Without doing the chart yet, and just through my experience using both full sets in an artist capacity, Polychromos wins hands down! Lightfastness (there are literally two in 120 that are a bit dodgy so technically Polychromos have more usable colours than Prismas), the beauty of the pencil, the quality of the pencil (you don't need to see the cores because all Polychromos are centred with delicious German efficiency). Polychromos also sharpen like a boss and don't break every five seconds so even if they cost a little more, they are worth it as one tends to chew through Prismas much quicker (false economy with the cheaper ones!). In Australia they're all about the same as each other price wise anyway. In short, I ADORE Polychromos for my art pieces, but I will give it to Prismacolor that the softer waxier pencils are LOVELY for colouring books. I pulled out all the non-lightfast ones (you end up with a decent colour palette with just those) and I use them for colouring so they don't go to waste; they work well, aside from having to sharpen them entirely too often!

The most important thing for me when I consider pencil crayons is the quality and the quality control behind prismacolor is not up to my standards... the core isn't centered they break more often than I use them the wood encasing is thinner and the wax bloom bothers me to no end. Polychromos for the money you pay are better quality in my opinion and they're oil based so big plus for me.

Comparison of these two is like comparing apples to oranges waxed based pencil crayons and oil based pencil crayons work differently.

Polychromos actually also come in a beautiful 2 tier wooden box

Full disclosure: I'm a HUGE Prismacolor Premier fangirl. However, I don't (yet) own a single Polychromos pencil but I've been wondering whether it was worthwhile to buy some. This video fully answered that question. While I agree 100% with all of your results and I still feel that Prismacolor is overall the pencil for me, I am extremely impressed by the Polychromos lightfastness and smoothness. For those reasons alone, I think it's definitely worth investing in at least some key colors from that brand. Thanks so much for the information!!

Polychromos by FAR are the BEST hands down. Thanks for the video!!

I like the polycromos best.

Neither is better than the other. In fact they compliment each other!

I solved the problem with which is best, I got both sets. I also have a really hard time reading Polychromos gold foil lettering on the pencils. If I had to chose between the two brands then Polychromos is my choice, it is all about the details. In very small spaces where you need control and a very fine point Polychromos wins, there are some colouring pages that I wouldn't even try to use Prismacolors to do . To get similar vibrancy to Prismacolors you have to do many light layers much more than four. So Prismacolors give you a faster lay down where you need just a little extra patience with Polychromos.

A lot of this was subjective or biased. For example, Polychromos is oil-based, so the opacity will be lesser than he wax-based Prisma that layers on thicker. Did you noticed the unevenness of the Prisma vs the Polychromos? Thinner but smoother vs thicker but uneven. And I love he Polychromos presentation, they look like they cost a lot (and admittedly they do).

I feel this is a similar comparison to Ohuhu vs Copic for alcohol markers. Ohuhu is more saturated and will wow you more right off the bat. It's also the cheaper of the two. But there are other arguably more important factors that really explain why Copic is the industry standard. There's superior light fastness, the ability to refill, the easier blendability, the larger pallet of usable colors, the overall quality of the pigment. The list goes on. That's why I think the Polys are overall a better pencil. EDIT: I will also argue that many of the areas in which Polys won are more important than some of the ones that Prisma took. EDIT 2: Also your final test of blending was kinda BS. The test was which blended better, not which was more saturated/vibrant. The Polys clearly blended the best.

