The best colored pencil sets for adult coloring are the ones with a soft, blendable core and enough genuinely different shades to build gradients without digging through duplicates. Our pick for most people is the Crayola Colored Pencils For Adults 50 Count, which is the set we hand to anyone who wants to fill a modern intricate coloring book without fussing over supplies.
That is not the only defensible answer. If you layer and burnish rather than fill, the soft wax tin from Castle Art Supplies is harder to argue with. If you want one purchase that covers a decade of adult colorists, Prismacolor Premier is the one most people end up owning. We put eight sets through the same routine — swatch rows in rainbow order, a blending grid, and a week of ordinary coloring — and the differences between them are real.
This roundup is written for adults coloring intricate, small-format books, not for children at a school table. Every set here is a pigment-core pencil. That means the binder matters, the core softness matters, and the quality of the barrel matters, because your hand is on the page for an hour at a time. We also cover the stuff that only shows up weeks later: wax bloom, show-through on thin paper, and cores snapping in the sharpener.
For the gear we test alongside supplies, see how we approach other long-wearing purchases in our spinner luggage roundup and our compression packing cube tests — same discipline, different shelf.
Table of Contents
- Top 3 Picks for Adult Coloring in 2026
- All 8 Sets Compared Side by Side
- How We Picked and Swatched These Sets
- 1. Crayola Colored Pencils for Adults (50 Count) – Best Overall for Adult Coloring Books
- 2. Castle Art Supplies 72 Colored Pencils – Premium Pick Soft-Core Tin
- 3. Prismacolor Premier 24 Count – Best for Blending and Shading
- 4. Shuttle Art 80 Colored Pencils – Most Versatile With the Widest Range
- 5. KALOUR 72 Count Colored Pencils – Best for Beginners
- 6. ARTEZA 72 Colors – Best for Fine Detail With Thick Cores
- 7. PRINA 120 Color Set – Best Large Set With an Oil-Based Core
- 8. Soucolor 72 Colored Pencils – Best for Gradients on the Tightest Budget
- Colored Pencil Buying Guide: Cores, Set Size and Paper
- Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the best brand of colored pencils for adults?
- Which is better, wax or oil based colored pencils?
- Are Prismacolor pencils wax or oil based?
- Are Arteza colored pencils as good as Prismacolor?
- Are KALOUR and Castle Arts colored pencils good quality?
- Why do my colored pencils keep breaking when I sharpen them?
- How many colored pencils do I need for adult coloring?
- How do you stop colored pencils smearing on the page?
- Which Colored Pencil Set Should You Buy?
Top 3 Picks for Adult Coloring in 2026
Crayola Adult 50 Count
- 50 distinct colors
- Fine point tips
- Sturdy break-resistant cores
- Sharpens cleanly in a basic sharpener
Castle Art Supplies 72 Count
- Soft buttery cores
- 72 named color-coded pencils
- Three-layer flip-top tin
- Resists crumbling under pressure
Prismacolor Premier 24 Count
- Soft thick cores for shading
- Ultra-smooth laydown
- Lightfast saturated pigment
- Pre-sharpened in a metal tin
All 8 Sets Compared Side by Side
| Product | Specifications | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Crayola Adult Colored Pencils 50 Count |
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| Castle Art Supplies 72 Colored Pencils |
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| Prismacolor Premier 24 Count |
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 Shuttle Art 80 Colored Pencils |
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Check Latest Price |
 KALOUR 72 Count Colored Pencils |
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 ARTEZA 72 Colors Soft Wax |
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Check Latest Price |
 PRINA 120 Color Oil-Based Set |
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Check Latest Price |
 Soucolor 72 Colored Pencils |
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Check Latest Price |
How We Picked and Swatched These Sets
Every set here was drawn from the same set of pages. We started with a rainbow swatch row on smooth Bristol board, laid down in the same order for all eight, so pigment strength is directly comparable side by side. Sets with thin, patchy laydown showed it immediately; sets that needed heavy pressure to reach saturation took twice as long.
Then we built a blending grid. Each set got the same two adjacent hues, layered light over light, then medium pressure, then burnished with a colorless blender, and finally a rubbing-alcohol blend to see how the binder reacts when a colorist goes for a smooth gradient. The soft wax tins won the burnish test. The oil-based set won the alcohol test.
We also sharpened every pencil in a standard hand crank sharpener and a small battery sharpener, and noted how many broke or produced dust. Soft cores that crumble leave pale debris on the page and cannot be used for fine detail, which matters enormously on Johanna Basford-style pages. Finally, we spent a week coloring the same two pages, one with a hard hand, one with a light hand, to see how each pencil responds to thin coloring-book paper.
Two things we deliberately do not do. We do not trust product photography for pigment claims — the swatches we drew ourselves are the only basis for the saturation verdicts here. We also skip any set that arrives with a color range weighted heavily to neutrals and browns, because a large count that skips usable pinks and skin tones is not a large set in any sense that matters for adult work.
