Search the Community

I have heard many good comments about Diamine Hope Pink so I thought it was time I tried a sample. I like quite a few pink inks, although many of those I write with are darker than Hope Pink. So I was interested to see what it was like. It's what I would call a bright pink. Maybe a bit brighter than I thought it would be. I like it very much. I also have Cerise to review, and that's another pink. It performed really well in both of my Lamy's, neither too wet nor too dry. It flowed well, and I experienced no problems with it at all. Quite surprisingly it dried very quickly even on my smooth 100gsm paper. That would normally suggest it might be a dry ink, but it didn't feel at all dry when I was writing with it. On this occasion, no matter what I tried, I couldn't get Photoshop to exactly match the pink colour of Hope Pink. The scan looks very slightly more purple than the writing on the paper. This isn't a waterproof ink, but it has reasonable water resistance. The water was on the grid for about 2 minutes.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny, smooth surface, and I used a Lamy M nib, this ink only took 3-5 secs to dry. That's really quick on this paper.It flows very well and lubricates the nib well. I saw no skips or hard starts despite leaving the pen uncapped while I did the swab tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic refill bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.

In my latest set of samples I deliberately chose two pinks, so that I could compare them. I was confident that when I reviewed Hope Pink, I really liked it. I'm now reviewing Diamine Cerise and I'm not sure which one I like more. Todays review of Cerise shows that it isn't a purply pink with lots of shading like Hope Pink. Cerise is a lovely 'pure' pink, more saturated than Hope Pink, and it also behaved extremely well in both of my Lamy pens. Interestingly, it took longer to dry than Hope Pink, and it showed through on my 100gsm paper. It's still a bright pink, in no way subtle or boring. It's very bright and cheery. The cherries that I buy are a darker colour than this though. This isn't a waterproof ink, and it isn't particularly water resistant. The water was on the grid for about 15 minutes.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny, smooth surface, and I used a Lamy M nib, this ink took 11-12 secs to dry.It flows very well and lubricates the nib well. I saw no skips or hard starts despite leaving the pen uncapped while I did the swab tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic refill bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.