Paul Rubens Oil Pastels 72 Floral Colors

I'd never heard of this brand before stumbling across it on Amazon and I decided to give them a go after noticing in the photos that the pigments and lightfastness rating are clearly written on each stick - something usually reserved for a high grade oil pastel at least twice the price of these. I expected to be disappointed but instead I'm absolutely blown away! They're near the Senneliers in terms of their soft creamy texture, definitely softer than Neopastels. These oil pastels lay on almost like paint in rich, thick, lush strokes. They mix with and cover each other beautifully. The sticks are huge! I've only tried these out in one painting on Clairefontaine Paint-On Natural paper so far, but I have no doubt that they'll perform just as well on Pastelmat or similar. The attached image shows a section of the painting (about 2 inches by 1 inch in size) to show how paint-like the application is. The darker blue covered the light turquoise oil pastel undercoat without needing scraping off or setting up over night, it just laid right on top. UPDATE 2020-01-17 I've just popped back on to say that I have now completed nine paintings with these oil pastels and, hands down, these are the best oil pastels I've ever used. The different sticks have slightly different characteristics, as provided by the pigments used in them. They're not lipstick-greasy like the Senneliers, just soft and painterly. They cover each other with no problems, just laying down right on top of whatever you colour you put down first. They also harden quite a lot overnight. Apart from a few colours missing from the set, like some greys and darks, I can't see myself buying any other brand in future.

Sent this set back but only because I didn’t realise there are no new colours it’s just a curated set. As oil pastels go these are my favourite brand even over my expensive big brands so creamy and easy to work with. Easy to blend and lay down smoothly. I will say not all colours are up to the same standard a couple are almost gloppy and it took real effort to make them work and blend but most colours just lay down easily.

Great texture and rich colour - however a few of them are much more oily than the rest

These are very very good and a bargain . White gets used up very quickly when working in oil pastel.

This is my first time using oil pastels, so I don't really have anything to compare them to, but this seems to be a really lovely set! So soft and smooth to use, and seem easy to blend too. The colours are lovely pastel tones, but still vibrant. At first glance the colours seem kinda similar, but there's a really nice balance of cool and warm tones in each shade. I don't have pastel paper yet, but I couldn't resist doing a quick scribbly Swatch - in the pictures I've just used grey and black mixed media paper and they went on lovely! There's also 3 whites in the macaron set which is helpful - you always need more white! I would recommend and am excited to use these more!

The pastels are beautiful and creamy and this is a great colour selection. I bought them for myself. However if you are buying for someone else, BE AWARE. The box was pretty obviously bashed up BEFORE Amazon packed it, as the Amazon packaging was not damaged and would have been unacceptable as a present.

Good pastels really soft

These pastel are rich in colour, smooth to use & nicely blend able, not to forget the gold stick, beautiful, shame, no silver soft pastel though! That's fine, however, will buy another box soon. Thank you so very much. Great product .

Des couleurs riches en pigments une couvrance extraordinaire !! Je recommande vivement

Excellent product. Especially for highlights.

Correspond à la description. Pour moi très bon produit

😮‍💨Les couleurs ne sont pas les couleurs du papier autour du bâton qui sont dans la boîte ( cest assez trompeur lorsque on l'utilise) Le tapis dans lequel sont les bâton est trop juste car petits bout de tapis coller sur le bâton pas terrible. Certains sont sale a l'intérieur du pastel . Jai trouver dans plusieurs bâtons de morceaux de cailloux /pierre qui a griffer mon œuvre . Ils sont pas tous au même niveau couleurs intenses + pas tous la meme qualité/quantité d'huile iu de cire. Cest vraiment embêtant a se niveau la . Il faut les utiliser plusieurs fois pour comprendre leurs compétences+leurs comportement de chacuns . Je ne les trouve pas tellement intuitif . Certains bâton étaient emballé comme si il fallait se dépêcher de les mettre dedans , les étiquettes qui emballé le bâton étaient pas soignée 🤩En ultra positif : ils sèche très vite a condition de le /les lissés aux doigts / ou avec un tampons. J'aime cet empattement que l'on peu réaliser avec tres facilement ( attention avec seulement certaines couleurs). QUE certaines couleurs sont vraiment vives, La pigmentation est bien chouette , Dommage que la boîte entière ne le soit pas . Côté couleurs /colorimétrie c'est agréable .

The colors are great, and have a decent pacity, they are super super soft, softer than lipstick, don't layer well due to softness