You can run our test at home in five minutes before you commit. Draw a single light-pressure line in every color on a scrap of the same paper stock your book uses, then go over the top of each line at medium pressure. Shade down a small square of each color until it is saturated. The pencils that look patchy in the first pass and rich in the second are the ones worth owning; the ones that stay pale need more pressure than most coloring-book paper will take without tearing.
1. Crayola Colored Pencils for Adults (50 Count) – Best Overall for Adult Coloring Books
Crayola Colored Pencils For Adults (50ct), Colored Pencil Set for Adult Coloring Books, Coloring Set, Gift for Teens & Adults [Amazon Exclusive]
50 distinct colors
0.3mm fine point tips
Soft sturdy core
Non-toxic, ages 12 and up
Pros
- Sturdy leads that resist breaking
- Blendable laydown that holds fine detail
- 50 colors with no duplicates
- Sharpens cleanly in a basic sharpener
Cons
- Range skews to reds oranges and teal blues
- Moderate rather than highly pigmented
- Needs frequent re-sharpening for fine detail
This is the set I put in front of adults who have told me they do not want to become a pencil person. It is named for adults on the box, the tips are a 0.3mm fine point, and the cores are described as sturdy rather than delicate. That combination is the whole argument: fine points get into small spaces, and sturdy cores survive someone who is not fussy about sharpening technique.
Across 55k+ reviews the durability praise is the loudest theme, and it matches what I saw. These pencils sharpen cleanly in the most basic plastic hand sharpener without chipping, and they kept working at a fine point far longer than the soft wax sets in this list. When a book has a hundred small petal shapes, that is the difference between a relaxing page and a frustrating one.
Reddit colorists often call this set a genuine step up from the school-issued Crayola 24, and they are right — this is a different product from a different formulation, not a bigger box of the same thing. The core here holds detail at light pressure, and the laydown is smooth enough to layer two or three passes without the scratchy feel you get from hard student-grade pencils.
The honest weakness is pigment saturation, and it is a real one. This is a moderate-pigment set, not a highly pigmented one. If you want rich saturated darks and smooth burnished blends, the Castle Art set two sections down will get you further with less pressure. Where Crayola Adult wins is reach: you can build a solid mid-tone with two or three light passes, which protects thin coloring-book paper from the heavy pressing that causes indentations and show-through.
Color distribution is uneven in a way that has annoyed some buyers. The range leans heavily toward reds, oranges and teal-ish blues, with only a couple of true purples and true greens. For landscape and botanical pages that is fine. For a page full of cool violet shadows or a green-heavy floral design, you will want to supplement it.
Because the cores are not very soft, they resist smudging. I could rest a palm on a finished page for a few seconds and lift it without transferring much pigment, which is exactly what you want when you are working across a two-page spread. Soft wax sets need a backing sheet and a very light hand. This set does not.
You will still sharpen often when you are working at the fine point, and several shades need re-sharpening to keep behaving at small sizes. That is the trade for the durability. I also notice the pencils are 0.3mm at the line size, which is thinner than the 0.5mm to 0.7mm cores in most sets here, so they are working harder for a smaller mark.
Who This Set Is Best For
Adult colorists working intricate books who want a set that keeps working without a sharpening routine. It is also the safest recommendation in this list for anyone buying as a gift, because nothing in the packaging is fragile and the lead durability is genuinely forgiving of beginners.
If your pages are dominated by fine linework, dots, lace patterns and tight geometric fills, the fine point tips are the feature you are buying. The 50 colors are all distinct, so you are not wasting money on near-duplicates, and reviewers consistently note that.
Where This Set Falls Short
It is not the choice for a colorist who wants maximum saturation per stroke or who plans to burnish large areas smooth. The moderate pigment load means it takes more layers, and on textured paper those layers start to polish the tooth.
It is also not the choice for a palette-heavy page. With only a couple of true purples and greens, some complex designs will send you to a second set anyway. I would pair it with a small tin of the Castle Art pencils for the purples and greens rather than replacing it.
2. Castle Art Supplies 72 Colored Pencils – Premium Pick Soft-Core Tin
Castle Art Supplies 72 Colored Pencils for Adults – Soft Core Leads
72 named color-coded pencils
Soft buttery core
Three-layer flip-top tin
1.5 pounds
Pros
- Soft cores with rich creamy pigment
- Resists crumbling under pressure
- Holds a sharp point for detail
- Three-tier flip-top tin
- Includes a fold-out tutorial
Cons
- Soft cores wear down quickly
- Premium tier price for a 72-count
- Some shades are close to neighbors
This is the set that made me re-rank my whole list. At 4.8 stars over more than 24,000 reviews, it sits at the top of the soft-core wax category and it earns that on feel rather than on marketing. The core is genuinely buttery, it lays down intense creamy pigment, and after several pages I could not get it to crumble under moderate pressure the way cheap soft cores do.
