Shimmering Inks

There have been a number of shimmering inks appearing recently. These are inks that have particles of metal dust or other fine particles that will catch the light.
There was the much announced Emerald de Chivor by J Herbin (green with gold) which joined the other inks in their 1670 range - stormy grey (grey with gold), ocean blue (blue with gold) and rouge hematite (red with gold).

Then a few weeks ago, Diamine announced their new Shimmertastic range which has ten different colours - Magical Forest (green with silver), Night Sky (black with silver), Blue Pearl (dark blue with silver), Brandy Dazzle (cognac colour with gold), Purple Pazzazz (purple with gold), Golden sands (deep yellow with gold), Sparkling Shadows (dark grey with gold), Blue Lightning (turquoise with silver), Shimmering Seas (purple-blue with gold) and Red Lustre (red with gold). The picture below is taken from their press release at Goulet Pens (apologies for my watermarking obscuring their logo!).

Anyway, despite already possessing more ink than I can possibly get through in a lifetime, I decided to treat myself to some of these shimmering inks. I've got six in total - three by J Herbin and three by Diamine. I reviewed the three J Herbin inks (see here) but I thought it was high time to do a compare and contrast.

The three J Herbin versions I have are: Emerald de Chivor, Ocean Blue and Stormy Grey. The Diamine inks are: Blue Lightning, Blue Pearl and Night Sky.

Price:
The J Herbin sparkling inks are on sale at Cult Pens at the moment at £14.59 for a 30ml bottle (no affiliation, just a happy customer). The Diamine Shimmertastic inks are £8.95 for a 30ml bottle (also at Cult Pens) - about 60% of the price of the J Herbin inks.

Performance:
I have three pens inked up with shimmering inks but I wanted to compare all six that I have. I have a glass dip pen and so I did the same thing with each ink - shook the bottle for 20 seconds to ensure the sparkly bits were well distributed, dipped the glass pen in to the same depth, then wrote the name of the ink and the ubiquitous The Quick Brown Fox... sentence. All the samples were written on Original Crown Mill white vellum paper. I tried to photograph each sample from above and from the side.
Man, these were hard to photograph!! Not helped by it being a grey day in Scotland, but even so...
Each ink sample is shown photographed from above and then from the side. Click on pictures to enlarge.

I also tried the three pens that are inked up and wrote (pretty much) the same thing:

So, what do I think? Let's take them brand by brand and then ink by ink.

J Herbin v Diamine:
The J Herbin are more expensive than the Diamine and the quality does show through to some degree. I don't know what it is about the J Herbin inks though, but they creep everywhere! I think that they must have a different surface tension to other inks, allowing them to climb surfaces and just generally get everywhere! I'm not the only one who found this - I sent a sample of the Emerald de Chivor to a good friend and he said it got everywhere too! That's not just a disadvantage because you get inky hands when the pens are refilled, but also the inks penetrate through (some) paper quite significantly - even paper that has been pretty resistant with other inks and never shown a problem before. They also have a tendency to feather more - you can see it to some degree in the samples written with pens - and lay down a thicker line.
Diamine ink doesn't seem to have the same property but the disadvantage seems to be that after not using a pen for a while, it is resistant to start writing. The Night Sky in the Sheaffer calligraphy has been fairly problematic with variable feed and drying out, whereas the Ocean Blue (also in a Sheaffer calligraphy) has started first time, each time. There's no getting around it - the J Herbin inks are wet to the point of sopping whereas the Diamines are on the dry side (at least in my pens).

Ink by ink:
1. Ocean Blue
I like the density of the colour but to me, the sparkliness of the ink seems quite limited on the Crown vellum. I would be hard pushed to spot it, even when using a calligraphy nib and a litre of ink is being laid down with each stroke (okay - I exaggerate, but it seems a bit that way!). However, when I reviewed my J Herbin inks a while back, this looked incredibly sparkly! I think all of the inks are paper-dependent for showing off their true values. (The previous reviews used Tomoe River paper)

2. Blue Pearl
Again, a lovely depth to the colour and more sparkle to it than the Ocean Blue on this paper. I also slightly prefer the silver and blue combination as opposed to the gold and blue combo, but that's personal taste.