First of all: thanks a lot for your very thorough testing! I really love your way to be as objective as possible to show the differences! I really appreciate that, because it gives people the right tools to base their decision on. Great work! Now, I own both pencils, I just received my Prismas this week. So I am able to compare the both of them myself. I can confirm almost all the issues and results you talked about, except for the smearing, where my personal impression was that the Prismas smeared more, but maybe that also depends on the colors that one chooses for the test, because the pigments can vary in "performance". From my point of view, most differences result from the difference in "ingredients". Most obviously, both are very good sets, with very much pigment. But while the Polychromos have oil as an ingredient, the Prismas don't. The Prismas are softer, the Polychromos harder. That's why Prismas give off more intense color with less layering, or the Polychromos slightly less intense coloring, but smoother blending. That' also the reason why Prismas tend to break faster and wear down quicker. That's the price you pay for their softness, so to speak. And the Polychromos blend nicer, but you have to work more at them. The list goes on and on. Now, I as a German should actually prefer the Polychromos, right? ;-) But to be honest, I cannot decide. While I prefer the smoother look of the blended Polychromos, I prefer the softness of Prismas. That is a draw for me, I am deadlocked (and glad about it!). Which is why I will be using both sets intensively. By the way, I only bought the Prismas because I couldn't resist. I am not much of an artist and never will be, as much as I would have wished to be one. I am just a person who likes to color every once in a while, and that is why I initially did not think about getting a second set of good pencils. Prismas and Polychromos used to be about the same price for comparable amounts of pencils a year ago (at the German Amazon). At that time, I decided to buy the Polychromos, because I was afraid of the lead breaking issues of the Prismas, since I am not experienced in pencil use. But now, the prices for the Prismas dropped so considerably, that I was able to buy a set of 72 Prismas for 35 Euros, which is almost a fourth (!) of what they were a year ago. One Euro has about the same buying value here as an American Dollar, just to give you a scale. Availability in Germany is good for both of the pencils, with the only difference that I can go to any art store and buy the Polychromos open stock, whereas the open stock Prismas are only available to me online. Again, THANK YOU for your great reviews! Even though I do not need to make any buying decisions any more, I still love to watch all of your tests, simply because they are worth watching!

I disagree with the color wiping part. I actually had to stop using prismacolors because they smudged too much on my hand or even a white paper if I used that to rest my hand while painting... but with the polychromos I never had that problem. You should have tried on more colors.....

You can get the full set of Polychromos in a wooden box. Very luxurious ... I love mine very much.

For the people who live in America maybe Prismacolor is the best choice, but for the people who live in Europe the choice is going to be Polychromos. In Europe is very complicated to buy single Prismacolor pencils because there is not open stock, but we have Polychromos open stock, I live in Spain and I can buy a single pencil of Polychromos in several art shops of my city and online shops, but I cannot buy Prismacolor if I only want an spare pencils because they are very expensive because you only can buy them on international shops and the big problem are the shipping rates, even if you buy them in Amazon, for example a green pencil can cost more than 10 euros (around 11,76 dolars). I've Polychromos set of 120 pencils and when I've bought them I had the doubt between them or Prismacolor, I'm glad I've choose the Faber Castell. Thank you soooooooo much for your videos, I'm learning very much about coloring.

Interesting to see your test. I think another 2 tests could be useful 1. long term durability of the pencils. Typically I find that I need to sharpen Prismas more often and so Polys last a longer time even if more layers are needed for saturation. This can then offset long term cost considerations. 2. coverage: I feel I can get more subtle colour graduations with Polys than with Prismas. They go down lighter. Difficult to test objectively perhaps.

Thank you for your color pencil comparison in this video, extremely helpful on showing us the differences and tallying up our own points on which brand we should buy. I definitely was surprised on how much I liked the prismacolor's vibrancy over polychromos when you showed the color wheels side by side, this proves that price doesn't determine the preference/quality of materials.

Owned both of these. I've never had so many broken pencils as i had with Prismacolor. Horrible pencils. I've only ever had one polychromos pencil break on me, and that was my fault.

Clearly from the start, you prefer Prisma. Lol

Thank you for finally producing this video, Jen! It is highly appreciated! I do think they work best together though! ;)

I think that your test is quite good. I like both sets of pencils for different reasons. If I want brighter than life, I tend to lean towards Prismacolor. If I want a more natural look, I lean towards the Polychromos. I also have a big difference in crumbling than your test, mostly with the blues and reds of Prismacolor. I don't know if what their core is made of, with these colors, makes a difference or not, but this is my personal experience. All in all, the test is subjective. I can easily use either set & be happy. No, I'm not a professional artist, I'm a colorist learning ways to improve my art on a daily basis.