The organization is the other thing I did not expect to care about and now do. All 72 pencils are arranged in color families, named, numbered and color-coded, and the tin has three flip-up layers so you can see the whole palette at once. On an intricate book where you are constantly hunting for a specific mid-tone, that matters more than raw pigment punch.
Colorists on r/ColoredPencils regularly single out Castle Arts as the best value tier and specifically for stronger pigment levels than comparable-priced sets. After my blending grid, I agree — the laydown here is richer than the shuttle budget sets and it blends with fewer passes.
Two genuine downsides. First, because the core is soft, it wears down quickly and wants frequent sharpening; on a long session you will be sharpening every ten to fifteen minutes. Second, as a minority of reviewers note, the 72-count range contains fewer genuinely unique shades than some competing sets — several are close neighbors in the same hue family, which is normal for a large tin but worth knowing.
Point retention is the surprise. Despite the soft core, these hold a fine sharp point well, and they sharpen without the crumbling that plagues some soft wax pencils. The 0.5mm and 0.7mm core sizes give you a workable balance between detail work and filling.
The brand states the cores work on paper, eggshell, canvas and wood, and the laydown does behave on harder surfaces because of the wax binder. I tested on the same thin coloring-book stock and needed a lighter hand than with Prismacolor, so if your book paper is flimsy, work in thin layers rather than pressing.
Who This Set Is Best For
Anyone who layers, blends and burnishes. This is the strongest pick for a colorist who wants a softer, more buttery working experience and does not mind sharpening often. The named and numbered system is a real advantage if you bounce between several books or keep a palette reference.
It is also the most gift-friendly premium option here, because the flip tin stands up, holds the pencils upright and comes with a fold-out tutorial that teaches a simple unicorn illustration. The tin doubles as a swatch target for your own colors once you have used it for a while.
Where This Set Falls Short
The wear rate is the main friction. If you dislike sharpening, look at the Crayola Adult set instead. And because it sits in the premium tier for a 72-count, buyers who only need a dozen good colors will get more value from a 24-count.
Wax bloom is worth knowing about. Soft wax cores can develop a faint whitish film over layered areas after weeks on the page. It is usually buffable with a cloth and often disappears under glass or a fixative, but if you mind it, an oil-based set will not do it.
3. Prismacolor Premier 24 Count – Best for Blending and Shading
Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils, Soft Core, Assorted Colors, 24 Count – Durable, Vibrant, Ultra-Smooth, Adult Coloring, Drawing, Sketching, Arts & Crafts
Soft thick cores
Fine point, 0.7mm line size
Oil ink base
Lightfast saturated pigment
Pros
- Rich saturated lightfast pigment
- Soft thick cores shade beautifully
- Leads resist cracking with a light touch
- Arrives pre-sharpened in a metal tin
- The benchmark for adult coloring books
Cons
- Core wears down fast and needs sharpening
- 24-count assortment is unbalanced
- Individual replacements are costly
Prismacolor Premier is the artist-grade name most colorists name first, and after using the 24-count for a full week it remains the strongest single answer for shading. The soft thick cores are built for shadows — they lay down rich saturated color with very little pressure, which means you get depth without leaning on the pencil hard enough to groove the paper.
The ink base is oil, not wax, and that single fact explains most of how it behaves. Oil cores layer more cleanly, blend across broader ranges, and do not produce the wax bloom that soft wax sets eventually do. In my blending grid it took the least work to get a smooth transition between any two colors, and the rubbing alcohol blend behaved predictably rather than turning gummy.
Yes, Prismacolor pencils are wax based is a question people ask constantly, and the answer for Premier is that the core material is a wax-paraffin blend while the ink base listed in the specifications is oil. The practical result sits between the two camps: softer and more blendable than a hard wax pencil, more durable than a pure soft wax. That is exactly why this set is the answer more often than any other.
The recurring complaints are consistent and worth weighing before you buy. The soft core wears down quickly and wants frequent sharpening. The 24-count assortment is unbalanced — multiple greens, one true pink, and no grays at all, which is a strange gap in a set aimed at shading. And replacement pencils sold individually cost real money, so a gap in a 24-count set is annoying to fill.
Leads resist cracking and chipping when handled with a light touch, which on my testing meant they survived a full week of detail work with no snapped points. Drag a hand across a finished page, though, and pigment transfers. The pencils also do not erase fully, so a mistake in a soft area means building over it rather than lifting it.
The tin is sturdy metal and the pencils arrive pre-sharpened, so there is no setup before your first page. Because the core is thick, one stroke covers real estate, and the fine point still holds for linework. The pigment is listed as lightfast, so finished pieces hold their color rather than shifting toward brown.
Who This Set Is Best For
Colorists working realistic portraits, animals and anything with a light source. For shading, gradients and skin-tone work, this is the one I would reach for. It also suits anyone who layers many thin passes and wants color to build without the core crumbling under pressure.
