Astra Pastelowe Colored Pencils and Holbein 50 Set Of Pastel Tone Colored Pencils

In this review I will be mostly talking a look at the Pastelowe Colored Pencils, but also comparing the 50 set of Holbein Pastel Tone Colored Pencils. In the past six or seven months, the colored pencil community has been, pleasantly bombarded with pastel toned colored pencil sets. On their own, pastel tone colored pencil sets are fairly limited, but in addition to a secondary traditional set of colored pencils they are incredibly helpful.

What I want to look at in this review is the cost between the Holbein 50 set of pastel toned colored pencils and the 50 set of Astra Pastelowe and whether or not settling for the less expensive Pastelowe Colored Pencils is a wise decision to make, but first lets take a look at the performance and characteristics of the much more inexpensive Astra Pastelowe Colored Pencils.

I have to first of all mention before getting stuck into the review that the Pastelowe Pencils where actually sent to me by one of the wonderful subscribers of the channel, this wonderful person loved the pencils so much and wanted me to review them that a donation was made for me to purchase them. I would like to publicly thank this person, they know who they are. I would also on this note like to say that I am so incredibly fortunate to have so many wonderful friends on the channel who have made donations throughout the years and every penny donated goes back into the channel and providing as much content as I can.

Astra Pastelowe Colored Pencil Characteristics

We will get into the pricing later in the review, but let me just start by stating that regardless of the fact we will be comparing the Pastelowe with the Holbein 50 Pastel Set, against any 50 set of colored pencils the Pastelowe are incredibly inexpensive.

The Pastelowe core is actually quite a hefty girth for an inexpensive colored pencil weighing in with a whopping 4.3mm core, cores this size are normally reserved for the more expensive pencils. This generous cores is housed within a relatively speaking slim 7.7mm core, meaning that the Pastelowe is all core and very little wood barrel.

Each barrel is lacquered the same color as the core, helping to make visual identification quick and easy. Printed in very clear and easy to read white print along the barrel we start with “Pastel” obviously referring to the fact that the colors are all pastel tones and not actual pastel pencils which are a completely different medium. Next we have printed “Colored Pencil” this is closely followed but a circular icon and finally finishing of with “Astra CE”

There is nothing on the barrel or packaging to indicate the actual name of the pigment; I have spoke before about how frustrating this can be, even when the artist create a swatch with the pencils, unless the pencils are placed back into the box in exactly the same order as the swatch is created, you are going to have to create your own swatch every time you use the pencils. However, not only this, there are quite a few people who suffer with color blindness and having a pigment name or reference is helpful to them.

Pastelowe Colored Pencil Performance

The Astra Pastelowe Colored Pencils, again when you consider the price, are exceptional colored pencils for the cost. The Pastelowe Core layers beautifully, using a light hand and only allowing the weight of the pencil to touch the paper, I have provided the results of a layer test.

In this test you can see that each column provides a layer, from 1 to 5 and the final column displayed a single heavy application, the paper used for this test was Strathmore Bristol Velum, quite a smooth paper but a little bit of tooth.

I didn’t provide the usual blending test because the blending test shows how two colors can generate a third, with pastel tones this is a difficult test to accurately display. Ordinarily I would use a yellow and blue to create a green and this test would help the viewer or reader to determine the pencils ability, but with the pastel tones this is so much more difficult to accomplish.

If you imagine Prismacolor as the softest core pencil on the market and the Derwent Artist as the hardest core on the market, with zero representing Prismacolor on the scale and 10 representing the Derwent Artist, I would place the Pastelowe at 3 on the scale, indicating a relatively soft core.

Despite the Pastelowe core rating a 3 on the scale regarding the softness of the core, I found the core a little drier than say the Prismacolor, which for a lot of artists is a good thing. When testing the Pastelowe core I didn’t experience any gritty texture no matter what paper I tested.