3. Stormy Grey
In contrast to the Ocean Blue, there's almost too much gold coming through in this one and it makes the grey look yellow. Others may love that, but I'm less of a fan. Unless the light really catches the gold and makes it sparkle (which, I note, it did in my earlier review), the grey can look a little jaundiced.

4. Night Sky
The black and silver combination (with a hint of purple in the right light) is just gorgeous. The downside (but it might be pen-specific) was that when I filled a Sheaffer calligraphy with this, it took an age to get started, then had pretty poor feed, before finally getting into its stride. I then left the pen alone for a day or two and it's dry and reluctant to start. The level of shimmer on it is good and there aren't the feathering and bleed-through issues of the J Herbin.

5. Blue Lightning
I used this to write to a friend and neither of us were overwhelmed by the sparkliness, although both thought that the turquoise was a very pretty colour. However, it might have been the paper that I was using (airmail) as when I wrote on different paper, the silver shimmer was much more evident. It's still subtle, but with the right paper this is a very pretty combination.

6. Emerald de Chivor
I do love this ink! It's a wet to sopping ink but that allows the depth of colour and shading to show through as well as the sparkles. There seems to be more colours in the ink, beyond merely green - blues, reds, yellows - depending on the line thickness and amount of ink laid down. It's probably my favourite of the six sparkling inks, even if it has a tendency to bleed right through normally ink-resistant paper.

In summary:
Both sets of ink are great. The J Herbin are perhaps a slightly better quality - I would like to compare and contrast them with chromatography tests; I think there will be a bigger range of pigments in the J Herbin inks - but for the price, the Diamine are fabulous value. To get the full effect seems to be somewhat paper-dependent, with a glossier paper (such as Clairefontaine, Tomoe River etc.) giving a better result than more matt paper. Emerald de Chivor looks good on any paper but the others do seem to need to be on a paper where the ink sits for a moment, allowing the ink to dry and the gold/silver to end up on the top.

Sparkly inks - J Herbin 1670 Collection

Those who know me will know I'm not a 'bling' kind of person, but inks with gold (or silver) in them? Oh, bring them on!

J Herbin do a collection of inks with gold dust in them (see their webpage here). There are occasionally new additions to the range and at the moment, there are four shades available: Stormy Grey, Ocean Blue, Emerald de Chivor and Rouge hematite. I'm not a huge lover of red ink, even if it does have gold in it, but I do have the other three. They are really difficult to photograph! All of the samples shown are written on Tomoe River white (really ivory) paper and photographed in the sunshine. Click on any picture to enlarge (and sorry they do not show the inks to their best!).

1. Stormy Grey
In some ways this is my least favourite of the three, though when I first tried it, I loved it. I do love the fact that it dries to a dark charcoal grey. What I don't like quite so much is the yellow overtones without the sparkle. It's lovely if it catches the sunlight and the gold glints, but otherwise the gold puts a yellow cast over the ink. When wet, the ink is even more jaundiced-looking, but as it dries, it darkens.

Taken in sunshine with
the camera directly above

Taken in sunshine with the camera at an angle to get the sparkles

Again, taken at an angle, in sunshine

2. Ocean Blue
This is a really lovely colour - a solid, dark blue and the gold highlights are superb. I adore it!

Taken in sunshine with the
camera directly overhead

Taken in the sunshine with the camera at an angle to show the sparkles

Again, taken in sunshine with the camera at an angle to show the sparkles

3. Emerald de Chivor
This is the one that people have been going nuts over, possibly because it is the newest addition to the collection. It is indeed a fabulous colour - dark green with a hint of blue and some really beautiful shading that I haven't seen quite so much on the other inks. I absolutely adore this ink!

