache and learned that their customer service is not very good. They basically wanted to tell me that I was the one with the problem, not the pencils. Every person is different and what is 'buttery' for one person, might not be 'buttery' for another, I was told. I have quiet a few sets of different brands and these pencils are the worst. (Many are buttery, but a handful are very scratchy and useless).
As usual I didn't give up and kept emailing and requested replacements but they said the new ones will be the same. Instead they offered me a set of 20 Museum Aquarelle which I agreed to.
But it was very annoying to get to this point.
that is very disappointing from them - very poor :(
Are the Museum Aquarelle any good ?
@@damngirl9573 Yes they are fantastic! I was always very happy with the Caran D'ache products, until the experience with the pastel pencils.
This is a new issue I've noticed. I've been using them for a couple of years and had bought the 84 set and have not had issues. I love my set because they're soft. I recently bought a black replacement and have the same issue. I can't lay any pastel down. I wonder if they're having them made through a new factory?
I really like your swatch idea for all the sets
Thank you so much for a very honest review!
Thanks for pointing out these problems.
Ive had this issue with the luminance white, im so stupid i thought it was me not putting the glassine over the paper enough & i had contaminated the pastlemat somehow. I then thought it was because the brown pastlemat doesnt work well with them but never thought too much about it until now. I usually swap with the caran dache pablo white & just carry on! Thanks for the heads up as I will now go back to the shop & tell them with any future pencils.
Wow. Yes. That is terrible. Thanks for letting us know. As Roscoe mentioned, it will be interesting to hear the response you receive from them. Thank you so much for posting this. :)
I had the same problem with several of the luminance colored pencils. Even replacements I was sent had the same problem. Also, several of my colors are very hard, not soft like any other colored pencils I have used.
Thank you so much for posting this. I was planning to lay aside money to buy this so I'm very happy I saw this video.
Thank you for this video. I have a very small set of the pastel pencils, Generals, and wanted to get a bigger set. Your reviews are always on the top. One would think that the name Caran d’Ache would be the Holy Grail of pastel pencils....I believe I will get the Stabilos from your positive review of them.
Gosh, that really is a problem. I am getting mine out tomorrow to check them all! Mine a quiet new so will do a colour chart at the same time. Thanks Jason. Hope they reply 👏
Did you have the same problem?
Pleased for me that all my pencils are fine & working beautifully.So I am lucky.
Wow! I was just getting ready to purchase these pastels but wanted to check out the reviews first! I hope they made good on your expensive purchase!
Shocking quality control, no doubt about it. That would be unacceptable even in the cheapest brands.
I have the full Caran d'Ache set and have had no problem like you. One pencil was "faulty" in a way that it would break all the time when I sharpened it. They answered the email and offered to replace it. So no issues there. Looking forward to seeing one of your drawing made with these
Glad I saw this video. Saw a couple of other videos that were loving them, but didn't mention anything like that.
That was extremely helpful thank you ☺️
I bought the Luminance Set a few years ago and they are great, but when I read the comments and see that they've got the same problems now, I don't think I will buy new ones. I think I would rather switch to Derwents Lightfast.
To see how bad the pastell pencils are, it just unbelievable. Do they even have something like quality control? For that price I expect that they check every single pencil!
Derwent'S customer service is much better, too! (Although if you want some pencils and lightfastness isn't an issue, Castle Arts are brilliant!)
This blows my mind, 5 or 6 pencils?!! That is like almost 10% of the pencils-
Thankfully i haven't invested in these pencils because i need my pencils to sharpen the regular way. I have Stabilo and Faber-Castell full sets, some conte and around 30 PanPastels. That's plenty for me.
Thank you for this video and feedback. I will only buy the flesh colors because I dont seem to find the same in other brands. Your swatches were very helpful ❤
Three years late to the party, I watched this video just after I had ordered the full big set in the wooden box (from Amazon Germany). I live in India and art supplies here are mostly extremely expensive, so I wanted to treat myself to this set that I had eyed for a while. So obviously I got VERY nervous watching this video. I made a swatch card once I got my hands on the pencils and to my relief they all seem to work fine 😅 Maybe they have worked on their quality or I just got lucky, I can't tell. I have to say though that some of the pencils have a really amazing texture, buttery soft, while some other colours are a little scratchy. Time will tell how they behave once I have to sharpen them.
I've got the same problem with some Carbothello, the dark blue too.
And I've got the same problem with my Luminance, 4-5 pencils have like a rock inside and scratch the paper.... Caran d'ache was really reactive and send me remplacements but the replacements are scratchy too 😅 never get that in others sets even the cheapest one... 😢
Thank you SO MUCH for this honest review. You're the best.
WOW. This is unacceptable. Caran D’Ache needs to make this right and send you a complete new set ASAP.
I’m not surprised by it because some of my luminance browns were scratchy. Caran d ache told me when inquiring about the new luminance colors that they can’t guarantee their product is real when buying from amazon, which is where i got my pencils from. However i doubt i have a fake set. My pencils are still lovely though.
