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Showing results for tags 'diamine blue ink'.
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My latest ink is Diamine Kensington Blue I'm reviewing two similar Diamine blue inks separately, this one, Kensington Blue, and Florida Blue. They are quite similar, but Kensington Blue is a more general blue, a more muted colour. I would call it an everyday blue ink. Kensington Blue is a very good blue ink. It flowed beautifully while I was writing with it, and lubricated the nib so well that it wrote smoothly across the page. I really enjoyed writing with it. Although it felt nicely wet to write with, it was a quick drying ink. Although this isn't a waterproof ink, it shows good water resistance, as do many Diamine blue inks.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Lamy M nib, this ink only took 5 secs to dry. That's very quick on this paper.It flows through the pen very well and lubricates the nib very well. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles, 30ml plastic refill bottles or International sized cartridges.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.
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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.
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Today I’m reviewing a sample of Diamine Imperial Blue Diamine Imperial Blue was first produced in 2005 as a limited edition to mark the 25th Anniversary of the formation of the Writing Equipment Society. The first batch had a special 25th Anniversary silver label as well as the usual Diamine label. At the end of 2006 the ink went on general sale, but was still labelled "WES" for "Writing Equipment Society". It is now part of the Diamine standard ink range and is called Imperial Blue. I found it a nicely flowing ink that was neither wet nor dry. It’s lubrication felt very slightly drier than some other inks I’ve reviewed recently, but it was still good enough while I was writing with both of the pens I used. I didn’t see any spread or feathering on most of the papers I tried it with. With broader nibs it looks considerably more saturated than it did with finer nibs. It showed through on some of the papers I experimented with. See the pictures. I found it behaved very well. I didn’t experience any clogging problems with it. Clean-up was slightly more difficult than some because it’s a blue-violet ink, but it still washed off hands with soap and water. It was quite water resistant This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, but shows good water resistance.Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a quite shiny surface at 100gsm, and I used a M nib, this ink dried quickly after just 10-12 seconds.No smear after dry.It has good flow. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.
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Today I'm reviewing Diamine Prussian Blue A blue-grey or blue-black ink from the standard range, Diamine Prussian Blue is a nicely saturated colour with a vintage look to it. It’s darker, less green leaning and more saturated than Indigo, and it flows better and feels more lubricated when writing across the page. Prussian Blue was the first modern synthetic pigment. It’s a dark blue pigment also known as Berlin Blue or, in painting, Parisian or Paris Blue. It’s prepared as a very fine colloidal dispersion because the compound is not soluble in water. Prussian Blue is also the traditional “blue” in “blueprints” and as the basis for “laundry blueing.” (Source - Wikipedia) I filled my Lamy Safari and my Lamy NexxM converters with it. Then left them on my table for a few days. When I went back to the pens, they both started writing straight away. No hard starts. They didn't skip once. It exhibited excellent shading and it didn’t feather or spread on any of the papers I used it with. It didn’t show through on the HP paper either. Although it showed through slightly on some the papers listed, it didn’t show through as much as the scans suggest, and you can easily write on the reverse of all of the papers I used it with. It's not sold as a waterproof ink but showed some water resistance. Flow Rate: Good - neither particularly wet nor dryLubrication: Good - felt smooth across the pageNib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: SaturatedShading Potential: Shading seen especially with F nib.Sheen: None noticed, though I’ve seen sheen in some pictures.Show-Through:Clairefontaine CrokbookField NotesHobonichi Techo paper.Tomoe River 52gsm paper (not very much)Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen on any paper even Field NotesNib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over 1 week in the penStaining (pen): Not seen after several days - very easy clean-upStaining (hands): Very easy clean-up off of skin.Clogging: Not seen.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, but shows good water resistance.Availability: Available in 80ml and 30ml bottles plus cartridges from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.
