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Prismacolor vs Polychromos: Which Colored Pencil Should You Buy?

Wax versus oil is the only real decision in colored pencil. Prismacolor blends better, Polychromos holds a point and lasts longer on a wall. Here's how to pick — and why most working artists end up owning both.

By Justin ParkUpdated August 29, 202610 min readHow we research

★ Our Top Pick

Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Colored Pencils, 72 Count

Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Colored Pencils, 72 Count

Portraits, skin tones, soft gradients. The best blender in colored pencil, and the cheaper of the two.

~$75rated 4.6/5 in our review
Check Prismacolor Premier 72 on Amazon →Read the full review ↓

Best for Detail

Faber-Castell Polychromos 36

~$74 →

Not sure yet? Compare all 2 picks below ↓

Ask any colored-pencil forum which pencil to buy and the thread splits in two within four replies. Prismacolor Premier and Faber-Castell Polychromos are the two artist-grade standards, and the argument between them never resolves because both sides are right — they're describing different tools.

The whole difference comes down to what holds the pigment together. Prismacolor uses a wax binder. Polychromos uses an oil binder. Everything people argue about downstream — blending, breakage, sharpening, bloom, archival life — follows from that one choice.

Here's the honest head-to-head, and the specific kinds of work each one wins. Both links go to Amazon with our affiliate tag; we earn a small commission at no cost to you.

Best for BlendingPick This For Portraits
Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Colored Pencils, 72 Count by Prismacolor

Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Colored Pencils, 72 Count

Prismacolor~$75
4.6
Check Prismacolor Premier 72 on Amazon →

Available at Amazon

Binder

Wax

Core Hardness

Soft

Point Retention

Poor — sharpen often

Blending

Excellent

Lightfastness

Varies widely by color

Wax Bloom

Yes — needs fixative

Pros

  • The best blending and burnishing available in colored pencil
  • Heavy pigment load covers in one or two layers
  • Lower cost per pencil than Polychromos
  • The set nearly every tutorial teaches with
  • Open stock for replacing the colors you burn through

Cons

  • Cores break easily, especially after a drop
  • Core centering is inconsistent between production runs
  • Wax bloom requires spray fixative to control
  • Some colors are not lightfast enough to sell as originals

Prismacolor wins on the property most people buy colored pencils for. The soft wax core carries an unusually heavy pigment load and melts into the layer beneath it under pressure, so gradients build without the chalky stepping harder pencils leave behind.

Where it decisively wins: skin tones and any subject rendered in soft transitions. Burnishing a Prismacolor passage produces a genuinely paint-like surface, and nothing in the Polychromos range gets there without significantly more effort.

The trade is durability, and it's not a small one. The same softness that makes the blending work makes the core fragile — a dropped pencil can shatter internally along its whole length, and you won't know until it crumbles under the sharpener. Prismacolor's core-centering quality control has been criticized for years and remains inconsistent.

The lightfastness caveat matters if you sell. Ratings across the Premier range vary a lot, and some of the most-used colors — particularly in the pinks, violets, and bright reds — are not archival. If you sell prints of scanned work this is irrelevant. If a client hangs the original, check each color before you commit.

Pick This For Portraits

The better pencil for smooth, painterly work. A soft, heavily pigmented wax core that blends and burnishes into a surface with no visible paper tooth — the reason Prismacolor dominates portrait and skin-tone work.

Choose Prismacolor if your work is built on gradients: portraits, skin, skies, soft-edged still life. Also choose it if you're learning, since almost every colored-pencil tutorial online demonstrates on these pencils.

What we don't like

Fragile cores and long-standing quality-control problems with core centering. Wax bloom hazes over burnished work within weeks unless you fixative it. And lightfastness varies widely by color, which is a genuine problem if you sell originals.

Check Prismacolor Premier 72 on Amazon →~$75 · Prismacolor
Best for Detail & Archival WorkPick This For Detail
Faber-Castell Polychromos Artists' Colour Pencils, 36 Tin by Faber-Castell

Faber-Castell Polychromos Artists' Colour Pencils, 36 Tin

Faber-Castell~$74
4.8
Check Polychromos 36 on Amazon →

Available at Amazon

Binder

Oil

Core Hardness

Firm

Point Retention

Excellent

Blending

Good, requires more layers

Lightfastness

Published per color; mostly high

Wax Bloom

None

Pros

  • Holds a fine point far longer — far less sharpening
  • No wax bloom; finished work stays as you left it
  • Published lightfastness ratings across the whole range
  • Break-resistant cores and consistent centering
  • Keeps accepting layers past the point wax goes slick

Cons

  • Blends noticeably less readily than wax
  • Needs more layers to reach full opacity
  • Higher cost per pencil
  • Firm point can score paper under heavy pressure

Polychromos is what a colored pencil looks like when the design priority is control instead of coverage. The oil binder makes a firmer core that takes a long, fine point and keeps it through sustained work — you sharpen a fraction as often, which changes the experience of detailed rendering completely.

Where it decisively wins: layered technical work. Polychromos keeps taking pigment well past the point where wax pencils go slick and stop accepting color, which is exactly what botanical and scientific illustration built from many thin passes requires.

It also never blooms. Wax bloom is a mild annoyance rather than a crisis, but a Polychromos drawing is finished the moment you stop drawing — no fixative step, no film to wipe off a week later.

Expect an adjustment period. Coming from Prismacolor, your first Polychromos drawing will feel like the pencils are resisting you. They are — the technique is different. Build color in thin layers rather than burnishing hard, and the range opens up.

Pick This For Detail

The better pencil for control and permanence. An oil core that takes a needle point and holds it, never blooms, keeps accepting layers long after wax goes slick, and carries published lightfastness ratings across the range.

Choose Polychromos if you render detail — botanical illustration, architecture, feathers and fur, anything with crisp edges. Also choose it if you sell original work, because the lightfastness data is published and mostly excellent.

What we don't like

Blending is genuinely stiffer, and no technique fully closes the gap with wax. Reaching full opacity takes more layers, and the harder point can score paper if you press the way you would with a Prismacolor.

Check Polychromos 36 on Amazon →~$74 · Faber-Castell

How we
chose

We compared the two lines on the five properties that actually differ, using manufacturer pigment and lightfastness data plus the long-run reports colored-pencil artists publish after years with each set. Where the answer is "it depends on your subject," we said so instead of picking a winner.

  • Blending and burnishing. How readily each core melts into the layer below, and how close each gets to a paint-like, tooth-free surface.
  • Point retention. How long a sharpened point survives working pressure — the property that decides whether fine detail is pleasant or maddening.
  • Lightfastness. Published ratings, and how much of each range is safe for work you intend to sell as an original.
  • Durability. Core breakage and centering consistency, the most common long-run complaint against one of these two lines.
  • Cost per pencil. Compared per-stick rather than per-tin, since set sizes differ.

Quick Shop

All Products at a Glance

Every product in this guide, with direct links to current prices.

1Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Colored Pencils, 72 CountBest for Blending · Prismacolor~$75Shop on Amazon →2Faber-Castell Polychromos Artists' Colour Pencils, 36 TinBest for Detail & Archival Work · Faber-Castell~$74Shop on Amazon →

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