Top 5 compared
The best oil pastels
Bright, buttery color to push around with a fingertip, for first scribbles, sketchbook pages or a finished picture.
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The top 5 at a glance
Oil pastels are pigment held in oil and wax, so they go on thick and smooth and don’t crumble to dust the way chalk pastels do. Student sets are firmer and cheaper, good for learning and for small hands; artist sets are softer, carry more color and blend more easily. They began in Japan in the 1920s, when Sakura made them as a brighter, softer crayon for children’s art lessons.
Pentel’s classroom set is the firm kind here; the rest are soft sticks that blend well but snap more readily. Oil pastels never fully dry, so a finished picture needs protecting, either framed behind glass or sprayed with a fixative made for oil pastels.
What matters
- Plenty of in-between shades, not just bright primaries.
- Sticks wrapped in paper, so fingers stay cleaner.
- A lightfastness rating, for work that will hang in daylight.
- A non-toxic label on any set meant for children.
#1Mungyo Gallery Soft Oil Pastels (48 colors)
$10–$20
Soft, creamy sticks that lay down thick, vivid color, blend with a fingertip and work as well on canvas board as on paper: artist quality that a beginner can still enjoy from the first page.
What owners say: Rich, vivid color and a creamy consistency make them easy going for beginners and satisfying for professionals, and finished pieces can look almost like oil paint.
A closer look: Oil pastels never fully harden, so protect finished pieces behind glass or with a fixative made for oil pastels. Store the box flat and somewhere cool, as soft sticks get softer still in a warm room.
- 11mm-thick sticks
- Blends with a fingertip
- Works on canvas board
- Made in Korea
- Non-toxic
Best for: Rich color at any level
- Colors
- 48
#2Artecho Soft Oil Pastels (48 colors)
$10–$20
Forty-eight soft, bright pastels that blend easily with a fingertip, each in its own paper sleeve so they’re less likely to snap or smear each other in the box. A cheerful first set for a child, a student or a grown-up trying something new.
What owners say: Soft and crayon-like, with vivid pigment, they blend easily for beginners and practiced artists alike, and they’re cheap enough to share with kids.
A closer look: Try sgraffito: lay down a thick layer of bright colors, cover it with a dark one, then scratch a picture through with a toothpick, the same idea as rainbow scratch-art paper. Leave the sleeves on while drawing and peel them back only as each stick wears down.
- Paper sleeve on every stick
- Blends with a fingertip
- 70 × 10mm sticks
- Non-toxic
Best for: Beginners of any age
- Colors
- 48
#3MEEDEN Soft Oil Pastels (72 colors)
$20–$30
Seventy-two colors with plenty of in-between shades for skies, skin tones and landscapes, and a level-3 lightfastness rating from the maker so finished work shouldn’t fade. Each stick is individually wrapped to keep colors clean.
What owners say: First-timers in particular take to the buttery texture and rich color, and the blending is smooth enough for clean highlights, shadows and mid-tones. Some pair them with watercolor or acrylic in mixed-media pieces.
A closer look: Work from light to dark and blend as you go: a pale color laid over a dark one struggles to cover it. Keep a tissue handy to wipe the tip clean between colors, and use thick paper or card, as a heavy layer of pastel can buckle thin sketch paper.
- Rated to resist fading
- Individually wrapped sticks
- 69 × 10mm sticks
- Low odor
Best for: Hobby artists
- Colors
- 72
#4Mont Marte Extra Soft Oil Pastels (120 colors)
$30–$50
A hundred and twenty colors with paint-box names like Naples Yellow, Terracotta and Peony, in an extra-soft, buttery formula that blends cleanly and can be spread with a palette knife for texture.
What owners say: Heavily pigmented and easy to blend, they’re a pleasure to work with by most accounts. Some sticks break easily while others hold up, and owners describe the coverage as semi-opaque.
A closer look: Mont Marte suggests brushing an oil medium or turpentine over the top for a glaze, which softens the strokes into something closer to paint. Soft sticks snap more easily than firm ones, so put each one back in its slot rather than loose in a pencil case.
- Named colors like Naples Yellow
- Spreads with a palette knife
- Glazes with an oil medium
- Extra-soft, buttery texture
- Paper, card or canvas
Best for: Painterly work and blending
- Colors
- 120
#5Pentel Arts Oil Pastels PHN-50 (50 sticks)
Under $10
The classroom classic: 50 bright sticks in 49 colors, acid-free and fade-resistant, for paper, canvas or artboard. They’re firmer than the artist sets here, which suits detail work and small hands.
What owners say: Home art lessons and classroom rubbings are where they shine, with rich primary colors that suit beginners and children.
Heads up: Some owners find them too firm to blend easily and notice a strong smell; a paper blending stump or a cotton swab makes blending easier.
A closer look: For children, try wax-resist: draw in pastel, then paint over the top with watercolor and the lines shine through. It’s a perfect rainy-day activity, the painting doesn’t need to be neat, and these firmer sticks stand up well to small hands pressing hard.
- Acid-free and fade-resistant
- Resists humidity
- Firm sticks for detail work
- Made in Japan
- Paper, canvas or artboard
Best for: Children and classrooms
- Colors
- 49 (50 sticks)
How they compare
Swipe sideways or rotate device to see all 5.
| Feature | #1Mungyo Gallery 48 | #2Artecho 48 | #3MEEDEN 72 | #4Mont Marte 120 | #5Pentel 50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall | Runner-up | Most colors | Best budget | ||
| Picked Rating | 9.5 | 9.4 | 9.3 | 9.2 | 9.1 |
| Price | $10–$20 | $10–$20 | $20–$30 | $30–$50 | Under $10 |
| Colors | 48 | 48 | 72 | 120 | 49 (50 sticks) |
| Best for | Rich color at any level | Beginners of any age | Hobby artists | Painterly work and blending | Children and classrooms |
| Buy now | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon |
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