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
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.
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
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?
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.
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...
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.
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!
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
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.
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. :)
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?
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....
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)
J'ai acheté un seul crayon blanc de cette marque et c'est pareil ,j'aurai commandé un simple crayon de couleur ça aurait été mieux Caran D'ache a éviter II
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.
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.
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 contact the company carandache for luminance off center and damages, and 0 customer services, they will not take responce for those damage, claiming that Amazon can open the boxes and mix them, creating a perfect box set, and sell the rests, or something like that stupidty, just stupid how carandache a luxery price point has a bargain customer service. Plz like to be hear
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 ❤
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.
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). :(
I am horrified to see how these very expensive pencils perform!!! I have the carb othellos and bought the Koh-I-Noor after your video both of which I am very happy with (I already had the Koh-I-Noor polycolor pencils and the mondeluz watercolor pencils and they are also excellent especially for the price) and am planning on getting the Pitt pencils in the future, I will give these a large pass!!! Most artists are not professionals and need to put money aside to afford supplies so to have one that is SO expensive fail this badly is awful. Not to mention the lack of customer service here!!! For a company that is supposed to have the best art supplies on the planet I am not impressed by the lack of customer service especially towards a professional artist with such a wide following on RU-vid... not good business practice for sure!!!
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 👏
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 RU-vid 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 😀
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.
I bought Luminance in an art store too, however some colors had the same grit in them. Ordered replacements with another store, not much better. I doubt they all sell copies. Hopefully this is temporary
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 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!
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.
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.
Where did you buy these from? I think the note abut marketing probably refers to them changing the look of the product. Seemed like some had wood barrels and some had white barrels, that would bug me I'd want a matched set. I hope they aren't counterfeit.
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
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! 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!
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 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!
Hi. Hope you see this message. I want to buy a few of these cause I cant afford the whole set.... I have 2 questions if u are so kind... First, after seeing that horrible Night Blue, is there an alternative DARK blue on this set?! And second, what is the difference between the Chinese White and Azurite White? Which one is opaque? Thank you so much for your help.
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 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.
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.
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.
This is so disappointing. Guess the store wouldn’t give you a refund? The retailer wouldn’t want other customers to experience this. Plus the retailer would have more clout with Caren d’Ache.
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.
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 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 😊😉
what a big disappointment. Scatchy Pencils are a nightmare. I had a set of Conte that I throw in the trash cause every pencil has this scatchiness. Hated that. I never wound buy the Caran ache because of that. The Pit are far more consistent....
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 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.
Jason, try emailing the US distributor, he reports directly to Caran D’ache corporate in Switzerland, they should replace your faulty pencils at the very least, they can do that at their own discretion, if they want to maintain their reputation as professional artist grade brand of pencils they need to be prepared to back their product when issues like this arise. Please keep us Posted!
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. 😮🐯🧐🙀