I have had some problems with my set of Luminance pencils, very disappointing
They might have changed the manufactor OR changed to cheaper products to make the pencils... (not that they would tells us that, though).
The beautiful packaging means nothing when the pencils don’t work and the price should reflect the quality
so glad i found this video dont think i will be getting caran dache pencils
Thanks for the time you spend for us, Great stuff as always,
I had this problem with one Stabilo Carbothello pastel pencil. I was given the runaround with absolutely no help at all.
I have the similar issue with my nr.390 carbothello pencil. It feels scratchy and is difficult to layer
Apparently it can happen with ANY pencil. It’s certainly not brand specific.
I'm new to this and I plan on purchasing a set of these pencils, I've also researched and watched videos about this problem that's present sometimes, I'm thinking that if and when I encounter this problem, I might just discard that particular pencil but not the entire brand.
I have other sets already, but I haven't purchased this one yet.
Hello, from NZ, I was attempting to locate local suppliers of Caran d’ache pastel pencils when your review popped up. Most interesting and thank you for the information. I belong to a small group of pastel artists. I’ve been hoarding a very few Canan d’ache cubes, having been unsuccessful in locating more of them….thought these pencils may have been good alternative. You’ve got a new follower.
You are the ‘original’ YT pastelist! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I sharpen them in my cranck handle swordfish. No problems.
No problems with the pencils yet. Shocked by your review as they are very expensive! Thank you for this. Will try them in the shop first if i even want to buy more.
Thank you for this review. I agree with you that for the cost you shouldn’t have the faulty pencil and if it is the company should with no argument replace them
Thanks a lot for the honest review! I hope the Caran d'Ache will resend these pencils to you.
Thanks for your honest video, really appreciate you. I think I’ll start my pastel pencil journey with a different brand.
I wonder if they are made in China.
who knows.
I've found these pencils work best when you have a couple of layers of pastel already on your paper. They're super buttery and blend beautifully, bu they need other pastel to grip on to.
I love my caran dache pastel pencils. Fantastic colours and lovely soft pastel. However, their customer service is rubbish. I hope you hear back. I've never had this problem with mine. I had one pencil snap in half. I contacted them but no reply.
yes customer service is VERY poor.
My order of 17 individual Caran D'ache pastel pencils arrived this morning and two are faulty in the way you show. Interestingly, both are shades of green as you show. 232 - middle moss green and 017 light reseda. I'll update if and when I get a reply.
This is very informative. Can you share the gritty color numbers and the colors that are unique to Caran d Ache?
I’m glad I’ve seen this. I was considering buying a set. Not now.
Wow. Great review. Do let us know what Catania D’Ache says... or doesn’t say!
Dang spell check!
@@Rjbcrone i will IF they reply ;)
Jason Morgan - Wildlife Art do you not expect them to reply? I would think a company selling pencils for as expensive as they do would reply
@@loveskating4eva they have never replied to me before
HELLO MR. JASON AND THIS MARINE GRUNT JUST WANT TO SAY THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS VIDEO AND GIVING US ARTISTS THE HEADS UP ABOUT THE CAREN D'ACHE PASTEL PENCILS BEFORE I SAW YOUR VIDEO I WAS GIVEN A GOOD REVIEW ABOUT THE CAREN D'ACHE PASTEL PENCILS SO THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THE HEADS UP MR. JASON
Hello all, I’ve had similar experiences with varies colors of different brands of pastel sticks as well and pastel pencil brands. Factors can be age,, heat/cold, humidity, and definitely a possibility of a production flaw on specific colors. Lastly, some pastels whether pencils or sticks, some brands work better or match better to specific pastel surfaces than others.
I definitely have found that to be the case.
Thanks for the cautionary note. I tend to assume (dumb, I know) that higher price means higher quality. I think I'll try other brands you've reviewed, instead.
That IS surprising. Mine are very soft and buttery, But I bought singles not the set so I don’t know if that makes a difference.I’m sorry that you’ve had this experience. Let us know what CD says about it. It might be good if you let them know that you have a large following on your UA-cam channel and you’ve done a review that shows the problem. That might motivate them to do something about it!
Birdsong same with me! I’ve bought lots of these pencils during the last 3 years, and none of them had this issue, though I also bought singles... I am having a different issue with CD: there’s often a broken lead inside a pencil, and when I sharpen them, the leads just fall out:(((
Irina Artamonova ,I haven’t had those issues, but it’s been a while since I’ve bought any new ones. Sounds like they have a serious quality control problem. That’s too bad, because CD is my favorite brand in everything, the colors are so rich 😀
I have the set of 40 pastel pencils and i have the same problem with 10 of them: 033, 070, 089, 046, 060, 149, 229, 300, 571, 719. Some are bad and others are really bad. I got them on sale 2 years ago but it still pisses me off. The majority of the 30 other pencils ain't that buttery either
Thank you Jason for this, I am glad I haven't ordered any yet. The quality certainly doesn't reflect in the price. Even without the quality, they should never do this anyway. 😮🐯🧐🙀
There is the same issue with some of their darker Luminance pencils e.g. the Cassel Earth 046. Quite disappointed with Caran d'Ache. Also any of their pencils seem to dry out quite quickly and tend to get hard and scratchy, whereas the Polychromos perform beautifully even if they are over 30 years old. (I have got a box of older Supracolor Soft and they are by no means soft anymore). :(
Same experience. 046 is really bad!
