Tag Archives: diamine

QUICK LOOK WEDNESDAY: Four Blues from Diamine

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A quick look at four blue inks from Diamine.

 Diamine Midnight  (strange that this image is bigger than the others, right?)
  Diamine Presidential Blue
  Diamine Registrar’s Blue Black
  Diamine Denim

Which do you love?

I’m not sure that I have a favorite, but I definitely have a least favorite – Diamine Registrar’s Blue Black. It’s not very well saturated – looks more like a gray/grey – and I just don’t like it. Not one little bit.

INK DROP: April 2013

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I received my Goulet Pens Ink Drop delivery a couple of days ago.

What a great group of colors, yes?

If I had to choose one that didn’t fit with the others, it would be the De Atramentis Indigo Blue – it’s a little dusky compared with the other clear clean colors, but I’d definitely write with it.

Between the two turquoise colors, I would choose the Lamy. Though the colors are very similar, the Lamy is definitely more saturated and I like that.

The Namiki blue has a bit of red in it – defnitely still blue, but leans more toward the purple end of things to my eye.

I’ve heard some great things about Diamine Soft Mint (which ended up a little funky in the scanned image above) and hope to have time to take a closer look at it in the very near future.  Here’s a picture from my iPhone – the color is a bit better here….

Kudos to the person at Goulet Pens who chose this assortment! Well done.

Oh..and here’s the image I posted over on Instagram. I’m @christinewitt there.

INK REVIEW: Diamine Flamingo Pink

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O.M.G.


Other than Pilot Iroshizuku’s Momiji (which I did not love even though others seem to wild about it), I’ve not tried any pink inks.
I’m not sure I need to try any other pinks. This may be it. This might be (dare I say?) love. 
See it even bigger.
I used this ink for a week and totally loved it. Fun, bold, happy times. Yeah, there’s not much of a practical use for it – you’re not going to sign important legal documents with it – but so what. Use it for your grocery list, leave a note for your honey, embrace the pink!
Diamine’s Flamingo Pink is gorgeous! The name 100% fits the ink (and you know how much I love that!). It writes great, too – smears a little and isn’t perfect in a water test – but there are much more boring colors that do this, too.
Hello Spring! Welcome back! 
I love you!

INK REVIEW: Diamine Evergreen

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Diamine Evergreen
Nice, right?
Let’s take a closer look . . .
want a closer look?
Mr. Pentulant has been looking for a dark green ink for everyday use. This translate to . . . I have been looking for a dark green ink for Mr. Pentulant.  Oh yes. poor me, forced to test ink after ink. Whatever will I do? (Probably test every green ink in the world! Muhahahaha!)
Anyway! I think I have a winner in Diamine Evergreen.  
The color is definitely a very dark green.

There’s a tiny bit of shading, little feathering.
It’s a little smearish (dude, it’s a word). If there’s one (or two) big issues, it’s with the water test (both drag and drop) and the highlight test.
So..if Mr. P. can live with the issues, I think the color is a winner, but I’ll probably continue the search – you know, in the name of doing good for other people. Right.
Do you have any dark green recommendations? Have you ever had to search high and low for ink for someone other than yourself? How did you survive?

INK REVIEW: Stipula Sapphron

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Holy cow. 
I hate Stipula Sapphron.

It shades like a son-of-a-gun. Sounds like I should love it, right? Or at least like it. But no, I hate it.

It’s not often that I say that. In fact, here are all of my posts with “hate” as a tag.  
In the sample vial, the ink looked like a pretty (though not saturated) orange. When I swabbed, I thought the ink looked a little on the yellow side, but was still pretty enough.  (See my first impressions on the handwritten review.)

Then I started writing with it. I was sure my pen must have been dirty. But at the same time, I knew it was a brand new pen and a brand new converter. No ink had ever touched either and both were cleaned prior to use. I twisted a bit of ink out onto another piece of paper – and it sat there looking like a bubble of yellowish mud!  When I smeared that mud around with a cotton swab – it looked like the Ink Swab in my review.
Ca-razy! I don’t get it.