The point about prismacolor being really easy on the hand for chronic pain is the biggest reason I went for them! I asked around about which coloured pencils are easiest on the hands and the consensus was them, so I bought some recently. Good to see that someone who has chronic pain and uses them thinks they are good for that since I haven't had much chance to use them yet! 😊

Thanks for your video, very helpful as I'm stuck between these two brands. Although Prismacolor scored more for me I think I'll go for the Polychromos as Lightfastness is important to me, also that it doesn't break easily. I also remember you mentioning in another video that the Polychromos core was welded to the barrel so would be less likely to break when sharpening. Besides that, I live in the UK, so they're easier to get hold of. Maybe will try to get a black Prismacolor online as I loved the strong darkness of it.

this is so insightful. you deserve more likes on this and also you got yourself a new sub (: keep up the great videos!

Thank you for this demonstration, Jennifer. It's appreciated! I own both brands of pencils so that I can follow along with tutorials and have the same and correct tools that an instructor would have. Interesting that Prismacolor is proven more vibrant and had a much larger score. I don't really need to do this test myself, because I perfectly agree with your results. But I do tend to prefer Polychromos...maybe it's because the barrel is more comfortable to hold and that it keeps a sharp point longer. And lol I just wanted to add that I have and use the exact same green soap dish as an art tool, that you used in this demonstration.

LOVE your format in that one can choose for themselves, and was surprised by the color wheel-Prismacolors are more vibrant! Very helpful, and I have subscribed, thanks so much! Nice manicure BTW :)

I’d be interested in a review of the 150 Holbeins ❤️

I think it is not really a good comparison since PC's are oil based and Prisma C's are waxed based. Polychromos are by far a better quality pencil. Caran D'ache Luminance, Caran D'ache Pablos, and FC Polychromos.....all get my "best" vote. I don't think Prisma Colors are even in the running. Their quality in the last few years (even for a waxed base pencil) has severely declined. I don't know if they have outsourced their production (still Mexico made) or what, but they are definitely not the wonderful pencils they once were.The "wax bloom" they produce is also frustrating. For my money and my time , the Polychromos are, by far, the better pencil of these 2 choices. My all-time fave though, is the Caran D'ache Luminance. Sheer heaven ..............

Thank you so much for all your useful infos. I learned so much from watching these awesome videos and from reading comments!x

Hello! Thank you for your great work and so smart testing and rewiev. That was brilliant!

I remember using 2/3 of a prismacolor on a background on a coloring page because it was so soft. I went to black widow and has a firmer core and I don't use up the pencil so much but I then went to using panpastels for the background because it takes forever to do those backgrounds and get the white tooth not to show. However comparing the color the prismacolor looks more velvety.

I was extremely surprised by your result. So I did the test and obtained Prisma-5 Polychromos-16. Almost all performance tests were won by polychromos. This makes me wonder if the prismacolor premier 72 set that i bought on amazon france is legit. Plus the core diameter is smaller than those of polychromos.

I own both and both have their space and place in my work. I never have a breakage problem with the Prismas, because I use the Derwent Fine Point Sharpener. It works wonders with the prismas. Also sharpen your graphite’s with it in order to keep the sharpener clean. I never attach it to the desk. I just hold it in my hand to sharpen the pencils. To me it’s easier.

It's very refreshing to finally find a yt video where we're not supposed to believe in some kind of ULTIMATELY BEST CHOICE FOR EVERYONE. I never ever had a prismacolor in my hand, and since they are extremely expensive here in middle Europe you can't get them onen stock. Most people get them from German Amazon if they want them that badly, so since they're both expensive it makes more sense to get polychromos as a long time investment. Even though they have some flaws. Lately I bought Bruynzeel Design Color pencils, which cost around 70% of polychromos' price and I'm madly in love with them.

Well, that was interesting! I have quite a few Prismacolor pencils from years ago when I started doing CP art. I've been hearing so much about Arteza colored pencils and I've been wondering how they compare to Prismas. Would you do a comparison on those two brands, please?

