The dark colors make your pastels zing, but the paper pads themselves are beautifully made and so portable. I have both a dark and light colored pad.

Very nice working pad with dark colors. I got the Botticelli design. Haven't used pastels on the paper yet, but glad to have some alternate colored backgrounds in my kit.

I've done a couple paintings on this stuff - the bumpy (not pumice sharp) tooth is kinda like La Carte Pastel Card. I use a lot of soft (Blue Earth, Richeson etc) pastels and the tooth fills up quickly. It will take additional layers, but subsequent layers lay down smooth, they don't have the pastel texture they would on, say, UArt 600. It's a handy format, wire bound with interleaved tracing paper. I have only tried the dark pad - the colors aren't real dark, maybe 3/10. You can put darker colors on it.

I have only used one sheet of the paper with my pastels. It has some similarities to Pastelmat but with a more textured surface. You can move the pastel around a little better than PM but using a sponge is not effective as the pastel lifts from the paper. (I had to use my fingers to move or blend) On the positive side of this situation, it is fairly easy to remove pastel from the surface if you are unhappy with a mark mad or a section is just not working. I am not sure how well the pastel will stay adhered if applied in several layers. It does not hold as much pastel as UArt 400 or Luxarchival. I have not tried an underpainting as each paper is tinted so did not seem necessary,

I just received my new Mazzouli Pastel Pad and it’s a great paper to paint on. I really gave it a go and worked on backgrounds and how much pastel it takes, strokes and hard edges. It took the pastel great, I was able to blend a few sample backgrounds without making mud, it takes quite a few layers of pastel and I really like it comes with glassine between each page. I compared it with Pastelmat and it did not disappoint!