Taken in sunshine with the
camera directly above

Taken with the camera at an angle to try and show the sparkle

Again, taken at an angle to show the sparkle

One thing that I have noticed is that I get huge amounts of the ink on my hands when filling up pens with any of these three inks! I thought it was just me, but I sent samples to a good friend and he said he was covered in ink when he filled his pens with them too. Anyone else finding that? Is it a particularly 'climbing' ink? i.e. does it have more capillary action than other inks and so climb the sides of things (bottles, pens etc.) more than others? I'd be interested to know if others are finding the same thing!

As well as J Herbin producing sparkly inks, Diamine is about to produce some too. They will be in a variety of colours and available from October. Some of the colours have silver in them and some gold. Goulet Pens blogged about it and have a great picture of the inks on this post. I've got my eye on Night Sky, Blue Lightning and Blue Pearl already! I'm hoping that the Night Sky version, with silver rather than gold, will be less jaundiced-looking.

Who else is a sparkly ink fan?

Update:
Bureau Direct are running a competition to win a set of the Diamine sparkly inks. Click here to enter. 

Review of the metal-cased J Herbin rollerball

Slowly crawling out of hell... always helped by a parcel containing stationery arriving (and listening to the glorious Julie Fowlis).

So, what have I bought now? Actually, something I have bought before – a J Herbin rollerball from Bureau Direct. I reviewed the others here. This one however, is the metal cased version. The pen takes standard-sized cartridges and costs £18.95 for the pen and two tins of J Herbin cartridges (which come in THE most adorable tins!) or £14.95 for the pen alone. Bureau Direct are doing a ‘12 days of Christmas’ series of offers at the moment and one of the offers was to get the pen but with three tins of cartridges instead of two (the tins are £2.25 each tin to buy on their own).

J Herbin rollerball with metal casing

In my original review (about a year ago) I said that the pens were a bit scratchy to write with. I’m pleased to say that the one I loaded with bleu pervenche ink 11 months ago and have used daily since (it’s slotted into my 5-year diary. That’s how I know I’ve used it all year!) has stopped scratching and squeaking when I write. The one loaded with Lie de Thé is still a bit scratchy, but hasn’t been used anything like as much. The metal-barrelled one doesn’t squeak or scratch at all and is a nice weight in the hand.

All opened up and with Larmes de Cassis cartridge inserted

I asked for three tins of Larmes de Cassis ink with the pen. My favourite coloured ink by J Herbin is Poussière de Lune, but since I have a bottle of that and a syringe and wide-bore needle thing for refilling cartridges, I didn’t see the need to ask for tins of that colour and the Larmes de Cassis looked lovely. I’ve written a bit with it and, like the original pens, the line laid down is fine and the ink is wet enough to be decently dense but not too wet. The colour of the Larmes de Cassis is (unsurprisingly!) a bit like Ribena!

Overall:
Bureau Direct are brilliant (as ever! No affiliation; just a perpetually happy customer!) and the pen is great. It looks so much smarter than the original versions and I LOVE the ability to use a rollerball but it take nice ink cartridges. 5*

Reviews of the Ohto Tasche fountain pen and J Herbin Poussiere de Lune ink

More stationery reviews! This time it's the turn of the Ohto Tasche pen and the J Herbin Poussiere de Lune ink. Click on any picture to enlarge.

I got the Ohto Tasche pen from Cult Pens and the Poussiere de Lune arrived as a consequence of some of the most fantastic customer service!
In a previous post, I had described the J Herbin diabolo menthe ink, which I got from The Journal Shop. I posted my review and then Tweeted its emergence into the world. The Journal Shop saw the post and noticed that I had bought two tins of the diabolo menthe ink (and hadn't much liked it). They asked if I wanted to swap one of the tins for another colour. There followed some brilliant, late-Friday-night tweet-exchanges, discussing the pros and cons of different colours and The Journal Shop pointed me in the direction of some ink reviews. The upshot of all this was that I decided I would swap the diabolo menthe for a tin of poussiere de lune. They promptly sent me out a tin of the cartridges and a pre-paid return envelope for the return of the diabolo menthe. How fantastic is that!!??