This is a made up scale by me to help you visualise how hard or soft a core may be in my opinion. This is not factual

With the exception of one pencil, all 49 Pastelowe Colored Pencils sharpened beautifully, the one that didn’t as you can see from the image repeatedly nicked the wood close to the core. I am sure that the more this pencil is sharpened the more this will disappear, I think this is just a simple case of a knot in the wood casing on this particular pencil.

You can see from the images provided, I added both the Pastelowe and Holbein Pastel Toned Colored Pencils on both Black and Toned Tan paper, I have said before this test does not really define if the pencil is good or bad, but it can help you to determine how opaque or translucent the core is.

On both tests, I think it is clear to see that the Holbein Colored Pencils are much more opaque when it comes to the darker papers, the Pastelowe are definitely a lot more translucent, simply meaning that the darker paper can still be seen through the layer of pencil used.

Pastelowe Set Size and Pricing

The Pastelowe Colored Pencils only come in the set of 50, I tried reaching out to the company to find out if they in fact do smaller sets or plans to produce a smaller set, but I was unable to get a response. However, regardless of other set sizes, the 50 set is of huge importance for this particular article given that they line up perfectly with the Holbein 50 Set of Pastel Tone Colored Pencils for a comparison review.

With regards to the Pastelowe Colored Pencils, this is one set of pencils were it really is important to shop about. This one set of pencils can range from £12.99 to £37.60, also, they are not always easy to locate, at least here in the UK they can be quite illusive and may require quite a bit of tracking down, however, what with the state of the world today, that appears to be the case with so many items.

At the time or writing this post I was unable to locate a set of the Astra Pastelowe colored Pencils on Amazon US, UK or EU, however as always I will update the site as and when the product becomes available.

Pastelowe 50 Set V Holbein 50 Set of Pastel Tone Colored Pencils

There is no doubt that the Holbein Colored Pencils are of a superior quality to the Pastelowe, but that is to be expected given the huge cost difference, but what I want to look at in this article is, are the Pastelowe a good budget alternative to the Holbein 50 set of Pastel Tone Colored Pencils. Before you make up your mind, let me lay out a few facts, you can also check out my YouTube video on this matter which can at times add an extra dimension to the over all review.

I will also provide a link to my Holbein Livestream video I completed where I showcase the entire 150 colors and in the livestream I talk about the lightfast issues surrounding the Holbein. As I mentioned, this is not an apples for apples comparison, this is simply me laying out two 50 sets of pastel tone colored pencils, one hugely expensive and the other very budget friendly, laying out the facts to see if you would be just as happy with the budget set over the expensive set.

50 Set Holbein Pastel Tone Colored Pencils

Before getting into some of the finer details I have laid out the palette for both the 50 set of Pastelowe Colored Pencils and the 50 set of Holbein Pastel Tone Colored Pencils. Ordinarily the palette can be the deciding factor to a colored pencil artist when choosing a set of colored pencils, but it is worth remembering that these pastel tone sets of colored pencils are mainly to be added as complementary sets to your current selection of pencils.

50 Holbein Pastel Tone Colored Pencil Swatch

As you can also see I have provided swatches of both sets on some Strathmore Bristol Velum paper, this is a relatively smooth paper but there is a little bit of tooth on the surface making Velum a good choice paper for colored pencil artists. You will notice from the images supplied of the actual pencils in the sets and the swatch provided, that among the 50 set of Pastel Tone Holbein Colored Pencils there are six luminous colors, essentially this means there are 44 Pastel Tones in the Holbein set.

Pastelowe and Holbein Cores

Obviously I have spoke a little bit about the core sizes at the beginning of this article, but how both cores feel to me may help you decide, now it is important to understand this is just my interpretation of the cores and you may find them different depending on how you hold your pencils.

Both the Pastelowe and Holbein cores felt smooth and silk like on the Velum paper I tested them on, I didn’t get any gritty texture from either pencils and this is important because sometimes in cheaper pencils, where more binding agents have been used than pigments etc, you can find the core a little scratchy or gritty and this was not the case in either pencil.

