The exceptional diameter of the Conté à Paris pastel pencil (5 mm) lead gives genuine freedom of creation and has an unrivalled feel. The pastel is a perfect pencil companion to soft pastel because it's lead is slightly harder with less pigment. It is preferable to Conté soft pastels and crayons when detail is required for small and medium sized formats. In contrast with soft pastel, pastel pencil should not be added in successive layers of colours, but used as pure colours laid out in patchwork fashion side by side (so as not to dull the shades).