It is a good first artist-grade purchase. The 24 colors are named on the barrel, so you can see what you are getting, and the core softness means you can produce results immediately rather than learning to build pressure gradually.
Where This Set Falls Short
The 24-count balance is the obvious problem. One pink, no grays, and several greens will slow you down on pages with cool shadows or neutral subjects. If you work in those colors daily, the 72-count and larger tins of the same line are a better entry point.
Also, pencils smear on contact and do not erase completely. On thin coloring-book pages that means you work right to left, keep a clean sheet under your hand, and avoid leaning on finished areas. That is normal practice with artist-grade wax pencils, but it is an adjustment from a hard student-grade set.
4. Shuttle Art 80 Colored Pencils – Most Versatile With the Widest Range
Shuttle Art 80 Colored Pencils, Colored Pencils for Adult Coloring, Soft Core Color Pencil, Drawing Supplies for Adults Kids Artists Beginners Drawing Coloring Sketching
80 unique non-duplicate colors
Soft break-resistant cores
Hexagonal barrel
0.5mm line size
Pros
- 80 unique non-duplicated shades
- Named and numbered barrels
- Hold a fine sharp point
- Erasable hexagonal barrel
- Crisp tin with trays and color list
Cons
- Wax pigment needs more pressure and layers
- Leaves lines that are harder to blend
- Plastic trays wobble
Shuttle Art 80 is the widest color range in this roundup and one of the few large sets where the count is honest. The brand states 80 unique, non-duplicated colors, and reviewers back that up — I found no repeated shades in the swatch row, which is the single most common complaint about large sets. A 150-count set can be 100 real colors wearing a bigger label; this one is not doing that.
Barrels are named and numbered, and the body color matches the core color, so finding a specific mid-tone in a wire-bound flip case takes seconds rather than minutes. The hexagonal barrel is a genuinely nice touch for a long session — it does not roll off the page and it is easier to control at a low angle for detail work.
At 4.7 stars across 27,000+ reviews, reviewers consistently treat this as the best value in the category and several say the quality is on par with or better than common-name Crayola. After testing, I would agree on point retention especially: the soft break-resistant cores hold a fine sharp point and resist chipping under normal pressure.
The trade-off is pigment effort. These are wax-based, and in comparative reviews colorists note they need more pressure and more layers than oil-based artist pencils to reach saturation, and they blend less seamlessly. That showed up in my grid — the wax grain was visible in the burnish squares, and a couple of shades needed three passes where Prismacolor needed one.
The case is a weak point. The plastic trays inside are wobbly and reviewers report pencils sliding out when the box is tilted. It is a fine case for home use and a poor one for a bag you carry around. A few pencils also arrive with broken tips, so check the set when it lands.
They are listed as erasable, which is unusual and useful. I could lift a moderate mistake with a standard eraser without tearing thin paper, though heavily layered areas still needed light rubbing. Non-toxic, acid-free, and conforming to ASTM D-4236 and EN71, which matters if the set lives on a shared family table.
Who This Set Is Best For
Adult colorists who want the largest usable palette without the duplicate-color problem, and who are willing to spend a little more time building color. If you enjoy filling large areas, experimenting with unusual hues, or you simply dislike running out mid-page, 80 distinct colors solves a real annoyance.
It is also a strong pick for travel and group use because of the named barrels and the hexagonal grip. The included DIY color list sheet lets you write your own labels, which is a low-tech fix for the tray wobble if the case gets knocked around.
Where This Set Falls Short
Blending is where budget sets show. If your style is smooth gradients and burnished blends, the visible grain here will bother you, and the extra pressure needed for saturation risks denting thin coloring-book paper.
Buy it knowing you may replace a pencil or two on arrival. My advice is to sharpen the whole set once you open it, which takes about fifteen minutes and removes the broken-tip problem permanently.
5. KALOUR 72 Count Colored Pencils – Best for Beginners
KALOUR 72 Count Colored Pencils for Adult Coloring Books, Soft Core,Ideal for Drawing Blending Shading,Color Pencils Set Gift for Adults Kids Beginners
72 distinct colors
Soft break-resistant cores
Basswood barrels
Smudge-resistant laydown
Pros
- Smooth velvety soft cores
- Break-resistant tips
- 72 genuinely distinct colors
- Basswood sharpens easily
- Smudge-resistant and lightly erasable
Cons
- Flimsy cardboard packaging
- Needs more pressure than Prismacolor
- Some shades less saturated
KALOUR is the set I recommend to someone who has never owned a good colored pencil and is unsure whether they will stick with it. It is described as a step up from Crayola — smoother laydown, more colors, no waxy buildup — and for a first serious set that description holds up under use.
The cores are silky, velvety soft and highly pigmented, and they layer without the waxy buildup that plagues several other soft sets in this price bracket. That combination is the reason several users call them comparable to Prismacolor, and colorists who already own artist-grade pencils rate them as a stand-in at a fraction of the outlay.
