Mungyo makes two soft pastel ranges and the quickest way to tell them apart on a shelf is the box colour. This one is the YELLOW box, and its own label calls the contents Mini pastel — half-length sticks. Our blue-boxed Mungyo Soft Pastels For Artists holds full-size sticks and costs roughly twice as much for the same colour count. Neither box says half or full in English on the front, so the yellow-versus-blue tell is worth remembering before you order.

Half sticks are not a lesser product; they are a different purchase. The same pigment in a shorter stick means more colours for the money, and for pastel work — where a stick is used on its side as often as its tip — the missing length costs you very little. Beginners and students almost always get further with more colours than with longer sticks.

Then there is a genuine pricing quirk in this range that is worth a minute of your time. The sets run 12 at Rs. 700, 24 at Rs. 1,325, 32 at Rs. 1,415, 48 at Rs. 2,565 and 64 at Rs. 3,415. Look at the middle two: going from 24 sticks to 32 costs only Rs. 90 more. That works out to Rs. 44.22 a stick in the 32 set against Rs. 55.21 in the 24 — the 32 is the best value in the whole range by a clear margin, and the 24 is the worst buy on the list.

The boxes are printed MUNGYO, Soft Pastel, For Artists and Pastels tendres pour artistes, with the colour count flashed on the corner and a code such as MPS-12, MPS-24, MPS-32, MPS-48 or MPS-64. The bullet list reads Mini pastel, Finest pigment, Very Soft touch and Brilliant colors, repeated in French. Both CE and AP marks appear on the front. The sticks are square in section and sit in a fitted black tray, and our photographs show one crushed into loose powder — which is exactly how soft pastels behave and why they are blended with a finger rather than a brush.

Against the rest of our pastel shelf: the Keep Smiling 12-colour box is Rs. 650, or Rs. 54.17 a stick, so it undercuts this range's 12 slightly; the blue-boxed Mungyo full-size 12 is Rs. 1,400, exactly double this one.

It suits students and artists from about 10 years up. The Safencia price starts at Rs. 700 with Cash on Delivery across Pakistan. Stock, the set size you want, your city, and delivery charges are confirmed on WhatsApp before dispatch.

Why this product is worth considering