Both cores layered really well and as you can see from the Black and Tan paper testes, both cores offer bright a vibrant colors on such paper. In my opinion the Holbein is a little bit more opaque than the Pastelowe, but both pencils perform better than most in this test.

Adult Colouring Book Test

When I was testing the Pastelowe Colored Pencils I immediately thought they would be a wonderful pencil for adult colouring book artists and although this test is not an exact science given the wide array of colouring books, but I tested on a few and the Pastelowe performed beautifully.

I mention the Pastelowe on adult colouring books because ordinarily colored pencil artists would not use lightfast colored pencils on adult colouring books, this is only because they feel they are wasting valuable pigments on non-archival paper. Of course this is entirely up to the artist as to what pencils they use on whatever paper they like, but I only mention this playing devils advocate.

Lightfast Testing

it goes without saying that the Pastelowe Colored Pencils are not in any way lightfast tested and nor would you expect them to be given their budget friendly low cost. The Holbein Colored Pencils however, with the huge price tag on them should be lightfast tested and looking at the markings on the barrel of the Holbein Colored Pencils they are, but from which lightfast body?

I actually go into this on my Holbein Live Stream which you can watch by clicking the link, however I will also do my best to explain my reservations here. There are two lightfast testing standards, Blue Wool and ASTM ( American Standard Test Measure ). The ASTM Lightfast standard is perhaps most widely known to have been used on the Caran d’Ache Luminance and the Derwent Lightfast Colored Pencils.

Pencils lightfast tested under the ASTM standard have LF I, LF II, LF III, LF IV and LF V, LF I the highest rating and LF V the lowest rating, pencils using this rating often have LF I stamped directly on the barrel. Pencils tested under the Blue Wool standard are labeled a little differently because that test is graded out 1 to 8, 1 equating to the lowest lightfast rating and 8 the highest Lightfast rating. Indicating this on the barrels of pencils is a little bit more complicated and so often a star system will be used normally out of 5.

Regardless, when pencils are tested under either standard the companies like their customers to know how their products have been lightfast tested because it cost the companies a lot of money and both standards offer prestige.

The Holbein Colored Pencils have a star system printed on their barrels indicating the lightfast rating and recently some colored pencil artists have come out saying that Holbeins pencils are tested using ASTM. I have asked Holbein Japan and America a number of times this question and have never been given an answer. My reluctance to agree that the Holbein pencils are lightfast tested using the prestigious ASTM Standard is simply due to the fact that nowhere on the Holbein website, packaging or literature states they are ASTM rated. I struggle with this because every other company with such a standard, they advertise this because it is a huge feather in their cap, it helps to sell their product, it makes spending huge sums of money of the products a little bit easier.

You see using products tested under globally renowned standards such as Blue Wool and ASTM, allows the artist to sell their work with confidence and in turn this allows the customer to purchase the work knowing it is going to last.

Without either the Blue Wool or ASTM Standards, we can only assume that the lightfast testing has been done in house, if this is the case, the company must elaborate as to the methods used to reenact 100 years of sun. Many artists create swatches and leave them on the window for months or even a year or so, whilst these test can show fade, they can never replicate 100 plus years of light nor are the tests controlled. I know this is complicated stuff and I apologise for any confusion I may have caused.

Pastelowe and Holbein 50 Sets of Pastel Colored Pencils Conclusion

This is not an easy conclusion to make. With regards to the Pastelowe Colored Pencils on their own, I think they are an amazing set of colored pencils especially considering the extremely budget friendly cost. As I mentioned earlier in the article definitely check about for prices because this is one set of pencils that can jump ridiculously in price from £12 to £37 and more.

With regards to the Holbein Colored Pencils, I personally love them but they are hugely over priced especially considering some of the amazing pencils on the market for half the cost of Holbein. It really is difficult to compare a £12 set of pencils to a £130 set of pencils but I hope this review has laid out the facts for you and with those facts laid out you can make an informed decision as to which set is best for you as a colored pencil artist. You can also check out my YouTube video on this comparison and see what you think, combining both the written and YouTube video reviews together will hopefully provide you with all the information you need.