On break resistance, this set performed better than I expected. The break-resistant tips survived sharpening in my crank sharpener better than several soft-core premium pencils in this roundup, and the basswood barrels sharpen easily and cleanly. Each pencil is numbered and named on the barrel, so shade selection is quick even without a case that stands up.
The nearly universal complaint is the packaging. It is a flimsy cardboard sleeve with wobbly plastic trays, not portable on its own, and pencils can fall out if it is knocked. That is a real downside when you want to take a set to a class or a cafe, and my fix was to move the pencils into a separate case immediately.
Depth of color is the second note. The cores need noticeably more pressure than Prismacolor to reach the same saturation, so on a soft-core set that already wants a light touch, you are pressing a bit more than you would like. A few shades are less saturated than their neighbors, which is normal in a 72-count but worth checking if you are building a specific palette.
Smudge resistance is the underrated feature. They are lightly erasable and noticeably more smudge-resistant than pure soft wax sets, which means a finished page tolerates the back of your hand better than most. I could rest my hand on a layered area for a few seconds with minimal transfer.
Non-toxic and conforming to ASTM D-4236 and EN71-3. The listed age range starts at 5, but the intended user here is an adult who wants a forgiving, low-effort set.
Who This Set Is Best For
True beginners, and anyone returning to coloring after years away. Nothing about this set punishes inexperience — the cores are soft and forgiving, the colors are clearly labeled, and the laydown rewards light pressure rather than demanding technique.
It is also a strong second set to own later. If you start with a 24-count artist-grade tin and add this for range, the 72 distinct colors fill in gaps rather than duplicating what you have.
Where This Set Falls Short
The packaging is the dealbreaker for portability. If you color away from a desk, budget for a separate case or a fabric roll. The trays wobble, and pencils will migrate.
For a colorist chasing maximum saturation in one stroke, this is not it — the extra pressure needed is exactly the pressure that causes indentations and show-through on thin coloring-book stock. Work in thin layers and you will be fine.
6. ARTEZA 72 Colors – Best for Fine Detail With Thick Cores
ARTEZA Colored Pencils, 72 Colors, Soft Wax Cores for Coloring and Drawing
Thick 4 mm cores
Soft wax-based
72 unique colors
Pre-sharpened and labeled
Pros
- Thick 4 mm cores with strong laydown
- Resist chipping through sharpening
- 72 unique shades
- Labeled with lightfastness ratings
- Double-hinged metal tin with chart
Cons
- Wax blends less smoothly than oil-based
- Some labeled shades are hard to tell apart
- One of the higher-priced 72-count tins
The ARTEZA 72 is built around its cores, and the cores are the reason to consider it. At 4 mm diameter, these are the thickest in this roundup, and the point of that thickness is control: you get strong laydown for larger areas while still holding a sharpened point for small details, because there is simply more lead behind the tip.
For coloring pages with dense small shapes — mandalas, mosaics, patterned florals — that combination is unusually good. I could fill a background shape and then tighten the edge in the same stroke without waiting for a resharpen. The cores are also described as break-resistant and they survived repeated sharpening without chipping in my testing.
Each pencil arrives pre-sharpened and is labeled with the color name, the color number and lightfastness information. That labeling is a quiet but real advantage when you are building a palette, because you can check how a color is rated before you commit it to a page you want to keep.
The 72 colors are genuinely unique and span highlights to deep shadows, which is enough shade variety to build gradients and match tones without repeating a pencil. That is not always true of large sets, and it is a point in this set’s favor.
The wax binder is the limitation. Reviewers who compare it against premium oil-based sets note the wax cores need a bit more layering to reach the same depth and blend a little less seamlessly. My burnish test showed the same thing — smooth enough for good results, but not the creamy seamless transition you get from an oil core.
Because the shades are close together in places, the labeled numbers and the included color chart take some getting used to. Plan on swatching your palette onto a scrap sheet at the start, using the chart as your map. The double-hinged metal tin is the best storage in this roundup by a distance — it keeps 72 pencils sorted, protected and portable, and the bonus color chart helps with swatching and shade reference.
This sits at the higher end for a 72-count tin, so the value case rests on the core thickness and the packaging rather than on the count alone.
Who This Set Is Best For
Detail work and intricate geometric or mosaic pages where a thick core that holds its point matters. It is also a good choice for colorists who sharpen constantly and want a pencil that survives it.
If you fill large areas and want strong laydown without crushing the paper, the 4 mm core delivers a lot of color per stroke. The lightfastness ratings printed on the barrels are genuinely useful if some of your work is meant to last.
Where This Set Falls Short
Smooth blending. If your pages are dominated by gradients and soft transitions, an oil-based set will get there with less effort and less wax buildup at the edges.
It is also not the budget entry point, and the 72 colors include several close neighbors that take practice to tell apart. Swatch first, then commit to a palette.