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I decided to review this ink sample as it isn't long before the new POTUS will be inaugurated. So this is Diamine Presidential Blue This is a medium range blue, an everyday sort of blue that you could use at home or in the office. I expected it to be darker than it writes. Although it doesn't look like it leans either red or purple like many Royal Blue types, it's chroma test reveals a little violet dye as well as the blue dye. So there is some violet in there. It exhibits plenty of shading, with no noticeable sheen, and feels slightly drier than some other inks I've used recently. I experienced no problems while I was using it, no skips or hard starts, and it didn't dry out on the nib while I was doing swab tests. So for me it's a well-behaved ink It felt slightly wetter when I changed from the F nib to the M nib, and then the B nib. It seems to get darker when the nib is broader. The dry time on all of the papers I used was 10-12 secs. Once dry there was no smearing. It isn't sold as water resistant, but after I soaked the patch then blotted off the water, there was still enough ink left to show the original diagram. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, but shows some water resistance.Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used Lamy F, M and B nibs this ink took 10-12 secs to dry using the M nib. No smear after dry.It exhibited quite good flow and I found it reasonably smooth to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price. Ink blot on paper towel
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My latest ink is Diamine China Blue I haven't used Diamine Diamine China Blue before so I thought I would try it out. It's a single dye pure blue. There are no purple, or any other coloured dyes added. Think of the blue you see on blue and white china. It's that sort of blue. It lives up to it's name very well. It's more saturated than I expected, and has some water resistance, as many blue inks do. I would call it an everyday blue, not quite Royal Blue, that suggests a little added purple or red, but a really nice, unassuming plain blue. It's quite similar to Waterman Florida (Serenity) Blue, but I saw a little more shading with China Blue than I do with Serenity Blue. I really liked the good flow as well as the lubrication at the nib and I enjoyed writing with my Bexley ATB 1.1mm stub again. Quite a few inks that I have tried in the past, have made this pen act more like a hosepipe, so I put it away for a while, but this blue was a very good match for it. It didn't feel at all dry to write with though. It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping and dried after 20 seconds on my smooth 100gm2 paper. Although this isn't a waterproof ink, it shows quite good water resistance, as do many Diamine inks.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Bexley 18t gold 1.1mm nib, this ink took 20 secs to dry. That's slower than some other inks I've reviewed recently.It had good flow, and lubricated the nib well. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.I match my scans to the ink colour as closely as I can.
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Today I’m reviewing a sample of Diamine Misty Blue This is a mid-range blue ink that leans slightly green. For those of you who used to like Montblanc Meisterstuck Diamond Blue, Diamine Misty Blue is a very good replacement for that one. I felt it was a restful blue, a blue ink that is easy on the eye, that looked neither too dark nor too light nor too bright. A really pleasant mid-range blue that is quite an unusual shade. Almost like a vintage ink in appearance. Despite having lot’s of blue inks, I found it difficult to find some that were close to this colour until I took out my bottle of Montblanc Meisterstuck Diamond Blue. MMDB leans very slightly more green, but is still quite a close match to Misty Blue. I found it an excellent flowing ink that was quite wet. It had excellent lubrication with all of the pens I used. I didn’t see any woolly line, spread or feathering on most of the papers I tried it with, apart from the always predictable Field Notes paper. With broader nibs it looks considerably more saturated than it did with finer nibs. It showed through on some of the cheaper papers I experimented with. See the pictures. I found it behaved very well. I didn’t experience any start-up or clogging problems with it. This was despite me leaving the caps off of all 3 pens while I found and cut pieces of different papers to try it on. Clean-up was particularly easy. No problem at all removing Misty Blue from hands or pens using soap for hands and plain water for pens. I have read reviews where reviewers found that Misty Blue changed colour upon drying. This was not my experience with my sample. It’s the same colour now as it was when I wrote with it yesterday and earlier today. Whether it will change colour in a few days remains to be seen. It was not particularly water resistant, but it didn’t disappear after a few minutes under water. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, but shows reasonably good water resistance.Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a quite shiny surface at 100gsm, and I used a M nib, this ink dried after just 11-14 seconds when using the kaweco Sport F nib. Although it took longer to dry with both of my wetter nibs..No smear after dry.It has excellent flow and lubrication. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests, and found and cut papers to try it on.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.
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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.
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First of all I must apologise as this ink should have been launched at the same time as the other Diamine new colour: Classic Green, that The Good Captain launched in his excellent review. However, due to me having been laid very low by a bacterial stomach infection, I'm late on parade with this review. Still, the show must go on, so I have written with this ink a few times and finally managed to get the review form done and scanned. So I'm back in bed with my trusty MacBook typing this. As many of you will know, Oxford Blue has to be a dark blue. That is Oxford University's team colour, whereas Cambridge University's colour is light blue. This is a fabulous dark blue. When I wrote with it, I thought I knew of several dark blues that I could use as comparisons to it, but when I actually came to find similar colours, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Oxford Blue is more blue than Montblanc JFK Navy Blue, and it's darker than Diamine Midnight. It's a well saturated really dark blue, with plenty of shading. I'm sure it will be a popular colour. I really like it. I'm not sure of the exact launch date, but it's not too far away. This isn't a waterproof ink, but it has good water resistance. The water was on the grid for about 1 minute before being swabbed and blotted by kitchen roll.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny, smooth surface, and I used a Lamy F and 1.1mm nib, this ink took 12-16 secs to dry.It flows very well and lubricates the nib very well. I saw no skips or hard starts despite leaving the pen uncapped while I did all of the swab tests.I'm not 100% sure yet if it will be part of the standard range, but I think it will. If it is, it will be available in 80ml glass bottles and 30ml plastic refill bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.