So, now I had a new fountain pen (the Ohto Tasche) and a new colour of ink to play with. Happy, happy, happy.

The Ohto Tasche
The pen came in a plastic presentation box, which I have to say looks cheap and nasty. And it is also about twenty times the size of the pen. I won't use it.

Nasty plastic box (bottom); gorgeous pen (top)

The pen itself is small and narrow-barrelled. The barrel is made of aluminium with the lower barrel in a natural finish and the other parts in a lacquered, glossy finish in a range of colours. I bought the blue barrel, but it is also available (from Cult Pens) in silver, black or pink. Capped/closed, it is tiny (just under 10 cm). It takes international standard cartridges (small) and they disappear into the nib part.

The nib+cartridge part has a base which screws on, covering the end of the cartridge and which the cap of the pen gets posted onto, to make the posted pen the full height. Posted, it is actually a little long in my hand and I almost prefer it un-posted, but then, maybe I'm a bit odd! Or maybe it's because my first favourite fountain pen was a platignum petite and it's ruined me for life!

L-R: cap, screw-on bit, nib+cartridge

Top: cap; bottom nib+cartridge with screw-on bit screwed on

All together!

All together plus ruler for scale

Un-posted plus ruler for scale

The nib is made of polished steel and is very smooth. It lays down quite a wet line (at least, it does with J Herbin ink) so left-handers may find they end up smudging their writing (depending on the ink used). The pen is light in the hand and lovely and smooth to write with.

J Herbin Poussiere de Lune ink
I think I should just give up doing reviews of ink as I am rubbish at being able to describe the colours accurately! The poussiere de lune is grey-purple. Dusk-coloured (which, as a physiologist I know is cobblers as the colour-detecting bits of the retina don't work at dusk!). What I mean is, it's the 'colour' that things look at dusk. And so I suppose it is perfectly named (moon dust)!

Although the (white!) paper is showing as dark, the ink colour isn't far off

Trying to show 'colour' and shading

Pretty close (on my monitor). Sorry it's blurred!

Another close-up. This is SO hard to photograph!

The 'colour' is gorgeous and quite dense for a greyish ink, with just enough purple/mauve in there to make it not exactly grey. Very beautiful!

All in all, both of them are fabulous!

[I have no affiliation to either Cult Pens or The Journal Shop; I'm just a very happy customer]

Reviews of: Tombow Object Fountain Pen and J Herbin diabolo menthe ink

Well, I've tidied the desk and had a play with the pen and ink combo. Both of these were bought from The Journal Shop in a spectacular 25% off for National Stationery Week offer (which, believe me, I took advantage of!!). No affiliation, just a very happy customer.

Stationery haul from The Journal Shop!

Tombow Object Fountain Pen
I chose the purple pen for no better reason than I liked the colour. The pen came with its own case (which itself was inside a card box). The case is simple but practical – a metal (aluminium I presume) box with a sponge slot to hold the pen.

Case with pen and the J Herbin ink behind

The casing of the pen is made of aluminium which makes the pen very nice and light in the hand. It takes standard size cartridges (so no needing to buy own-brand expensive things). It comes with a medium nib as standard (though you can order it with a fine or broad nib from The Journal Shop if you prefer). The nib is lovely and smooth and the pen is light so doesn't make your hand cramp up after writing for a while, but not so light that you feel it will fall out of your hand. The pen sat nicely in my hand and was very comfortable to write with. It does write quite wetly though, which may be a problem with some inks. Of course, I have only tried it with the J Herbin diabolo menthe ink so maybe it just writes wetly with J Herbin! If you find it writes wetly/less wetly with other inks, drop me a note in the comments?
The pen will hold two cartridges: one inserted into the barrel; one (the other way up) slotting into the rest of the case as a spare.
Overall: 4/5 stars. It may well become my new favourite pen.