7. PRINA 120 Color Set – Best Large Set With an Oil-Based Core
PRINA Art Supplies 120 Colors Colored Pencils Set for Adults Coloring Books with Sketchbook, Professional Vibrant Artists Coloring Pencils for Drawing Sketching Blending Shading, Soft Core Oil Based
120 oil-based soft cores
Color-organized zip case
Includes sketchbook and tutorial
Thick cores
Pros
- Oil-based soft core blends without smudging
- 120 colors organized by hue
- Sturdy zippered travel case
- Cores firm and unbroken in use
- Sketchbook and tutorial included
Cons
- Cores can snap if sharpened hard
- Several shades look nearly identical
- Sharpens less cleanly
The PRINA 120 is the only oil-based soft-core set at this size and price point in the roundup, and that makes it unusual. Oil cores blend across a wider range and do not smudge the way wax does, so on a page where you are layering a lot of color, the difference is real. In my blending grid it produced the cleanest transitions of any large wax-tin alternative.
Reviewers frequently describe this as the best affordable alternative to premium artist pencils, and I understand the comparison. The thick soft cores give good layering and blending, the color is bright and vivid, and the laydown is creamy rather than scratchy.
It is also a complete kit, not just a set of pencils. You get 120 oil-based pencils, a three-color sketchbook, a pencil case, and a step-by-step drawing tutorial that walks a beginner through drawing a parrot. For someone starting out, that is a lot of value in one box.
The biggest caveat is sharpening. Soft cores can snap if you sharpen aggressively, and reviewers recommend hand-sharpening. When I used the crank sharpener without care, I got chips; taking it slowly produced a clean point. This is exactly the frustration that shows up repeatedly in coloring forums with soft-core pencils, and the fix is technique, not a different pencil.
Second, 120 colors means shades sit very close together. The included color testing sheet is not optional — use it, because several pencils are nearly identical until you have them side by side. That is the trade for a range this wide, and it is why large sets can feel overwhelming to a beginner rather than liberating.
Third, the case holds colors together but you must zip pencils back in individually to keep them sorted, which is mildly annoying at the end of a session. And the cores sharpen less cleanly than harder-core sets, so expect to spend more time at the sharpener across 120 pencils.
The zippered case is otherwise strong — sturdy, and it keeps pencils secure and sorted for travel to a cafe, class, or trip. Non-toxic, eco-friendly, and conforming to ASTM D-4236 and EN71 standards.
Who This Set Is Best For
Colorists who want one large set that covers every hue family and want oil-core blending behavior without paying artist-tier pricing. It is also the best value pick for a complete beginner kit, because the sketchbook and tutorial are included.
Travel is a genuine strength here. The zippered case is the only carry-ready option in this roundup, and 120 colors means you can finish a project away from your desk without a second kit.
Where This Set Falls Short
Sharpening discipline. If you sharpen hard and fast, soft cores will snap, and with 120 pencils you will be at the sharpener constantly. If breakage bothers you, the Crayola Adult set has much more forgiving cores.
For a small workspace, 120 pencils is arguably too many. The near-identical shades make it harder, not easier, to pick a color quickly unless you actually use the testing sheet.
8. Soucolor 72 Colored Pencils – Best for Gradients on the Tightest Budget
Soucolor 72 Colored Pencils for Adult Coloring Book,Back to School Supplies
72 pre-sharpened colors
Soft break-resistant cores
Numbered with color chart
Lightfast pigments
Pros
- Silky smooth highly pigmented laydown
- Break-resistant cores sharpen easily
- Plenty of similar shades for gradients
- Numbered pencils with a color chart
- Lightfast pigments hold vibrancy
Cons
- Cardboard box with fragile trays
- Waxy outer layer must be worked through
- Blending takes more effort
Soucolor is the most surprising set in this roundup, and at 4.7 stars across more than 24,000 reviews it is also the most proven. For a quality-to-cost ratio in adult coloring, there is very little that beats it. The laydown is creamy and highly pigmented, and the cores are soft and break-resistant without splintering.
The reason it works so well for gradients is the shade distribution. Reviewers note plenty of similar shades in each hue family, and that is precisely what you need for smooth transitions — you can step from one color to the next in small increments instead of jumping between two distant shades. For landscapes, skies, and smooth background blends, that is the right shape of palette.
The cores are pre-sharpened and made of premium wood, and they sharpen with ease. The pigments are listed as lightfast, so finished work keeps its vibrancy. Each pencil is numbered and named, and a color chart is included for identification.
There is one quirk you should know about before your first session. Reviewers mention a waxy outer layer that has to be broken through before the pencil responds across pressure ranges. My experience matched: the first two strokes per pencil felt scratchy and light, and after that the laydown settled into the creamy pigment load everyone describes. Sharpen each pencil once on arrival and the problem largely disappears.
The packaging is the weak point and it is a real one. It is a cardboard box with loose plastic carriers that are not portable, and the trays break easily. Move the pencils into a proper case before you travel with them. The case is also the least organized of the roundup — the numbering and chart system is confusing and out of order, so budget time to build your own shade map.
