Brand Overview is a series where multiple posters give their opinions on a brand. Thus far, we have covered Schmincke Horadam, Daniel Smith, Winsor & Newton, Holbein, Roman Szmal and Rosa Gallery.
Nevskaja Palitra White Nights is a professional grade watercolor produced in St. Petersburg, Russia. Their name White Nights comes from the nights in summer in St. Petersburg, where the sun doesn’t set completely, getting a night that doesn’t go dark. The watercolors have been produced since the early 1930s. They carry 145 colors, which consists of 87 classic colors, 18 pastel colors, 33 granulating colors and 7 metallic colors. The watercolor binder is gum arabic based. Their full pans are smaller than the standard size of other brands.
Our hot takes and favorite colors
Leslie
I purchased White Nights’ 24 set of 10 mL tubes in early 2022 as my first set of professional watercolors. I was attracted to the mostly single pigment and mostly lightfast lineup, which included expensive cobalts and cadmiums. World events have greatly changed the availability of this brand in the USA; Blick and Jackson’s no longer carry them, and the set I bought on Amazon for $46 is now $80. If for some reason you want to buy this set today you’re going to have to decide whether the pros are worth the high dud rate, all at an increased cost.
Disclaimer that the tube formula is supposedly different from pan formula, which I’ve never tried.
Favorites:
- Cadmium red light (PR108): A cheerful orangey red. To me, tertiary colors are inherently eye-catching and give illustrations an edge. This color is great for flesh, like a subsurface scattering color, and as a cadmium I trust it’ll be lightfast even when diluted for light layers. Just know that there’s some opacity in masstone.
- Green (PG8): Beautiful moody hooker’s green color and well-behaved for this brand. It can get quite dark and is a great base for naturalistic mixed greens. This pigment isn’t used by many manufacturers, possibly because it’s marginally lightfast.
- Turquoise blue (PB15:3+PG7), with conditions: This color is unique and evocative in illustration work. Its palette space is justified because WN’s relatively weak PG7+PB15:3 mixed with a brush could never be as strong. The hue is too green to work as a very cool blue, which leads to surprising color pairings, and its strength allows for a large value range and dark mixed neutrals. I initially ignored this because the first half pan inherited WN’s PG7’s problematic characteristics, such as being hard to rewet, slightly scaley, and sometimes leaving tiny dark flakes in the brush. These issues were solved with a drop of glycerin in subsequent pourings.
- Ceruleum Blue (PB35), with conditions: In a half pan it’s awful- it’s hard, weak, and has a gummy, streaky texture on cheap paper. I dried it with a drop of glycerin in a wide shallow well and that made activation much easier. It’s a pretty, green-leaning shade with an especially patchy granulation pattern on cellulose, which can actually look interesting. On cotton the gumminess isn’t that noticeable and the texture is more subdued. I learned to accept that it’s not a medium strength workhorse of a cerulean but rather a delicate specialty color like cobalt violet or ultramarine ash, best used in one unworked layer.
Overall set review
Color selection wise, the glaring hole is in the earths. Yellow ochre, raw sienna, and umber are weak. Sepia is strong but a multipigment mix including a napthol red (PR187). There’s no burnt sienna or burnt umber color; English Red (PR101) is opaque and too red to neutralize ultramarine. Otherwise, the color selection is okay. For me it’s missing a lightfast middle red, transparent yellows, a deep blue, a gray, and a blue violet.
Flat out avoid: Cobalt Blue, Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, and Umber are irredeemably weak, gummy, and hard to rewet.
Be aware that both the quinacridones (Carmine, Quin. Lilac) and many phthalos (Bright Blue, Green Light, Emerald, Turquoise) had an irritating scaly texture when used from a pan. Van Gogh Quinacridone colors are perfectly smooth under the same conditions, along with my other pro-grade Quinacridones, so my use of tap water is no excuse. Some solutions are to only use fresh paint or to add glycerin; I panned emerald and turquoise blue with a drop to solve how strangely hard, flakey, and scaly they initially were. Just giving the paint a good stir also helps.
Overall, I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy these again. Even the good colors don’t disperse as smoothly or handle as comfortably as other brands. I can see how White Nights might once have been a good-enough and very affordable option, but those times have passed in the US.
Lynne
I purchased a set of 12 White Nights professional pans in August 2025 as part of a plan to try out different brands to expand my understanding of watercolors and the variety of materials available; up to that point I hadn’t tried many European watercolors besides Winsor Newton and Schmincke, and most of my experience was with Daniel Smith along with M Graham. I’ve since tried and liked Roman Szmal, Rosa, Sennelier, Rembrandt, and some Maimeriblu made in Europe, as well as Davinci and QoR from the US and Holbein from Japan. I was interested in White Nights because their paints have decent reviews on quality for the price, and… it was something new to try, which is always fun. Below is my set of 12. It’s a standard split primary palette with a couple of convenience greens, a few earths, and a neutral. One of the draws for me in the purchase was the Green, PG8, which like the one in my Rosa collection, is a lovely foliage color, but not lightfast.
I feel pretty ambivalent about these paints, and they’ve done a lot of sitting in the drawer. As I considered what I might write from a perspective of characteristics that spark joy and make me reach for them, I came up empty. It’s not necessarily a specific dislike as much as that I can’t find a single color out of my set of 12 that speaks to me. My only opinion is that I don’t seem to have one. They’re “fine,” but not paints I ever choose to paint with or would purchase again. Could I make them work if I had no other option? Sure, similarly to how I feel about Cotman or Van Gogh. But for all of the other brands that I’ve written about and have plans to in the future, there are characteristics and/or colors that I really enjoy. There’s nothing unique that stands out for me in my White Nights set. That they are all-around serviceable and have a good selection of pigments from which to choose is a plus. They carry a decent pigment load, and the texture is okay. I guess my conclusion is that I wouldn’t discourage anyone from painting with them; they do a fine job and they are much more affordable than a number of other brands. Plus, everyone’s preferences are personal!
Sandra
I am not very experienced with this brand as I only own the new metamorphosis set of 12 colors, one tube color and the dot card. I really like the metamorphosis set as it provides some really nice separating colors. Overall I try to avoid this brand due to politics: Russia is a threat to Europe and I live in Germany.
My favorites:
- Rose Dream (PV14, PO73) is just very pretty. I love the purplish granulation with the orange background. Another color I love for florals.
- Hematite Mist (PB29, PR101) is a deep muted violet – just as I love my violets. It’s a nice shadow color and perfect for moody clouds. This is the only color I own as a tube and it behaves very well.
- Green Dream (PG50, PY3, PBr24) makes me happy because of its sunny brightness. I haven’t used this color a lot so far, and I am aware that PY3 might not be a fully lightfast component. But when it makes me happy, it’s good enough for me!
Colors to avoid:
- Forest brume (PB29, PBr24, PY110) was a real disappointment. To my personal taste it just looks ugly, and it only has a minor (barely visible) granulation.
- Black mystery (PB29, PBk11, PBr25) looked promising because of the pigments. But it’s just plain boring, especially because the granulation is again not really visible – despite PB29 and PBk11.
- White Nights is a brand that can get very gloopy and soft in humid climates. If you don’t like that kind of texture, you should generally avoid it.
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