Story & Swatch of Charvin Watercolor from Paris, mini Haul difficulty 

I am an amateur sketcher so I am not in position to judge about the quality of their paints. But I have experiences with all kind of brands: from W&N, van Gogh, Rembrandt, Schmincke, Holbein, Daniel Smith, etc.which makes me -again- not an expert, but I'm not totally novice neither. I bought the 48 half pan water color palette with extra room in the middle for my brushes. I saw them on Amazon but contacted them first. I'm not French but I live in France more than half of my life, so communication in french is not a problem at all. First of all I wanted to know if my favorite, one and only, golden Sailor Demonstrator Fountain pen size L could be in the middle of it, as it is quite thick in the middle. I had a lovely lady who was very friendly and told me that the fountain pen was not going to fit in so I decided not to buy it. But after one week, still thinking of this gorgeous palette, and the first one which has this extra space for brushes, pens etc. I decided to order it. The woman explained me that their paints are so expensive because they don't cook them but all paints are dried naturally (I don't know if that is a good argument or not) and within 2 days!! I already received the palette. We even had a little chat about my foodtruck business which had nothing to deal with the purchase. On the back of the pans there is information to find about the color and the pigments and my palette is quite heavy, 1kg so no travel palette at all and I have some of them but it is since one week now, I carry it with me everywhere cause I just want to paint only with these paints. And guess what?? My fountain pen fits perfectly in, also with some other materials. And the paint: They are quite surprising: some of them are very transparent, some of them so opaque, they act like gouache and others with a metallic shimmer in it. They are creamy but I can imagine that some transparent onces might be a bit deceiving as the lack of pigment maybe. But for me personally I am in love with it and with the palette itself. And if you have problems, (also to you readers), do not hesitate to ask me to translate for you. I do it with pleasure!

Re: the extra money charged, do you know if you were charged in USD or EUR? I don't know how it works with US credit cards, but whenever I (in Sweden, paying with a debit card) buy in a foreign currency I'll get an extra charge from my bank for the conversion. It's the main way I'll get unexpected extra charges for an international purchase these days (it used to be hit and miss if a package would be stopped in customs for an additional 25% VAT, that was always a fun little lottery 😅). As for the paints, idk, they look fine, I guess? I feel like they look a bit gummy when you first painted them out, but they dried down well enough... I don't think they're for me, but hopefully they'll serve you well! The colour selection isn't the worst I've seen, but it doesn't feel like a great standalone palette. Though I guess you've got some reds, yellows, and blues - it might be interesting to use it a challenge for a kind of limited palette (basically painting without a proper red).

It’s Jerry’s. I met the owner in Nice. Very nice man. His paints may eventually be in the states but first certain regulations need to be met as he stated for example each pan needs to be individually wrapped. As of now when you go to his store the open stock paints are not wrapped.

I can really understand you well - the colour choice for a palette is kind of weird and you could expect a more careful wrapping! Thank you for sharing your experience!

thanks for making this video! i've been curious to try their gouache but i'm a bit leery of ordering from their website now...

Thanks for this.. The palette looks lovely, but that's a lot of trouble for such a small order! What kind & size of tape do you use? There's so many choices!

Gosh that is expensive! Poor you! I only order stuff from Jackson's (I am in the U.K.) because I know where I am with their packaging - which is excellent - but thanks for showing us !

I've been looking at their acrylics at Jerry's and they do have some interesting color palettes.

What an odd selection of colours! I'm sorry you had so many issues. I can't believe they shipped everything loose like that. I would have a hard time not complaining about it to them, especially since the sketchbook was damaged, but seems like they wouldn't care too much anyway. At least your palette wasn't damaged, I guess. I hope they refund you on the overcharge.

I think because these paints are from France and are expensive, we have kind of been conditioned to think they’ve got to be a much higher quality and really soooo special, than they actually are. Oh well…live and learn.😮

Hi Tabitha, I live in Australia and have just received my Charvin 48 -n1/2 pan set, which I had to take a mortgage out from the bank 😉 to buy even though they were on sale. I totally AGREE with everything you've relayed in your video! I purchased from the only importer of Charvin in Australia which is the art store I purchased these paints. My experience has been the EXACTLY same...No info, no reference to Charvin Paints background, the company, Just the pan tin with Charvin Paris 1830 stamped and linen cover! No box or protective covering around the tin. It's UNBELIEVABLE! When looking at the paints online, I noticed there was no ref. to colour names/numbers referencing what colours and yes, just a photo of the box of paints! I went ahead and bought seeing a few videos with ref. to colour names/numbers swatching and feedback videos, so I felt reassured. I'm kicking myself why I didn't enquire at the time! When they arrived, I opened the tin, there is NOTHING to reference each colour/or number even on the bottom of the pan!!!! I was pretty pissed and emailed the store, and they told me, they agreed with me, and had other purchasers complain also. Charvin was notified of this problem and told the importer in Australia/store that in the middle of the year they would be rectifying this problem, and then I would be forwarded this information. Seriously, this to me is not GOOD enough, especially for the small fortune I spent on the paints. The paints are beautiful but for art sake this company has no idea what they are doing.

Where did u order from?

I’ve actually seen a fair number of negative reviews for Charvin watercolours. They are poorly pigmented and do not move well. They are so expensive for mid quality paint.

These paints seem to dry very patchy, not nice and even like the other well known brands. Personally i really don't like the look of them, but thanks for trying them as at least i know their not for me. Im sorry you had so much difficulty, i would definitely expect better packaging for the price and would definitely be let down if id received this like that. The information was very good though its just a shame they don't really have such high standards. Wishing you the best 😊

Jerry’s sells beautiful sets of acrylics….even though I seldom use acrylics I ordered a set….they are gorgeous. I think the watercolor was an afterthought for this company.

These look and seem like student grade...if not kids grade.....?

Customs most likely opened it!

I had a look on their website as I have known this brand for decades. Your set of colours does not seem to be there, and there seem to be some substitutions. It is more the kind of shop you would go to to buy direct, rather than make a web order from, maybe they have other selections in house. I think they are a particular style of watercolour rather than anything else, so the look and feel different.