I tried a few pastel brands ( Sennelier, Unisons, Shuminke, Rembrandt, Great American ), but I like Girault the best so far. I like the firmness of them in my hands, yet they are so soft when you apply them to surfaces. Pigmentation is excellent and consistently good throughout the set.

I just the colors of the portrait set again so creamy and wonderful to work with.

Great colors and creamy feel.

they are amazing! brilliant color, smooth application on almost anything and a wonderful sheen.

To clarify, I would probably give Girault pastels a 5 in general and this particular selection of 25 colors a 4. As far as the colors sticks go these are among the best I have tried. They are not buttery soft, more like very colorful chalks, but the colors are truly vibrant and look powerful on the paper (and don’t stain your hands as much as some brands). You can easily go all the way from fine line drawing to painting fields of color with this brand. No hard pastels are needed. This set is fine for portraits, given the limitations of 25 colors, although some colors were a bit too similar, and thus some colors I would like not present, for my taste that is. Still, managed to finish one painting with set alone.