Blending takes more effort than premium sets and can leave visible lines. That is the honest limit of this tier. You can get a good result, but a burnished smooth blend will take more passes than an oil-core set would.
The ergonomic round barrels are comfortable for long sessions, and the set is non-toxic, odorless and EN71-3 certified.
Who This Set Is Best For
Anyone who wants the lowest-cost path into a genuinely good soft-core set, and for landscapes or backgrounds where stepping through near-shades matters more than having a rare hue. It is also a good second or third set once you have a favorite 24-count tin.
Lightfast pigment is a genuine advantage for the price. If you color pages you plan to keep and display, these hold their color better than most sets at this cost.
Where This Set Falls Short
Storage, and it is not close. The cardboard box and plastic carriers will not survive being carried around, and the tray system is the weakest here. Buy a case.
Blending smoothness is the other limit. If you are doing tight detail work with a colorless blender, this set will not give you the seamless result an oil-based pencil will, and the initial waxy layer can be frustrating before you learn to work through it.
Colored Pencil Buying Guide: Cores, Set Size and Paper
Wax, oil and water-soluble cores defined
Wax-based cores are the softest and the most blendable. They layer and burnish beautifully and feel creamy on paper, which is why most adult-coloring sets in this roundup are wax. The trade is durability: wax wears fast, smudges under contact, and can develop a whitish film called wax bloom on layered areas over time.
Oil-based cores are harder and more durable. They blend across a wider range, layer more cleanly, resist smudging, and are generally more lightfast. They take more pressure to lay down heavy color, and the tactile feel is less buttery. Prismacolor Premier and the PRINA 120 sit in this family.
Water-soluble cores are a different tool entirely — they dissolve with water and function like a hybrid of pencil and watercolor. They are excellent for wet blending and washes and are not really a coloring-book choice, so they are not represented in these picks. If your interest is in that medium, the question is a different one.
For adult coloring books specifically, a soft wax or soft oil core wins over a hard wax student-grade core every time. The pages have small, densely layered areas, and a hard core scrapes the paper tooth and gives you an uneven, patchy result.
How many colors an adult colorist actually needs
Fewer than you think. Most adult colorists use 24 to 36 colors regularly, and a set of 72 is generous rather than necessary. Very large counts often contain duplicate shades dressed up as extra colors, so a 120-count set may give you 80 genuinely different hues. Shuttle Art’s 80 is the rare case where the count is stated and verified as unique.
The practical rule: buy one set around 24 to 72 colors with a good spread of light, mid and dark values, then add later based on what you actually reach for. Track your palette by writing the pencil numbers on a scrap sheet as you go. After ten pages you will know exactly which gaps to fill, and you will never buy another set with six greens and one pink.
Skin tones and usable pinks are the most commonly missing ranges. Check for them before you buy rather than after, because a set with no true pinks and no usable skin-tone range cannot do portraits at all.
Coloring-book paper, pressure, show-through and tearing
Most coloring-book paper is thin, and this interacts with pencil choice more than most guides admit. A soft core that demands heavy pressure will groove the paper, leave visible indentations, show through to the other side, and eventually tear when you build layers. The fix is not a harder pencil — it is technique with the same pencil.
Work light. Two or three thin layers at low pressure will always outperform one heavy layer, and on soft wax sets you will get more color, not less. Keep a clean sheet of scrap paper under your drawing hand, because the oils and wax in your hand transfer to the back of thin pages faster than pigment transfers to the page. If you must press hard for a dark value, put a second sheet underneath as a support.
Some books are printed on heavier card and can take more pressure without any of this. A thicker page is the real fix. If your pages tear, no pencil on this list will save them.
Wax bloom, smudging and protecting a finished page
Wax bloom is a faint whitish or greyish film that appears on heavily layered soft wax areas after weeks or months. It is a property of the binder, not a defect, and it usually buffs off with a soft cloth. Fixative under glass reduces it, and oil-based sets such as Prismacolor Premier and PRINA largely avoid it.
Smudging is the more immediate problem. Rubbing alcohol is the common answer, and it genuinely does dissolve wax binder — that is why it blends so smoothly, and it is why an alcohol-blended area can re-wet and smear later. Use it sparingly, on a dedicated test sheet first, and never over work you intend to keep pristine.
Practical protection: work right to left, keep a clean sheet under your palm, avoid resting a hand on finished areas, and place a sheet of glassine or acid-free interleaving between pages if you are storing a book you have colored. It costs almost nothing and it eliminates transfer completely.
Sharpening soft cores without snapping them
Soft cores snap when you force the sharpener. The technique that works is patience — turn the crank slowly, rotate the pencil a quarter turn each revolution, and pull the pencil out of the guide a little further each time so you are taking a fine point rather than digging for a long one. A fresh pencil in a small battery sharpener produces less pressure than a hand crank, and an eyeliner or eyebrow sharpener gives the shallowest, safest point for very soft wax cores.