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Today I'm reviewing Diamine Denim This is a saturated dark blue ink, and is a very good match for the material that it’s named after. It’s a dark denim colour. I wouldn’t quite call it blue-black, although in some pens it will look more like a blue-black ink. It’s a darker blue than Diamine Midnight, but not as dark as Cult Pens Deep Dark Blue or Diamine 1864 Blue-Black. It was a well behaved performer for me in two of my pens. It felt wetter and flowed better when I was using the Lamy M nib and the Parker 45 Cursive Italic nib. *As far as show through goes, I’ve listed the papers where I saw any show through at all. However, on all but the Field Notes paper, show through was really minimal and I would find it acceptable to write on the reverse sides of all of these papers. Scanning really seems to accentuate any possible show through. Flow Rate: Good. Much wetter in the Lamy Al-star with M nib.Lubrication: Good with both Parker and Lamy M nibs I used.Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: Saturated.Shading Potential: Shading seen.Sheen: None seen.Show-Through*:Apica PaperMidori PaperRhodia Graph PaperTomoe River 52gsm paperTomoe River 68gsm paperField NotesHobonichi TechoSpread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen.Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over 1 week in the penStaining (pen): Not seen after several days - easy clean-upStaining (hands): Not seen - Easy clean-upClogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof. Not particularly water resistant although some remains. I left it soaking in during the time it took me to have a shower.Availability: Available from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.
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I’m reviewing samples of the new set of Diamine Shimmer inks. This one is Diamine Cobalt Jazz It is a strong, saturated cobalt blue colour with plenty of red shading and gold shimmer. I found it a wet and well flowing ink. It had very good lubrication with the pens I tried it with. With broader nibs it looks much more saturated than it does with finer nibs, although it’s wet enough to show the gold shimmer with all nibs. It showed through on some of the papers I used. The pens I used were a Lamy Al-Star with M nib, Lamy Nexx M Stub 1.1mm nib, Lamy Nexx M F nib. The comparison inks were swabbed with a cotton bud and their ink names were written with a glass dip pen. I consider Cobalt Jazz a reasonably well-behaved ink. I didn’t experience any ignition or clogging problems with it. I had no problem cleaning it out of pens. I found that it stained my thumb and middle finger while I was writing with it, if I hadn’t cleaned the grip of the pen carefully enough. In those cases it was more difficult to clean off my skin. However, this is always the case with strong, saturated cobalt blue inks. I was able to wash it off with bar soap, but it took a couple of attempts with warm water. It is not sold as a water resistant ink but it is water resistant. The Mebin UK Notebook I used was supplied by someone on FPN who sold TR 68gsm Notebooks. The paper in the Mebin UK Notebook is quite thick at 95gsm, it’s acid free, and has a really smooth surface with no drag or tooth at all. Inks generally take longer to dry on this paper, so wetter inks tend to pool and I knew that they would show their shimmer well enough for me to photograph the sheen. The Moleskine Notebook is a UK clone, and I found there was very little spread on it. Flow Rate: Wet, very good.Lubrication: Wet, very goodNib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: A saturated inkShading Potential: Very good; red shading can easily be seen.Sheen: Gold shimmerShow-Through:Tomoe River 52gsm.Cheaper generic 80gsm printer papers & lined pads.Field NotesSpread / Feathering: Not seenNib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over a week in the penStaining (pen): Not seen - easy clean-upStaining (hands): Occasionally seen - soap & water clean-upClogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.Water resistance: Has some water resistance.Availability: Will be available from Diamine Inks web-site and other outlets. Back Mebin then Back Moleskine
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Today I’m reviewing an ink made by Diamine specially for the Philippine market. It is called Diamine Lapis Blue I remember this ink being mentioned on FPN some time ago, and I really wanted to try it out so I begged for a small sample from Diamine. I know that many of use won’t be able to get a full sized bottle of it, but if you get an opportunity to sample it, at least you will know what it’s like. This is a very saturated ink, think Majestic Blue and Sargasso Sea type of saturation. It shows lots of shading. The chroma test showed a faint bit of lilac dye but no red, so it’s a little different to those blues that lean towards the red edge of the colour spectrum. When I wrote with it, it does suggest that it has a very slight lean towards red though. I experienced no problems at all while I was writing with it. It had a smooth flow with a lubricated line. I saw no skips or hard starts, and it didn't dry out on the nib while I was doing swab tests. For me it was a very well-behaved ink, as well as being a nice colour. It only exhibited show through on Field Notes paper, but so do most inks. When I got it on my fingers it looked so saturated that I thought it would be a staining ink, but I can confirm it washed off easily with bar soap and warm water. I’m surprised how many inks that don’t wash off with liquid soap, wash off with bar soap. This ink isn't sold as water resistant, and there was hardly any water resistance. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, and shows little water resistance.Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a shiny surface at 100gsm, and I used several different nibs, this ink took 15-16 secs secs to dry using the Montblanc F nib.No smear after dry.It exhibited good flow and I found it smooth to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.