Wow! I was keen to buy these as I love Caran D’ACHE coloured pencils and the water colour museum Aquarelle.
I think I’ll just buy more Carbothellos to complete the set..
Wow. Thank you!
I have these pencils and they are the best!!! Nothing compares to!
How bizarre...I once had Derwent metallics years ago that did this...they exchanged then but I wasn’t impressed...let us know what they say...🥰
I sharpened down several down to the very bottom of the pencil. They still do not lay any color.
very disappointing :(
Thanks for showing this issue.
I have a handful of their pastel pencils and cubes, purely for markmaking as I am no pastel artist by any means. They work fine and I also have no issues with my other Caran d ache products ( Luminance, Museum Aquarelle, Neocolor 1 + 2, Neopastel) but all were bought some time ago.
I was thinking of adding some more colors to my collection, but it seems the best way is to buy open stock in a real store where you actually can try the ones you want to take home...
But I am curious about your update, might want to invest elsewhere depending on their reaction!
Oh my god!!! I would be infuriated with those not working pencils. These are really expensive and i haven't bought this yet because of that. Thank you for the review.
Thank you so much this, I was on the verge of ordering a smaller set just to try out ,is their anyway we can find out their response, I've just had a problem with a sheet of Clairefontaine pastel mat ,there was a tiny mark the size of a pinhead ,contacted them ,they replied straight away asked for photos which I emailed ,they got straight back to me again with an apology and within 5 days I was sent a A3 pad plus some A4 sheets ,a fantastic response
I own a set for a couple of years and no problems here. Hope they will replace them they are the most expensive pencils on the market right now.
I had the exact same issue with my full set. About 8 of them had this issue. Just bizarre for the price and supposed quality!
yes i am not impressed
I would contact Caran d‘ache first. I would wonder if they don’t react, it’s a premium brand!
Thanks for this review, very informative - hope they resolve your situation
Thank you very much for this review. I was thinking of buying the set with Christmas money, i am so glad i didn't buy them and i won't be buying them in the future either. Think i'll stick to my PITT, carbs and conte pencils.
Once again thanks for reviewing them.
Wow! This is very disappointing. I’ve never purchased a whole set but have purchased several individually. I’ve never come across this issue, thank goodness, with these pencils and I do have the colors you had an issue with. However, I’ve come across this exact issue with a few Nupastels that are so bad I can’t use them at all, luckily those are cheap, but I’ve also come across this issue with my Sennelier soft pastel sticks which are not overly cheap. And just like you describe it, it’s like a grit type defect. Like I said before, very disappointing! Thank you for your post. Hopefully the company will try to rectify the issue ASAP!
Kum Double sharpner works great. Than called Faber Castle they sent me a double sharpner it works great.
That’s outrageous I purchased a luminance white that was just the same
I bought a large set of prisma color pencils for a large sum of money and was shocked by the quality. When sharpening the wood tore apart and the lead itself was broken throughout the pencils. I was told to try microwaving them but really for the price! Since I abandoned them I heard they switched factories and after the quality of them just went downhill. Maybe this is what happened here. They are trying to cut corners
Very informative.
This is incredible Jason!! I am using Caran d'ache and I love them but only with paper Canson Mi-teintes touch 350 grs and they work believe me! Please try this paper 😊😉
I have around 40 Caran D'Ache pastel pencils that I bought open stock and mine have no problems, I have the dark green and the golden ochre and they work well. I can't comment on the other colors because I don't have them. I think it's not the norm and I also think they will replace them, most of all if they see this video they can't deny the evidence, and it's in their best interest to sell good products. I am curious to know what they say
I have the Caran D'ache neopastel set and can't say I love it that much, the price was way too high and not worth the extra money when compared to the Mungyo artists extra soft oil pastels or Sennelier oil pastels, was going to try these but glad you have changed my mind, will stick to my Carbs and Derwent pastel pencils.
I’ve had the same thing with Luminance and Neocolor i.
Shocking how bad these were and I had them in my wishlist! Thanks for the heads up
Normally there is only one intentional dummy color/entry in every set to protect from imitation.
Prismacolor- Electric Blue
Luminance 6901 - Terre Verte
etc.
But what you've found is too much and disappointing.
If its on sale with good discount, then maybe i can ignore those 4. Beryl still looks pretty acceptable though.
I’ve had the same issue with a few pastel pencils too but with different colours.
I bought these but they came with instructions that explained that the sand paper is to remove the hard coating that can occur on some of the tips. So I presume this is because people have complained that some won’t draw. So it sounds like some of yours are faulty.
That’s shocking. So glad I found your YT channel and bought the Carbothello as a first set of pastels. I don’t think I’ll bother with the full set of CD’s especially after this review, I may get the odd colour and save myself a fortune. Thanks for all this info Jason 🙂