Thank you for this very honest, very in-depth review of these Castle Art pencils. Most reviews I viewed glaze over all the negatives of these pencils. I was on the fence about these pencils, I still may purchase just to play with, but I do own all the more professional pencils, Derwent, Prisma, Polychoromos, and Pablos, but sometimes you just want to play and not waste the more expensive pencils, especially on lower end books, if that makes sense. But your review as awesome, thank you.

They have improved a lot since this review. They now come with a tester sheet. Each tray has handles.

I purchased the themed sets by Castle Arts. I really enjoy working with them. I doubt they will ever replace my Prismacolor, Polychromos or Inktense, but I do use them a lot. I did run into the sharpening issue and one of my lids became unhinged, at first it was annoying but I found a work around. They didn't layer well with the Black Widows but by themselves I had no trouble.

Hi Kori, thanks for this video. I was coloring with my Castle Arts 120 set today and found that I really enjoy this set of pencils. Maybe its the strong pigments, the bright floral color options and several green colors for leaf coloring or even that the numbers are arranged in increasing order and the color name is easy to read on black color barrel. I really find myself enjoying the coloring with Castle Arts! I do have a problem blending them after 3 or 4 layers though and sometimes I wish there were more greys. Anagha

I just got my set, a 24 set, they blend really good so far. I made green with yellow and blue, and orange with red and yellow. I would say a step above Crayola, one below Polychromos. So far so good for me.

I wouldn't be complaining if I had a set, feel like king of the castle.

I find these blend very well with prismacolor. None of mine were cracked and I find them really good on many papers.

I have two sets; the portrait and the 120. I like these pencils a lot. There's very little wax bloom and lots of beautiful colors. I haven't had any trouble sharpening them either.

I don't have the 129 set, I have the themed color set. I like the colors provided, Each tin in that collection contains 24 pencils per tin.. I found that they blend well with each other and other brands of colored pencils. I think it is a great purchase all around for the price.

I agree they do blend very well love them and mine came with a case

I was SOLD into the vibrancy from your swatch UNTIL I saw your picture. I’m so glad you pointed out your disappointment of the swatch vibrancy to the generic normal shading in the book. It was BRILLIANT how you came to your observation! So , for that being said,thanks for being so thorough in your evaluations of colored pencils!❤

What the... why are they so cheap in the US! Theyre $112 in Canada.

What a great review! You covered all aspects I usually want to know about a colored pencil. I have one small set of 24 (the themed ones) and while I like them, I totally agree with you about their issues, specially about being difficult to sharpen with a hand sharpener - the wood is way too soft. But if you have a crank sharpener, they will sharpen ok.

Thanks for such a great in depth honest review. I watched many other reviews that didn't mention the negatives or sort of rushed past them as if they were not important. I wish I had seen this before purchasing the 120 set. Just swatching them killed my hand so it's unlikely I'll use them much, if at all.

I love castle art I got their gel pens and pencil too I love all the colors in my gel pens and color pencil my favorite color would be cherry pink in the pencil

I just purchased a set for my channel - the colors blend so well!

I'm starting to think the Castle Arts pencils are a little similar to Black Widow. You have to buy the other sets if you want a specific type of pencil. So if you want more skin tone pencils, buy the portrait set. Want more green, buy the landscape set. And lighter tone pencils, the pastel set.

I just purchased the 72 new on eBay for a half of the regular price. The tin came in a cardboard Castle Arts box. After removing the tin was sealed in a plastic wrap. The seller had shipped in a used Amazon box. I’m guessing it depends on the seller. I’m also looking at the 120 but I’m here to listen to your opinion first.

Great review thanks. One thing on the flooring book vs search sheet, the Joanna Bs books often has OFF white paper so that would impact on the finished effect.

Very nice video and review. Just what I was looking. I thought it was going to be long and forward from time to time but end up watching it all. Very organized and I like the way you talk. I felt I was having a conversation with you. I got this set for 45 euros and so far I like them. I enjoyed coloring when I was a teenager and now at 40 I’m coloring again!. My pencils were also randomly placed on the box and when organizing I noticed number 087 was not labeled :p .

Got my 120 in a zip case,numbers right colours a little mixed, do buy the zip case or go buy one so much better for choosing the colours.

Why does every review compare to prismacolor?????

I am on the fence as to whether or not to take the plunge and buy Prismacolors. Everyone raves about how good they are & they do seem to the best at blending but then there's the quality issue, which concerns me. I have many professional pencils including Lightfast, Luminance, Pablos & Polychromos all of which are excellent quality. When I spend over £150 on a set of pencils, I expect them to be excellent quality. Is the quality of Prismacolors still really bad or have they sorted it?

They wood they use is basswood. I'm curious, are the pencils actually cracking, or is it the place where the two halves of the wood casing come together and are misaligned a bit? Perhaps you've used them a bit more since this review went up. Can you tell? I'm not having a bit of trouble with mine.

I have the 120 set and absolutely love them. Johanna Basford did a review comparing them to Prismas and felt they were almost as good. I was pleased as I couldn't justify the expense of the Prismas. They layer beautifully, go on smoothly and aren't prone to just breaking. The only problem I have is that if I want to follow a tutorial or colour-along, I struggle to match the colours because almost everyone uses Prismas and so far nobody has done a comparison chart. Many people have asked that someone does one because there are a lot of us out there who have the CA pencils. If this sounds like a hint....er.... 😊

I got these in the sale so excited

But remember that Castle Arts has a 48 tin of pastels as well as metallic too. Yes, I did notice the quality of the wood too. This is the reason I won’t pay more than €30.00 for a new 120 tin from eBay.

Thank you for this in depth video.

You can get the 120 set in a zipper case instead of the tin!

I got the 120 castle art color pencils in the flip case I love them so much like their gel pens mine cost my aunt fifty four dollars

Sorry, but my opinion ain't that positive... Scratching sticks, overpriced, wax-bloomers! the good things are; or could be: Well, there good looking and in my experience the wood-quality is super (for there price!), and the lead is not breaking. They should change the series name from "soft series" to "hard waxy series"' and put the word "scratching" before almost each pigment name. The beatle-tin pencils are softer! Don't the islanders have heard of brands here on the mainland that are cheaper and better? I will give the set away, make a child happy. Luckily I only bought a 24 set! I was sceptic, but curious. I know now that I won't be waiting for the Castle arts medium or hard series. Lol

Hi , thinking about buying these but I’ve got a question, can the white go over the colours well or not? 🌸💗

They cost now $ 55 in 120 set I hope that they have more quality now ...

In case I die not mention: Well done! Thanks.

Hi! I want to buy it. What do you think about Cool bank colored pencils? I don’t know which is better.

What paper did you use for the printing the color chart??

Do they have a lightfast rating?

Can you use water with these pencils?

I would replace with a high end pencil as these wear out.

just ordered now. 80$ CAD

Have you since tried the Castle Arts Gold set?

Why did you hide the likes? 😢

Would not had all them cosmetic issues if you got zip case version for same price.

No one has commented... so IM FIRST

I want to but them

Pls don't make too long videos. I beg of you.