You know what else I don’t get? I couldn’t find even one other review for this ink. Not on Fountain Pen Network, not on Goulet Pens, and even Google came up empty. It’s like I’m in the twilight zone over here.

Hard to believe I’m going pass by shading like this. But I am.

Pretty weird. That’s my first impression – and coincidentally – my bottom line for Stipula’s Sapphron. (By the way, I have no Stipula aversion – I own and love several of their fabulous pens. This ink is just weird.)

In fact, I wanted this to work badly enough that I tried it again another day. With another kind of paper.

Always looking on the bright side, however, Apache Sunset has been on my list of inks to review forever and I’m excited that it’s coming up sometime soon!  And that De Aramentis Gandhi? Isn’t that pretty? 
Time to ‘fess up! Do you have Sappron? Do you love it? Hate it?

INK REVIEW: Delta Brown

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Delta Brown, what’s that flower you have on?

I couldn’t stop singing while preparing the handwritten review. Poor Mr. Pentulant – the things he puts up with!

It’s brown.

That pretty much sums up my review. And coincidentally, the final score is 50 – right in the middle of the pack.

It’s nice looking, well-behaved in the pen. Not water-resistant (not a surprise).

The remarkable thing about the browns in the Compare Squares? Delta Brown, Stipula Sepia, and Omas Sepia are all kinda the same.

If you’re looking for a good solid brown, this could be your ink. I can see using it in a professional setting as easily as some blues or grays. I could really see drawing with it. If you’re into matching your inks to your pens, you might love brown. But I won’t be buying a full-sized bottle.

Dear Brown,

I’m just not that into you.

Love,
Pentulant

P.S. You do know the song Delta Dawn, yes? Here’s a link to it on iTunes if you’re in the mood to get your 1970s on.

INK REVIEW: Diamine – Syrah

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Still recovering from the holidays here and wrapping up a few pre-scheduled reviews before diving into new and exciting things!

Syrah from Diamine is a berry nice shade. Kinda red-purple. Deep plum. And by now, everyone knows how I feel about “mixed shades” of ink. I’m not a huge fan.

Here’s the ugly. Major fail. (Those of you who watch “How I Met Your Mother” may now salute. Those of you who have no clue about which I speak may also salute. Major Fail – get it?)  Anyway, major fail = water test. Even the tiny droplet test (where the “ro” in “from” should be) faded this color into nothingness.

I used a dip pen and Syrah performed well enough. No big complaints, but no big compliments either.

Look at that compare square?  I do think if the writer is looking for something dark, but different, this could work (as long as one never nears the water).

It was a little wet as you can see in the Smear Here – but not intolerable.

Overall, I’d give Syrah from Diamine a good solid C. It would work, but I’m not in love. In looking at other reviews after I wrote this one – this is a popular ink. People love it and its color. Consider me the dissenting reviewer.
Such a contrarian.
What do you think? Love it?

INK REVIEW: Diamine Grey

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Click Images to Enlarge
A quick look at Diamine Grey..
This color is a true gray (grey, for those of you who insist).  Stately and professional as I said in my Fifty Shades of Grey post last month.
It’s a bit darker than I like. If I’m going to get that close to black, I may as well go black.  
It smeared a bit on my Hammermill Premium paper, but it’s tolerable. Some shading is nice. Tiny bit of feathering – even on the index cards below.
The water test is a fail – not so much from the Q-Tip across “Water Test,” but more from the standing test in the word “from” below.  

But..it is a true gray (ok, grey!) and I do appreciate that.

I’m not going to buy a full bottle of this ink (testing was done from a sample as usual). There’s just nothing that special about it.

Tyler Dahl LOVED this ink. A true sign that YMMV.

Have you tried it? What do you think? Wonderful or just meh?

UPDATE:  For some odd reason, this post received a whole big mess of spammy posts. I’ve closed comments on this post, but please contact me if you have something to add to the conversation! xo