I was afraid that the sticks would come broken from being tossed about during shipping.  Thankfully all of them are in one piece.  I have never used water soluble oil pastel before therefore I did not know what to expect.  However, the result from my first try is not shabby at all.  I use the 3 shades of yellow (pale to orange) to fill out the blank area from a coloring page I was working on using US Art Supply's water brush.  The result was satisfying.  The pastel touched the paper between waxed crayon and regular oil pastel.  If I used too much force, bits would crumble.  However, the color is opaque enough that even at a light touch it adhered to the paper nicely.  I like the result and will definitely use it more in color blending.