Sharpen on arrival. Several sets in this roundup include pencils that ship with a blunt or slightly damaged tip, and ten minutes at the start removes the frustration for the next year. Keep a small sharpener with the case, and expect to sharpen every ten to fifteen minutes with a buttery soft set. That wear is normal, not a defect.
What improves as you move up a tier
Moving from a low-cost 72-count set to a premium soft wax tin buys you pigment density and point retention. You get more color per stroke, fewer passes to reach a dark value, and less visible grain when you burnish. You also get a case worth using.
Moving from a soft wax set to an oil-based artist set buys you blending range, smudge resistance and lightfastness. Wax is more buttery and more forgiving; oil is more durable and cleaner. For work you want to keep and display long term, lightfastness is the upgrade that actually matters.
For many adult colorists, the sensible order is a low-cost 72-count soft set first, then adding an artist-grade 24-count tin for finished work. That is the pattern that recurs most in the coloring forums we reviewed, and it is what we would do. You can see how we test the rest of our gear in the adult hockey stick roundup and the adult tricycle reviews — same approach, different equipment.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best brand of colored pencils for adults?
For most adults coloring intricate books, Prismacolor Premier is the most consistently recommended artist-grade brand because its soft thick cores lay down rich, lightfast pigment with very little pressure. On a strict budget, Castle Art Supplies and KALOUR deliver comparable blendability. The best brand for you depends less on the logo and more on whether the set includes usable pinks and skin tones.
Which is better, wax or oil based colored pencils?
Wax cores are softer and blend more easily, which makes them the usual choice for adult coloring books with small layered areas. Oil cores are harder, more durable, more smudge-resistant and generally more lightfast, so they suit work you want to keep. Beginners usually get further with a soft wax set; colorists building finished pieces usually upgrade to an oil-based set.
Are Prismacolor pencils wax or oil based?
Prismacolor Premier uses a wax-paraffin core material with an oil ink base, so it behaves in between the two camps. It is softer and more blendable than a hard wax student-grade pencil, and more durable and less smudge-prone than a pure soft wax set. That middle position is why it works for both coloring books and basic illustration.
Are Arteza colored pencils as good as Prismacolor?
They are not the same thing, but the ARTEZA 72 holds its own for a different purpose. Its thick 4 mm break-resistant cores give strong laydown and hold a point well, which suits detail work and frequent sharpening, and every pencil is labeled with its lightfastness rating. The soft wax binder needs more layering to match an oil core’s depth, so blending is slightly less seamless.
Are KALOUR and Castle Arts colored pencils good quality?
Yes, both are regularly described as the best value tier and both lay down smooth, blendable color with genuinely non-repeating shade ranges. Castle Arts pairs that pigment with a three-tier flip-top tin and softer cores, while KALOUR uses break-resistant tips and basswood barrels. Their shared weakness is packaging: both use cardboard or wobbly plastic trays that need replacing with a proper case.
Why do my colored pencils keep breaking when I sharpen them?
Soft cores break when the sharpener applies too much pressure at once. Turn the crank slowly, rotate the pencil a quarter turn each revolution, and pull it out of the guide slightly further each pass so you take a fine point instead of digging for a long one. A battery sharpener or an eyeliner sharpener puts less pressure on the lead than a hand crank, and sharpening once on arrival prevents blunt tips from chipping later.
How many colored pencils do I need for adult coloring?
Most adult colorists regularly use between 24 and 36 colors, so a set in that range is genuinely enough to start. Sets of 72 give you room to build gradients and cover unusual hues, while very large counts often contain duplicate shades, so a 120-count set may only offer about 80 different colors. Track which pencils you actually use over ten pages and fill only those gaps.
How do you stop colored pencils smearing on the page?
Work right to left and keep a clean scrap sheet under your drawing hand, since wax and oil transfer from your skin to thin paper faster than pigment transfers to the page. Rubbing alcohol dissolves wax binder and blends color smoothly, but it re-wets the area, so use it only where you want a permanent blend. For storage, place glassine or acid-free interleaving between finished pages.
Which Colored Pencil Set Should You Buy?
Buy the Crayola Colored Pencils for Adults 50 Count if you want one set that handles intricate books without fuss. It has the most forgiving cores here, the most reliable fine point, and a color range with no duplicates, and it smudges far less than any soft wax tin.
Buy the Castle Art Supplies 72 if you layer, blend and burnish and want the richest soft wax laydown in this roundup, organized in a tin that stands up. Buy the Prismacolor Premier 24 if shading and lightfast pigment matter more to you than having every color in the box.
For the rest: Shuttle Art 80 wins on honest color count, KALOUR 72 is the gentlest place to start, ARTEZA 72 wins on thick-core detail work, PRINA 120 is the only portable oil-based large set, and Soucolor 72 is the cheapest credible path into soft-core coloring. Whichever you choose, sharpen the whole set when it arrives and work in thin layers on thin paper.