CN Essence vs Tombow Irojiten Colored Pencils: Which Budget-Friendly Set Deserves Your Money?

Introduction

A short clip circulating on social media shows a set of colored pencils layering in a way that looks almost too good to be true, with pigment stacking into rich, saturated coverage. The pencil in that clip is the CN Essence, a Chinese brand sold largely through AliExpress. To find out whether the hype is real or the result of careful video editing, we picked up the largest 120-pencil set and ran it through a full round of swatching, layering, blending, and mineral spirits tests. We also lined it up against the Tombow Irojiten, a pencil it resembles so closely you could easily mistake one for the other.

First Impressions and Build Quality

The CN Essence set arrives in a metal tin that looks very reminiscent of any standard 120-pencil tin, the kind you would associate with premium European sets. The inside of the lid has a numbered swatch chart for every color. Available set sizes are 24, 36, 72, and this 120 set, though the 24 set uses a visibly different barrel design despite sharing the same name.

The pencils themselves have a striking white barrel with the pigment identifier at the very end, and the contrast between the white barrel and the colored end cap makes color selection genuinely quick and easy. Each pencil has a 3.6 mm core in a 7.7 mm round barrel. Printed details are minimal: a small logo, the CN Essence name, the pigment identifier, a number matching the lid chart, and some Chinese text that does not translate cleanly through any translation tool. There are no color names printed on the barrel, only numbers.

Sharpening was completely trouble-free across the whole set. One practical note: the pencils arrived with only a loose color arrangement, so we reorganized all 120 into a proper color-coded gradient, which took time and may frustrate anyone who dislikes sorting pencils out of the box.

How They Perform on Paper

Swatching was done first on Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Vellum, and the first impression was genuinely positive. The pigment is striking and vibrant, and it did not take heavy pressure to get strong color down. The palette is well rounded for a 120 set, with excellent earth tones, ochres, and a useful range of grays. If there is a nitpick, it is the greens and yellows: several shades sit very close to one another, and a couple of lighter greens would have been a welcome addition. It is not a dedicated portrait palette, though the ochres and burnt tones along the bottom of the range give you enough to get by.

Layering, Blending, and Odorless Mineral Spirits

The full test suite was run on Fabriano Artistico Extra White Hot Press 140 paper, 100% cotton. The layering test applies five layers of the same color in separate columns, from a single light layer held at the end of the pencil to a single heavy application. Even the weight-of-pencil-only layer delivered ample pigment, and five layers stacked cleanly with good saturation throughout. The blending test pairs yellow with red, yellow with blue, and red with blue. All three transitions produced convincing third colors, including the red-to-blue purple, which is typically the hardest to achieve.

The odorless mineral spirits test, done with a lemon-scented solvent, showed the pigment breaking down smoothly for solvents-based blending. For artists who work with odorless mineral spirits, this pencil handles it well.

On black paper, the CN Essence colors read as notably opaque and vibrant, sitting closer to a rich, covering pencil than a translucent one. That matters for anyone who likes working on dark surfaces.

Here is the honest verdict on the viral layering claim: across Bristol vellum, Fabriano Artistico, and Derwent Lightfast paper, the pencils layer nicely and deliver strong saturation, but they did not reproduce the dramatic coverage shown in that viral clip. The clip’s original artwork appears to have been done on a Chinese professional drawing and sketching paper from a brand along the lines of Flybird, so the paper itself may be the difference. We cannot confirm or debunk that 100%, but if you buy this set expecting that exact result on standard western papers, you will likely be disappointed. Expect good layering and saturation, not miracles.

Who Should Buy the CN Essence

In actual use, the CN Essence reminded us of the Faber-Castell Polychromos in feel: a fairly hard core that holds a point well while still delivering a generous application of color. Not every hard-core pencil behaves this way, and it is one of the more pleasant surprises here. In artwork tests on Derwent Lightfast paper, the layering process was genuinely enjoyable, even if the final piece did not match the viral clip. If you accept it as a good, saturated, hard-core pencil rather than a magic layering machine, it is an easy set to like.

The Tombow Irojiten Comparison

Halfway through testing, the realization landed: the CN Essence looks virtually identical to the Tombow Irojiten. The pigment identifier, the core size, the barrel size, every visual aspect matches, down to the inch-long colored end cap. But the cores are very different.

The CN Essence delivers noticeably more saturation and color than the Tombow Irojiten. The Irojiten is a pleasant pencil, but like a classic layering pencil it needs good quality paper and multiple passes to build real color density; one or two light layers will not give you saturated coverage. The CN Essence gets there faster. If you already own the Irojiten and like the format, the CN Essence is essentially the same ergonomics with a punchier core.

Buying Advice

Choose the CN Essence 120 set if you want a large, saturated, hard-core palette at an accessible price and are comfortable ordering through AliExpress, where the set is primarily sold. Choose the Tombow Irojiten if you prefer an established brand and enjoy a slower, layered approach to building color. If your main reason for eyeing the CN Essence is the viral layering video, temper your expectations: the pencil is good, but the paper in that clip appears to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

Conclusion

The CN Essence turned out to be a better pencil than the mystery around it. It sharpens well, blends convincingly, breaks down cleanly under odorless mineral spirits, and delivers strong saturation with a hard, point-holding core. It does not replicate the astonishing layering from the clip that made it famous, at least not on the papers most artists already own. Judged on its own merits, though, it is a genuinely enjoyable set, and its visibly richer cores make it the stronger pick over the visually identical Tombow Irojiten for anyone who wants more color with less effort.