The best colored pencils for adult coloring are not always the most expensive ones, and they are almost never the set you grabbed off the endcap at the craft store on a whim. After testing five brands across the same coloring book pages for several weeks, I have opinions — and a comparison table that should save you a Saturday afternoon of trial and error.
This is a head-to-head look at Prismacolor Premier, Faber-Castell Polychromos, Crayola, Arteza, and Caran d’Ache Luminance. I scored each one on five criteria that actually matter when you sit down with a printed mandala: price per pencil, blendability, layering, color saturation, and lightfastness. No affiliate fluff, no “all of them are amazing” hedging. Some of these are great. One is genuinely bad.
How I Tested the Best Colored Pencils for Adult Coloring
Each brand colored the same three sections of an identical printed page on 90 gsm paper. I rated blendability by trying a smooth gradient between two analogous colors, layering by stacking four passes of the same hue, saturation by eyeballing the darkest single-pass result, and lightfastness by leaving a swatch in a sunny window for two weeks. Prices are per-pencil at the most common set size (so a 24-set price divided by 24, etc.) in May 2026.
Paper matters more than people admit. If you are working on cheap printer stock, even Caran d’Ache will look mediocre. For a deeper dive into substrate, see our guide to the best paper for coloring books.
The 5 Brands, Compared
| Brand | Price/pencil | Blendability | Layering | Saturation | Lightfastness |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prismacolor Premier | $1.20 | Excellent | Excellent | Very high | Mixed |
| Faber-Castell Polychromos | $2.10 | Very good | Excellent | High | Excellent |
| Caran d’Ache Luminance | $5.40 | Excellent | Very good | High | Outstanding |
| Arteza Expert | $0.55 | Good | Good | Medium-high | Fair |
| Crayola (adult) | $0.25 | Poor | Fair | Medium | Poor |
1. Prismacolor Premier — the sentimental favorite
Wax-based, soft cores, buttery on the page. Prismacolor Premier blends with almost no effort, which is why coloring YouTubers have been recommending them for a decade. The downsides are real though: cores break if you drop the pencil, lightfastness varies wildly between colors (the pinks and violets fade fast), and quality control has slipped since the brand changed hands. Still my top pick under $1.50 per pencil.
2. Faber-Castell Polychromos — the serious choice
Oil-based, harder cores, sharp points that stay sharp. Polychromos do not blend quite as effortlessly as Prismacolor, but they layer cleaner, do not crumble, and the lightfastness is in another league. If you frame your finished pages, this is the answer. If you just want to relax for an hour, Polychromos might feel a little stiff.
3. Caran d’Ache Luminance — the luxury option
Almost every pigment is rated for the highest lightfastness category. Cores are soft like Prismacolor but feel denser, and the pigment load is enormous. At over $5 a pencil, this is fine-art territory. Overkill for casual coloring, but if you sell or commission work, the math eventually justifies it.
4. Arteza Expert — best value
This is the surprise of the test. Arteza’s 120-set lands around $0.55 a pencil and the cores are softer and more pigmented than I expected. Blending is a step below Prismacolor, layering tops out around three passes, and lightfastness is just okay. But for a beginner who wants 120 colors without spending $150, it is genuinely the right call.
5. Crayola — skip them for adult coloring
Crayola makes great kids’ pencils. They are not adult coloring tools. The cores are hard, the pigment load is thin, the colors look chalky on detailed line art, and they barely blend. The “adult” rebrand of their pencils is the same product in a darker box. If you already own a set, fine — but do not buy them for this.
Which of the Best Colored Pencils for Adult Coloring Should You Buy?
- Best overall: Prismacolor Premier 72-set. Strong blending, fair price, widely available.
- Best for serious work: Faber-Castell Polychromos. Layering and lightfastness are worth the upcharge.
- Best on a budget: Arteza Expert 120-set. More than enough for someone who just started.
- Best splurge: Caran d’Ache Luminance. Buy open-stock to avoid the $700 full set.
- Best for kids in the same house: Crayola, but keep them away from your adult coloring book.
One more thing worth saying out loud: pencils are only half the equation. The other half is markers, and they answer a different question entirely. We did a side-by-side write-up on markers vs colored pencils for coloring books that covers when each tool actually wins.
For a deeper sense of pigment-quality standards and how lightfastness is rated, the Wikipedia entry on colored pencils has a solid overview of binders, cores, and the ASTM D6901 lightfastness standard most manufacturers reference.
A Word on Sets vs Open Stock
If you are still deciding whether to invest at all, our piece on whether adult coloring books are worth it walks through the actual cost-per-hour math. Short version: a $25 box of decent pencils plus one printable book pays for itself inside a month if you color even twice a week.
Always start with a small set — 24 or 36 colors — and only move up if you find yourself reaching for shades you do not own. The best colored pencils for adult coloring are the ones you actually pick up and use, not the 150-color tin sitting in its presentation case. Buy fewer, color more, replace the colors you wear out from open stock. That is the whole game.
One more note on best colored pencils for adult coloring: the practical upshot is what we covered above. Best colored pencils for adult coloring questions tend to have answers that vary by situation, and the best colored pencils for adult coloring guidance in this post is intentionally written as a starting framework rather than a one-size answer.