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I've heard that the release date for these new inks is 4th November; Fountain Pen Day, so I'm posting separate reviews for them on here. I assume they will come in the same type of bottles as the previous set of shimmer inks, but I haven't seen the retail bottles yet. Currently I only have samples that Diamine very kindly sent me to test, and to review 'if I wanted to', but I've noticed that my samples don't need much shaking to mix the particles in, and the pens need very little shaking once they are filled.Generally speaking, I found all 12 of these new shimmer inks to be wetter than all of the other shimmer inks I have used.I have had these inks in these pens for over 2 weeks now. Every pen/ink combination has started straight away without a problem, and I have experienced no stopping or skipping.Some take longer to dry than others, and a couple just soaked into the paper straight away. The most saturated inks will show through and bleed through on cheap paper.None of them are waterproof inks.Diamine Shimmer Blue Flame is a medium to dark blue ink like Diamine Tchaikovsky or Sargasso Sea. It's a heavily saturated ink with gold shimmer. The gold shimmer shows up easily even in a pen with a finer nib. I used a Parker 45 that has a F/M nib and I had no trouble seeing the gold effect. This one is quite wet, but I have rubbed it and rubbed it and can confirm is does not smear after it has dried. The first picture is a scanned review form, and the second is a photo. These have been adjusted with Photoshop to get the colour you see to look as close as possible to the actual ink colour.
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My latest ink is Diamine Florida Blue I'm reviewing two similar Diamine blue inks separately, this one, Florida Blue, and Kensington Blue. They are quite similar, but Florida Blue is a brighter colour. It used to be known as Tropical Blue Florida Blue is a very pleasant bright blue without being a turquoise type. It flowed beautifully while I was writing with it, and lubricated the nib so well that it wrote smoothly across the page. I really enjoyed writing with it. Although this isn't a waterproof ink, it shows good water resistance, as do many Diamine blue inks.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Lamy 1.1mm nib, this ink took 10-12 secs to dry. That's quick on this paper.It flows through the pen very well and lubricates the nib very well. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles, 30ml plastic refill bottles or International sized cartridges.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.
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Yesterday I posted a review of Diamine Beau Blue ink Today I'm reviewing a much brighter, more saturated ink within the same colour range: Diamine Aqua Blue I would describe it as a bright cerulean blue, or cornflower blue. It leans very slightly towards the green edge of the blue colour spectrum like Waterman Inspired Blue and J. Herbin Blue Pervenche and it's very saturated with wonderful shading and a great 'halo' outline effect. No noticeable sheen. It felt really wet in my Lamy Al-Star with B nib, and because the B nib lays down more ink, the colour looks darker and shows up more shading than when I used the Lamy NexxM with M nib. Both pens I used wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. The flow was very good, not at all dry with both pens and the lubrication felt good along a line. The dry time on all of the papers I used was 10-12 secs. Once dry there was no smearing. Like Diamine Beau Blue, Diamine Aqua Blue isn't at all water resistant. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, and shows no noticeable water resistance.Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used Lamy M and B nibs this ink took 10-12 secs to dry using the M nib. No smear after dry.It exhibited good flow and lubrication and I found it smooth to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price. Ink blot of kitchen paper roll
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My latest ink is Diamine Aster from the Flowers Set. I decided I should try to complete reviewing the Flower set inks, as I have reviewed all of the Music set inks. I find the Flowers set consists of more brightly coloured inks, whereas the Music set are more muted. So sometimes I'm in the mood to write with brightly coloured inks rather than muted inks. I decided to use Diamine Mediterranean Blue, Sheaffer Skrip Washable Blue (old bottle) and Waterman Florida Blue (now Serenity Blue) as my comparison inks this time. I chose these inks as they tend to be regular, everyday blue inks. I might have also chosen Parker Quink as a regular, everyday blue ink, but I only have it in cartridges. Aster seems like it's slightly less saturated than some of the Diamine inks I have reviewed, and although it's still quite a bright blue, I think it qualifies as a regular, everyday medium blue ink. I used my new purple Lamy Al-Star M nib, from Amazon for this review. I didn't have one and I found they were available at reasonably low prices. Diamine Aster behaved beautifully in the pen I selected, and I experienced no problems with it. I wrote my 'Further notes/Observations' two days after the rest of the review, and notice that section looks a bit darker. So this is an ink that could darken over time while a fill remains in a pen. Although this isn't a waterproof ink, it shows reasonable water resistance for a relatively unsaturated ink.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a M nib, this ink took 16-18 secs to dry.It tends towards wet rather than dry. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 30ml glass bottles within the Flowers gift set, or in 30ml plastic refill bottles from Diamine.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.
