$800 Gucci Colored Pencils vs Prismacolor Premier: Are Luxury Art Pencils Worth It?

Introduction

Luxury fashion houses have a long habit of turning stationery into status objects, and colored pencils are no exception. Gucci’s 2021 winter line included a 40-piece watercolor pencil set in a monogram roll case, priced at $735 before tax, or $795 all in. That works out to roughly $19.95 per pencil.

To see whether the price reflects anything beyond the name, this comparison puts the Gucci set against the Prismacolor Premier 12-count watercolor pencil set, a widely available option that costs a small fraction of the price. Both are watercolor pencils, which matters more than it might sound: watercolor pencils behave more like a compressed stick of watercolor than a regular colored pencil, with very different pigment behavior, blending, and longevity.

What You Get for $800

The Gucci set is presented in a roll case crafted from the house’s monogram canvas, coated in a layer of plastic that gives it a noticeably plasticky feel. The design is finished with gold double-G hardware, and even the snap closure carries the brand name. Official product copy describes it as inspired by school stationery of the past, leaning on vintage appeal rather than performance claims.

Notably, the product description says nothing at all about how the pencils actually work as an art tool. That omission becomes significant later, because the small paint brush icon on each barrel reveals that these are watercolor pencils, a detail the marketing copy never mentions.

The color selection is genuinely complete for a drawing set, including silver and gold, and it closely mirrors the palette of another luxury house’s pencil set released around the same era, at roughly $200 less. Still, at $19.95 per pencil, the math is hard to justify on materials alone.

Testing the Watercolor Performance

This is where the set surprises. In direct water testing, the Gucci pencils performed really well, dissolving and bleeding smoothly. The initial expectations were low, and this result alone gives the set some credibility as an actual art tool rather than pure packaging.

The Prismacolor Premier 12-count watercolor pencil set was picked up the next day for comparison, and it is a product with a solid track record in watercolor pencil use. Right away, the writing feel differs: the Prismacolor pencils feel buttery and smooth, while the Gucci pencils feel closer to a basic drugstore pencil.

Color payoff also differs noticeably. Comparing the reds side by side, the Gucci red reads as a pink-leaning shade, while the Prismacolor red is a deeper, more traditional red. A waxy white filler mixed into the pigment lightens the Gucci shade, and filler is a common way to cut pigment costs.

Build Quality and Barrel Details

Several construction choices on the Gucci pencils raise eyebrows. The barrels are made from compressed wood that has been treated, bleached, and pressed, a material typically reserved for the cheapest pencil tiers. Higher-end pencils, such as Caran d’Ache, use a single piece of wood, and the difference is easy to spot when the barrels are compared directly.

The barrels are also very light and thin. Thinner barrels are a practical weakness for artists: when a thin pencil is dropped, the lead inside tends to shatter, and every subsequent sharpening sheds broken pigment until the pencil becomes unusable. Thicker barrels, common on more expensive artist pencils, resist this. The Gucci lead core is also visibly smaller than the Prismacolor core, another cost-saving approach that is surprising at this price point.

The Verdict After Making Art

Putting the pencils to work on an actual artwork settles the question. The Gucci set is not very functional for serious art making. It earns roughly a 4 out of 10 as a pencil.

What you are really buying is the name, the limited-edition status of a set from a seasonal collection, and the special roll case. Is it a fun novelty and a cool conversation piece? Yes. Is it a recommended art supply? No.

Which One Should You Buy

For anyone who actually wants to draw and paint with watercolor pencils, the Prismacolor Premier set delivers smoother laydown, richer pigment, a thicker core, and reliable watercolor behavior at a fraction of the cost. It is the practical choice by a wide margin.

The Gucci set only makes sense as a collector’s novelty, and even then, the compressed wood construction, thin barrel, smaller lead, and washed-out pigment undercut the luxury price. If the goal is art, skip it. If the goal is owning a designer object that happens to sharpen, it exists, briefly, in one seasonal collection.

Conclusion

The $800 Gucci pencil set proves that luxury pricing buys branding, packaging, and scarcity, not better drawing performance. Against a modestly priced Prismacolor watercolor set, the designer option loses on feel, pigment richness, core size, and barrel construction, while still impressing in one area: water solubility. For working artists, the value choice is clear. For novelty collectors, it is a quirky, beautifully packaged indulgence that should never be mistaken for a studio tool.