Welcome to the wrap up of our colored pencils product reviews. There are some companies we have not reviewed, but most of these companies are foreign-based and cater to drawing enthusiasts with artist quality colored pencils. Much like Caran d’Ache, they would not score highly and would not be price competitive with the American-based companies we’ve reviewed.
We learned that there aren’t many colored pencils that are still made in America. Our only five-star review, and the only review to score more than two stars, is New Jersey-based General Pencil. Their Multichrome and Color-Tex pencils are 100% American-made and definitely earn the American Alternative Approved stamp of approval.
Both Crayola and Prismacolor are headquartered in America, but both only do some of their colored pencil manufacturing domestically. Prismacolor’s artist quality pencils score two stars , while Crayola’s standard quality pencils score 1.5 stars but are more affordable.
Florida-based P’Kolino offers two lines of colored pencils, both scoring one star. Their hexagon pencils are made entirely of colored pencil core, no wooden casing, while their triangle pencils have a casing made from Taiwanese wood.
The Swiss company Caran d’Ache makes very high quality pencils, and scores 0.5 stars for using California cedar for their pencil casings. They offer the most expensive pencil, with a set of 38 pencils costing well over $100.
Rose Art is owned by a Canadian conglomerate and scores no stars, but they sell the cheapest pencil. If you are considering Rose Art pencils for the price, we encourage you to think about Crayola’s pencils instead. They are only slightly more expensive, but are much more American-made.
Here is a list of all the colored pencils we reviewed, as well as their approximate costs at the time of writing.
General Pencil – $1/pencil
Prismacolor – $0.71/pencil
Crayola – $0.14/pencil
P’Kolino Hexagon – $0.24/pencil
P’Kolino Triangle – $0.85/pencil
Caran d’Ache – $3.68/pencil
Rose Art – $0.13/pencil
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