Paul Rubens New Set of 72 Soft Pastel Review

I got the pleasure of working with the Paul Ruban team to bring you a review of their new set of 72 soft pastels. Full disclosure, I was sent this box for review. I did however purchase their first box of 40 myself and would have purchased this new set also. I will link it below, price is $76.99, about a $1 a stick. In my opinion, these compare to my beloved Sennelier half sticks. I will be using them in the future so look for them in more pastel videos :)
amzn.to/3BLMwkl
Here is the link to the store I picked up this post card from in the Bahamas. I wish they had more pastel paintings to buy, not just post cards. There is not an artist listed but I appreciate the inspiration.
myocean.com
Instagram: toni.herhuntress
www.herhuntress.com

[@jennw6809]

Heheh -- I just commented on the 40 set video everything you said after swatching these! These are my first set of pastels. I agree with everything you said -- great selection of yellows, kinda too many oranges for my liking -- not a lot of true reds, but nice pinks and purple -- and a bit light on the blues. And the greens are a bit bright, but at least they are there. Love the turquoises. Good number of lights, but really lacking in the darks, except for the purple. I do think they were trying to dupe Senneliers -- this was also true of the Haiya oil pastels Paul Reubens released around the same time (which are mysteriously not available in the US anymore). Those were a better deal, though, just a fraction of the price of the Sennelier oil pastels. These are a lot closer to the price per pastel of the Paris Set. I have the Paris Set and am trying to wait till Christmas to use it... also my NuPastels come Monday. The Senneliers will fill in the blues, greens and darks in my collection. Of course I want more already LOL

[@lynguyen4616]

love your water creation !

[@artistmimic]

Really liking the ocean sound, very calming. Beautiful creation. 😍🤩

[@HerHuntress]

Thank you!

[@lizziequinteros5577]

Hola al inicio me pareció que había pocos azules y celestes en el set; pero al combinarlos ha obtenido transiciones muy hermosas. Gracias por la demostración

[@tdelphia1]

I would love to see your results if you were using a better quality pastel. These are student quality pastels so not as pigmented as professional quality pastels. A half stick set from Great American or Unison might be a good add on for your Senneliers. These PRs look nice in the box, but…ugh. The advertising of these as “professional quality” pastels is like calling Thunderbird fine wine ;-). BTW, if you are looking for extra darks, Blue Earth just came out with an extra dark set that rivals the Terry Ludwig darks.

[@HerHuntress]

Thank you for the info! I love Blue Earth, I'll have to check out their dark set. I have the Unison dark set that I use, but I'm not a huge fan of the other colors. I would like to check out Great American next. I've only tried one in a Dakota sampler set.

[@sarakatharina2928]

Hello! I like your video and your painting :-) once you mention you sprayed it down with "alcohol" and my question is: what do you mean exactly? Did you just spray some Vodka or something from a drugstore/pharmacy? Thank you

[@HerHuntress]

Sure! I use isopropyl alcohol from the drugstore. Any percent will work, but the one I have is 90%. It doesn't seem to darken my colors like a fixative does. It's worth trying ;)

[@sarakatharina2928]

@@HerHuntress Thank you so much

[@annelloydholden2567]

Have you tried the Soho and if so, how to they compare. Thank you

[@alicereed5368]

These are made in China I believe.

[@HerHuntress]

Yes, I would agree with that.