I was asked about oil paints the other day. Unfortunately for oil paints, I have only a few products to mention, and not a vast variety.
In 2022, Faber Castell’s Creative Studio oil paints set and Faber Castell’s tempera oil paints were free of animal derivatives.
In September 2023, I received the information that Caran d’Aches’ entire Neopastel line was free of animal derivatives.
Faber Castell Compendium entry
I was asked for advice about the differences of Luminance and Polychromos coloured pencils. First of all, I would like to say, if you have the chance to try both out, do it and see what fits your needs best.
They have both great lightfastness, the Polychromos range is bigger with 120 pencils. The Polychromos are a harder coloured pencil and they are oil based. The Luminance coloured pencils are wax based, of a creamy consistancy. You also have to check for exceptions with the Luminance range, not all are free of animal derivatives ( exceptions ).
Generally, what I found was:
for Luminance (Caran d’Ache):
for Polychromos (Faber-Castell):
Luminance and Polychromos apply both well on top of watercolour, with gentle touch on top of gouache (with more pressure the gouache gets grated off) and on top of matte acrylics.
It is truly up to your own preference, what colour shades you need and the purpose you need them for. I use both.
For pencil dust removal, I mostly use a vegan baby kabuki make-up brush , which is great to get the pencil dust off of small areas. For larger areas I use a brush with handle, which is called “Zeichenbesen” in German. It looks like the brush you use with a dustpan (or a short handled toothbrush). If you dust with your hand, you risk smudging.
Another option are the watercolour pencil ranges (Albrecht Dürer and Supracolour Soft are my examples), which apply creamier compared to e.g. the Polychromos.
You find my latest Caran d’Ache blog post here ; and my compendium entry. Remember, not all Luminance coloured pencils are free of animal derivatives, there are exceptions.
My latest blog post about Faber-Castell is over here , and there is also my compendium entry.
I am very glad to be the messenger of such good news.
Caran d’Ache sent me their certificate of compliance .
I contacted them for products free of animal derivatives – including manufacturing process- and for their cruelty-free status. And good tidings I bring.
Please see the Caran D’Ache certificate of compliance and pay attention to exceptions in product lines. Some products contain the pigment ivory black, which is of an animal source.
Neither products nor raw materials get tested on animals.
Product lines free of animal derivatives (with exceptions of products containing the pigment ivory black):
Source: mail contact