I just discovered your channel. Looking forward to learning some new information and techniques.I'm just now starting to branch out into other brands of colored pencils. Been using Prismacolor for 45 years.

Awesome test. I have struggled with which of these two sets I should buy. This test was so perfect! Thank you so much!

Very informative! Thanks so much!

The answer to that question....Polychromos of course!!! 🤗👍

Great idea for the comparison. I always wonder how to compare pencils that I use for a piece of art.

I was trying to decide which way I wanted to go on colored pencils; I came across your video and I am going with the Prismacolor Pencils. Thank you, I was trying figure out how to decide with out spending a lot of money on a product I may not like. Thank you so so much.

Oh! What brand of ruler is that? I’m after a ruler exactly like that with grids in the middle so I can draw lines of 0.6-0.8 on an unlined book that has great paper but I needed it lined and it didn’t come in lined. So yes, what brand of ruler is that please?

I have a question, i'm looking to buy professional colorpencils. Wich pencils brands would be your top 3? Wich brand would you recommend me? Please excuse my typO's.

For me it's Prismacolors: 8 and Polychromos: 12, but since I already have Prismas, I'm gonna stick with them! At least for now... :)

This was great. This really helped me.

I would love it if you would do a tutorial on the how to use, when to use Prismacolor Verithin pencils. I just started using them and hope I am using them correctly and in the right situations.

Thank you so much for the video . What do you think about DERWENT COLOURSOFTS ? Do you like to do a comparison with them ?

Love your videos...always so informative!! Quick question- if I create a piece with all Prismacolor Premier pencils, but then use a protective artwork spray that blocks UV light, it would theoretically keep the pencils from fading....is that right?

This is an interesting and in-depth way of scoring. You get to explore lots of areas to see which one fits better. I adore my Polychromos and those have my heart. However, I love my Prismas and they’re always a breath of fresh air when I come back to them after an absence.

A quick question where can I buy more utrecht colored pencils. I have three from online, went to order more from same site and they didnt have them, thanks.

SuperRaeDizzle did a comparison between prisma and poly on how many sheets one pencil can fill before she ran out of led. Prisma color filled 4 sheets of paper..Polychromos filled 39. That's what tipped it for me. Yes they're more expensive BUT you get what you pay for and when you use one pencil you can just rebuy that one so if you go all in (which I recommend) for the 120 set (think of it as an investment) you'll have it for life

How about a review on Caran d'Ache Pablo and Caran d'Ache Luminous

best comparison i have seen, thanks for that! :)

Polys would be easier to read if they used a sans serif font for the printing. Also, the Prismas have teeny-tiny lettering, but that actually helps me read it more easily, because I don’t have to roll the pencil to see the whole letter.

After seeing previous reviews, and the fact that they are more readily available in the UK (if rather more expensive) I would probably go for the Faber Castell Polychromos.

Still waiting for the review of the Caran d'ache Pablo and Blick Studio colored pencils.

Jennifer!! Wow wow wow!! I just discovered you this week and I’m subscribed and joined and TOTALLY blessed! The amount of research and impeccable detail is amazing!! Why you don’t have a million followers is a mystery to me! Your hubbin Steve and sweet pup Rose are also a delight! Blessed to be “blissed”💕👩🏻‍🎨

I haven’t used either of these pencils so my choice is based on watching your comparison. l have chosen the Prismacolor pencils because of the bright colors, how they cover the paper better and how they seem to blend. I have ordered the 72 pencil set off of Amazon. I am excited to try them out.

Personally cannot stand Prismacolor. I got the full set but sold them pretty shortly after after doing some colourings with them. They are just too soft for me - it's like colouring with crayons. Polychromos, hands down, are the perfect balance between soft and hard lead pencils. The one thing I did like about the Prismacolor however was the vibrant, gorgeous colours. Polychromos leans into more natural colours.

You should try the brand SOHO Professional coloring pencils compared to one of them or in general.

Yes plz include core content on the test. To me, I prefer oil based vs wax base colored pencils.