The ink is just a bit too pale for my liking

J Herbin diabolo menthe cartridges
Whilst I was pleased with the pen, I was less enthralled by the ink I'm sad to say. The colour is just a bit too delicate for me. It's a very pretty colour, but it is too watery for my taste. This is a shame as I have loved most of the J Herbin inks I have used previously. I'm hoping that the delicacy of this one will grow on me without giving me eye-strain!
Overall: 2/5 stars. It is just too thin an ink for me.

The Journal Shop goodies!

Very quick post...

I'm feeling poorly and since nothing cheers me up and makes me feel better than buying a shed-load of stationery and since it is National Stationery Week and since The Journal Shop is still doing 3 for 2 on selected notebooks and a 25% off offer...

I bought:

• Tombow Object Fountain Pen
• 2x packs of J Herbin ink cartridges in diabolo menthe
• 80ml bottle of diamine steel blue ink
• A C.OVER Gum diary in kiwi
• 3 large Cartesio notebooks (in blue, taupe and red)

The Journal Shop were absolutely fantastic as I was having a bit of trouble with my order so I Tweeted them and they helped me out. At 9pm on a Friday. How good are they!!!

Reviews of all the goodies soon.

Review of the J Herbin rollerball

J Herbin are well known for their inks but they have also produced a roller-ball pen which takes ink cartridges. Nifty!

Ever on the look out for new or different stationery, I bought myself a couple of the pens from Bureau Direct (no affiliation, just a very satisfied customer!). I bought one of the pen + 3 tins of cartridges set for myself, another for a good friend and also a roller-ball on its own (to be able to have a change of colour as and when needed).

In my set of pen + cartridges, I bought the following ink colours:

Bleu pervenche

Lierre sauvage

Lie de thé

I’ve been using the pens on and off since I got them so I thought it would be a good time to do a review of the pens and the inks I have used so far. Of the inks I bought, I loaded one pen with the bleu pervenche and the other with the lie de thé.

Overview:

Apologies for the blurring!

The pen has a clear plastic barrel and takes a single, standard-size cartridge. Still capped, the pen measures 11.8cm long. It is approximately 1.1cm in diameter. Uncapped, the pen measures 9.8cm; 13.8 cm if you post the cap.

There are 6 cartridges in each of the tins.

Pros:

They are a nice idea if you like the convenience of a roller-ball but want the quality and range of colours of the J Herbin inks (though as they take a standard-size cartridge, you could as easily use non branded inks with it).

The clear barrel allows you to see the ink level in the cartridge easily, without having to dismantle the pen.

The inks come in fabulous colours. The bleu pervenche is especially bright, but the lie de thé doesn’t disappoint at all – quiet, understated and extremely classy. The tins of cartridges are very pretty!

The writing line is fairly fine and the J Herbin inks are wet enough to draw a decent line but dry quickly enough not to end up smudgy.

Cons:

The roller-ball is small – those with normal to large sized hands may need to use it with the pen cap posted.

The writing experience… I really want to use these more than I am but both pens have a slightly scratchy point and when I write, I want to be able to focus on what I’m writing, but I find I am being distracted by the scratch of the roller-ball. I may have been unlucky with them and they may smooth down with writing (as suggested in some of the reviews on Bureau Direct) but at the moment they are a bit annoying.

There are six cartridges in the tin, but the best packing-density of circles is one in the centre and six around the outside of it, so why not have seven cartridges in the tin? It seems a bit mean.

Overall:

I love the concept of them and the ink colours are fabulous, but I am a little disappointed with the writing experience. Hopefully the scratchiness will wear off and they will be beautifully smooth to write with. My fountain pens have nothing to fear however as they are still my firm favourites by a country mile.