SueColor 180 Colored Pencils Review: 180 Colors for Around $40

Introduction

Large colored pencil sets often promise more than they deliver, so a 180-color set selling for around $40 on Amazon naturally invites skepticism. That curiosity is exactly what led to a hands-on testing session with the SueColor 180 Colored Pencils, a set marketed with the phrases “premium quality,” “vibrant colors,” “rich pigment,” and “soft core.” After sketching, layering, sharpening, and erasing with them, the short version is this: the set over-delivers for the price, with a few caveats to keep in mind.

First Impressions and Unboxing

The packaging does a couple of things right. All 180 colors are printed on the back of the box, so there is no folded color chart card to dig out every time you sit down to draw. Inside, the pencils arrive in a multi-tray layout, and pulling the trays out is genuinely satisfying. The sheer number of pencils is almost overwhelming, and the blues and purples in particular look rich right out of the box.

The bottom tray arrived slightly damaged, which is worth noting, though at this price point it is easy to overlook since the pencils themselves were fine. One small delight: a DIY color card is included, which is a cute extra even if it contradicts the no-fuss packaging philosophy.

Price and Value

At roughly $40 for 180 pencils, each pencil works out to about 22 cents. That is an impressive per-pencil cost for a set that performs this well. SueColor positions the set as premium quality, and while it does not compete with professional-grade pencils like Faber-Castell Polychromos, Caran d’Ache Luminance, or Prismacolor, it sits comfortably in what is best described as student grade: good quality, good price point, and very usable for serious practice.

Testing the Pencils on Paper

Testing was done on Canson Mi-Teintes paper, a two-sided sheet with texture on one side and a smooth finish on the other. The textured side has more tooth for the pigment to grab onto and works well for layering.

The first surprise was the feel. Expecting a waxy, dry core, the pencils instead came across as soft and creamy, gliding much more smoothly than anticipated. Full coverage on heavily textured paper takes some building, but that is a paper characteristic more than a pencil flaw. Layering worked well over two small doodles with a decent amount of buildup, and only a small amount of wax bloom appeared by the end, less than expected for a soft core at this price.

One thing to watch: the set includes metallic colors. That was a pleasant surprise, but it can catch you off guard. A pencil labeled “metallic orange” behaves very differently from a standard orange, so it pays to actually read the color names before committing to a layer. Along the same lines, the naming can be amusingly literal: one pencil is called “brownish red” and another “reddish brown,” and they look nearly identical.

Drawing With the Set: A Cozy Fall Doodle

A real test means drawing something, so a small, doodly illustration of a cute latte mug with whipped cream and cinnamon sticks became the test piece, designed with a possible sticker in mind. The pencils handled a range of tasks: light sketching, blocking in warm fall colors, adding gray tones for shading, blushing with a salmon pink, and tying everything together with yellows and oranges.

The core is creamy enough that lighter tones blend over darker ones reasonably well. White pencil lightened the whipped cream effectively, and a light brown defined edges cleanly. There are also usable sketching pencils in the set, which is handy since dedicated graphite pencils are not typically included.

The cores take an eraser well, lifting cleanly without leaving heavy ghosting, which matters a lot when correcting a drawing mid-process.

Sharpening, Erasing, and Long-Term Considerations

Sharpening was handled with a standard manual sharpener, and the cores sharpened to a clean point. Sharpening pencils to a sharper tip turned out to make a noticeable difference: better coverage when layering and less of a grainy texture in the finished color. That tip applies to any soft-core pencil, but it is especially useful here.

Lightfastness is the main unknown. The box does not advertise any lightfast ratings, and at this price that is expected. If archival permanence matters for your work, treat these as practice and student-work pencils rather than pieces meant to sit in direct sunlight for years.

Buying Advice

This set makes sense for three types of buyers:

• Beginners and students who want a huge color range without a big investment
• Hobby artists who doodle, illustrate, or journal and want variety
• Anyone who already owns professional pencils but wants a large palette for casual work or color experiments

If you need guaranteed lightfastness or ultra-precise professional pigment, look higher up the price ladder. If you want maximum color for minimum cost, this is one of the better-value options available.

Conclusion

The SueColor 180 Colored Pencils earn a five-star impression for what they are: an affordable, soft-core, genuinely pleasant-to-use student-grade set with 180 colors and a metallic bonus range. At roughly 22 cents per pencil, the value is hard to argue with, and the small amount of wax bloom observed is a reasonable trade-off. For anyone curious about a big affordable set, this one is easy to recommend.