I thought this was an excellent comparison, and my own results just watching it were surprising. Discovered I really really wanted Polychromos to win but... I generally concurred with your own winners and it was surprisingly.. Prismacolor for me.

I tested the Faber castells in the store and I love how smooth they lay down and not grainy at all. I've used Prisma colors and in some coloring books it could be grainy and I would have to always go behind it with a Prisma blender in certain books. Plus I've been running through them. So I'm ready to try the Faber Castells set but I hate that they're so high. I don't want to buy them and think that they're not worth it and I would have to buy the 60pc set because the 24pc don't have any pinks and purples in them. Have you tried Castle Art and if so could they compare??

I find a lot of these poly vs prisma comparison videos ignore the very glaring issue that their basic makeup is fundamentally different. If you come at the poly from a prisma user standpoint, you miss out on the strengths of the polys. Just sayin.

For me personally, I wouldn't need a true black, as I would you use a fine liner pen for those really dark details. It may have been useful to see they blend out with solvents as another point for the checklist.

Great!! Very helpful Thank you. .... one thing ..i wish you had a completed picture x2 the same pic...using the different pencils with your techniques etc to compare.... would have been fascinating. But Thank you all the same! 🤩👏👍

Hi thank you for your help with this. Can you use solvent to blend the prismacolour pencils?

I've watched several of your videos and a few from other artists and after trying a few less than artist grade pencils, decided I "had" to have the full set of Prismacolor pencils.... So I bought them on line. I was a little disappointed that a few of them kept breaking when I sharpened them. I tried the tip of leaving them in the car for a couple hours. They didn't seem to do any mending, but they did "bloom" which really surprised me. After watching your pigment test I "had" to have a set of Blick Studio pencils. So far I like what they're doing better than the Prismacolor :-) .... Now after watching this video I "have" to get a set of Polychromos!!!! They look like they put down a very smooth, even color which I like. I've found my inner artist and am having a lot of fun drawing and coloring with ALL my pencils!!! Thank you for all your work on the videos you post!!

Thanks for the comparison. I use Prismacolor, but look forward to getting Polychromos.

Thanks for this comprehensive comparison. I own full set of both brands. I agree with your findings 100% and I love my Prismas!

Hey I mostly just draw animals but I don’t know which colors I should use so is it better to use polychromos or prisma?

I have been using both along with Derwent for a number of years now, and am fortunate that I live in an area that has many art stores that I can purchase almost any type of pencil that I want. In my humble experience , the Faber Castell is number one, the Derwent is second and the Prismacolor is third. This is my opinion only, but, I use all three equally, you will not go wrong using any of these.

I'm surprised when you were courteous and asked people to share their own scores in the comments knowing you had both types and appreciated them both--yet some were not polite with their comments. You are such a lovely person and don't deserve that. A friend had these pencils for me to try. And while I know the trade off from the types of cores, my scores were the same as yours except the Prisma got an extra point for excitement. A soft cloth can can help with any bloom.

Jennifer, I have Gout in my hands. Prismacolored pencils are my go to.I also love Marco Raffine. But I also own Poloy.Thank you for the time and energy you put into this comparison. My Art station is a desk. Can you give any suggestions on organization?

Judging by your list, the Polychromos win by far for me. But they would anyway because not every factor should be considered equally and the quality just isn't very good on the Prisma Colors (from what I've heard they were a lot better a few years ago)

Jennifer, I'm really not hating on you but I didn't enjoy this video as much as other videos by you. Personally I think that you were a bit bias to the Prismacolor colored pencils. For example with the color wheel test polychromos deserved to win as some colors were more true than the ones of Prismacolor. One example is the yellow-green was more true for the polychromos than the Prismacolor colored pencils. Another point I'd like to make is that it's kinda unfair to compare the two because one is wax based (Prismacolors) and one is oil based (polychromos). Because polychromos are oil based they obviously won't be as pigmented as Prismacolors.

great comparison...thank you :)

Jennifer, I owned all the colours of the Prismacolor pencils and loved using them. However, when I developed hand pain (from overuse of the computer mouse at work) I found it quite painful to use the Prismacolor pencils. I eventually gave them away to a friend, and I've been on a search for some colouring tool to replace them that does not stress my hand. From your review the Polychromos pencils wouldn't be a good choice. Watercolours are pain-free to use, but since I like Bible journaling watercolours are not the best medium for thin Bible pages. Additionally, I typically do fine, precise colouring. Could you suggest any colouring implement that is easy to use and does not bleed through thin Bible pages.

what paper did you use for this test ?

