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Today I'm reviewing Diamine Skull & Roses ink. Diamine Skull & Roses is a Diamine Exclusive ink made specially for sale in Germany. I’ve seen it for sale on “Fountainfeder” and on “Papier & Stift” websites as well as on Amazon. I only have a sample bottle, so I can’t post a picture of the 80ml glass bottle. This is a saturated dark blue ink with red sheen. It doesn’t have quite as much sheen as the Organics Studio high sheen inks, but has more sheen than what you would call a “standard” ink. In my opinion, Diamine Sargasso Sea is a similar standard ink that you could compare with Skull & Roses. It’s a redder leaning blue than the more teal Jalur Gemilang, the other Diamine exclusive, I recently reviewed The fact that it’s a saturated ink that has good sheen, without having too much sheen, comes with a few benefits: It’s a very good blue colour, whether you can always see the red sheen or not. It easily washes off of my hands with cold water and a bit of bar soap (definitely not like Organics Studio Nitrogen, Ralph Emerson, or Henry Thoreau) and it easily flushes out of my converters and pens just using water. It didn’t suffer from any hard starts or non-starts when I put the uncapped pen down to do swab tests, dry times and water resistance. It dried quite quickly on most reasonably absorbent papers and once dry it didn’t smudge or smear. I tested for this by rubbing repeatedly across my writing. I saw no blue or red on my fingers, and no smudging on the page. I really enjoyed writing with it. However, I tend to use more blue inks than any other colour. With these high sheen inks showthrough and bleedthrough can be a problem. There was showthrough on several of the papers I wrote on, but I could still have written on the reverse of some of them. The red sheen is usually more visible when using pens with wetter flow and broader nibs. Flow Rate: Very good.Lubrication: Very good.Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: Highly saturated ink.Shading Potential: Some shading with finer nibs.Sheen: Good red sheen.Banner Generic 80gsm lined pad.Ciak by InTempo.Field Notes.Hibonichi Techo: Tomoe River 52gsm - Slight.Moleskine Clone (UK)Silvine NotebookWhitelines.Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Seen on some papers with wetter B nib.Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen.Staining (pen): Not seen after several days in the pen - easy clean-up with water.Staining (hands): Easy clean-up with bar soap.Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof but has some water resistance.Availability: Exclusive to Germany available from: Papier & Stift, Fountainfeder and Amazon.

Today I'm reviewing Diamine Jalur Gemilang ink. Diamine Jalur Gemilang is a Diamine Exclusive ink made specially for Pen Gallery in Malaysia. Jalur Gemilang translates as the Malaysian flag. This ink is designed to reproduce the blue and red colours in the flag and is going to be on sale from August, commemorating their flag day. Very sadly I don’t have an 80ml glass bottle to show you a picture of (or write with.) This is a saturated dark sky/turquoise colour blue with red sheen. It’s not as heavily sheening as the Organics Studio high sheen inks, but has more sheen than what you would call a “standard” ink. In my opinion, Diamine Asa Blue is a good comparison standard ink for Jalur Gemilang. So is Sailor LE Van Gogh Blue. The fact that it’s a saturated ink that has good sheen, without going over the top, comes with a few benefits: It’s a great colour, whether you can always see the sheen or not. It easily washes off of my hands with cold water and a bit of bar soap (definitely not like Organics Studio Nitrogen, Ralph Emerson, or Henry Thoreau) and it easily flushes out of my converters and pens just using water. It didn’t suffer from any hard starts or non-starts when I put the uncapped pen down to do swab tests, dry times and water resistance. It dried quite quickly and once dry it didn’t smudge or smear. I tested for this by rubbing repeatedly across my writing within a couple of minutes of writing it. I saw no blue or red on my fingers, and no smudging on the page. I loved everything about it. However, I also love Asa Blue so this is my type of colour. I saw a bit of showthrough and bleedthrough even on my 100gsm smooth coated paper, but I could still have written on the reverse. Sheen is usually more visible when using pens with good flow and broader nibs. It’s good to have an ink that has a good sheen without going too far with it. That’s Jalur Gemilang. Flow Rate: Good.Lubrication: Good.Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: Highly saturated ink.Shading Potential: Some shading.Sheen: Good red sheen.Tomoe River 52gsm.Tom Bihn Lined.Generic 80gsm lined pads.Royal Recycled.Whitelines. (a little)Oxford Pad.Field Notes.Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen.Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen.Staining (pen): Not seen after several days in the pen - easy clean-up with water.Staining (hands): Easy clean-up with bar soap.Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof and has no water resistance.Availability: Exclusively available from Pen Gallery Malaysia.So far these are scans and don't show up the red sheen as well as photos might. I have now added a couple of photos. I found the exact blue of this ink very difficult to get right on my screen. It's a deep turquoise shade/deep sky blue shade. Like Asa Blue but darker and more saturated. I tried my best to adjust the main review for hours, and I eventually adjusted the other papers.