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Today I'm reviewing Diamine Brilliant Red ink. Diamine Brilliant Red is a mid-red dye based ink that could be viewed as a “standard daily red.” It’s neither too pink nor too orange and is from Diamine Inks standard range. Diamine Brilliant Red isn’t a heavily saturated red, it’s less saturated than Diamine Poppy Red and Sheaffer Skrip Red, but it’s that type of bright red. I found it flowed well in the pens I used it with and I saw some shading particularly with the finer nibs. It looked more saturated with my Lamy B nib. Lubrication was good, and it felt smooth writing across all of the papers I used. Flow Rate: Good. Not really wet and dries quickly.Lubrication: Good. Smooth across the paper.Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: Not heavily saturated ink.Shading Potential: Some shading seen.Sheen: None seen.Show-Through:Rhodia Dot Pad - just a littleTomoe River 52gsmSilvine lined padGeneric lined padField NotesSpread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen.Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over 1 week in the penStaining (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: Available in 80ml glass bottles, 30ml plastic bottles and cartridges from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

I always planned to review two reds, Diamine Poppy Red and Tulip next to each other. It saves emptying and cleaning out the pens that are filled with the comparison colours. This one is Tulip from the Flowers Gift Set. This is another very good, bright red. It is very slightly darker than Poppy Red, and has slightly less of the pinkish undertone/edge than Poppy Red has. It's a very saturated red ink that looks even better when it's used in a pen with a broader nib. Like Poppy Red, it looked more subdued when I wrote with it in my fine nibbed pen. I loved it in my Lamy Nexx and they were an excellent combination together. You know when a pen and ink really like each other, and go well together, and you feel you could write all day with them, well it was like that. On the Diamine web-site, they only have small swab stripes showing the colours of the Flower Gift Set. So when I ordered Tulip, from the swab I saw, I thought it was going to be much more of an orange red. It isn't. It's definitely a classic bright red in the style of Poppy and Ruby. This ink was a joy to write with, neither too wet nor too dry. It flowed well in the pens I filled with it, and I experienced no problems with it at all. I'm not sure whether you would need both Poppy and Tulip in your collection, but if you love red inks like me, you might decide to splurge. It gets a thumbs up from me. This isn't a waterproof ink, but it has reasonable water resistance. Not quite as water resistant as Poppy Red, but still not too bad. The water was only on the grid for about 30 seconds.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny, smooth surface, and I used a Lamy 1.1mm nib, this ink only took 10-12 secs to dry. That's very quick on this paper, and a bit quicker than Poppy Red.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.It is currently available in 30ml glass bottles as one of the Flowers Gift set or 30ml plastic refill bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.