Before I even finish watching your video, let me say BRAVO. I'm paused at the color wheel portion (17.26) and HANDS DOWN it beats any other cp comparison video by a mile. Thank you for such an unbiased and thorough comparison. Btw....I already like the color wheel on the left purely for its vibrancy. If it turns out to be polys...I know which set I'm buying next. Thank you again. I love your videos.

This was a very useful comparison for me. Thank you! Prismacolor wins for me. Everything you checked, plus, the packaging doesn't matter to me, as I don't use out of the box. The box is too bunglesome, so I take them out. Also, lightfastness doesn't matter to me, either. I've gotten some other pencils in a larger selection than the Prismacolor set of 48 that I started out with, (16 years ago!) and was quite disappointed with them. I've finally gotten the BIG set of Prismacolor Premier Pencils, and am so happy!

You did such a wonderful Job.

I like Prismas, they are super vibrant, but love Polychromos. You have to blend differently whether you use one or the other. Another thing to think about is how fast a pencil can be used up. Prismas tend to use up faster than Polys to me. I feel like I constantly sharpen Prismas. Which means I have to buy a new pencil faster.

Where is the link to the prismacolour website for the colour/lightfast chart?

After sharpening did you measure the length of the two pencils against each other to see which one lost the most color core in order to get the sharp point? In another video, the Prismacolor lost a noticeably larger amount of its color core. I think that might be good to know. How much am I willing to lose of my color core to get the sharp point I sometimes need? If much more is lost, my pencils will not last as long, and if not available in open stock, but only by buy whole sets, that can really raise the expense of maintaining a complete set.

your presentation on comparison of prismacolor vs polychromos was great.

If its possible, could you do a review of the mitsubishi uni colored pencils? Theyre the ones I use most often, and I absolutely love them. I would like to hear what someone else thinks of them.

Prisma score was 6 and Polychromos score was 16. The lightfast had alot to do with it. And when layering my colors on top it's smoother. I do have Prisma and I have had to throw them out do to they were not centered for the lead and the barrels where chipping and breaking when I tried to sharpen them. And some of the barrels were cracked right though.

Your right, this is the best way to test out color pencils much different too

Thanks for getting to the point about the points points points.

Excellent comparison video loved it

Where did you get that stencil sheet you were using, please?

Thank so much!

BTW, got lucky with my new Prismacolor Premiere set of 150-NO breakage, and only a few cores ever so slightly off center. But the lightfast issue UGH! Found a UV fixative that HOPEFULLY will address the issue: Brush and Pencil brand Advanced Colored Pencil FINAL FIXATIVE. Have you had any experience with this? I LOVE Prismacolors, and would really like to continue using them, but hoping to stop the lightfast problem. Thanks in advance!

Derwent Inktense???? Vs both Polychromos & Prismacolor. I have Derwent & Prismacolor Premier. I am lusting after Polychromos. 🦄🦄🦄

I think this was a great compare. I enjoy your talent and knowledge!!

Holbien v prisma colour please! (I love holbien pastels particularly)

Thanks. Very helpful

I have had both polychromos and prismas since this video first aired. Nearly five years later and I still don't know which brand is better. But, they work together very nicely. I have to say to people who think the polychromos white is 'useless' try to use it as a blender while you are making a pastel gradient, or trying to blend in the blues and silvers of clouds.

For me, Prismacolor. Not a professional artist, use pencils for coloring books. Love their vibrancy and creaminess. I know some say the quality is not the same. But, since I didn't use the older version, can't miss what you never had. I've also never and hopefully never will experience broken leads or problems sharpening. And so much bang for your buck.