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I’m reviewing samples of the new set of Diamine Shimmer inks. This one is Diamine Electric Pink This is a saturated pink ink with silver shimmer. It is along similar lines to Caran d’Ache Divine Pink for being a pink ink that’s easy to read. I found it a wet and well flowing ink. It had good lubrication with the pens I tried it with. It’s a saturated ink, especially for a pink ink. With broader nibs it looks more saturated than it does with finer nibs, although it’s wet enough to show the silver shimmer with all nibs. It showed through on some of the papers I used. The pens I used were Stipula Agata F/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 Electric Pink a well-behaved ink. I didn’t experience any ignition or clogging problems with it. Clean-up was easy. No problem at all removing it from hands or pens using soap for hands and plain water for pens. It is not sold as a water resistant ink but it is reasonably 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: Very goodLubrication: Very goodNib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: A fairly saturated inkShading Potential: Very goodSheen: Silver 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): Not seen - easy 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

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.

My latest ink sample from Diamine is Diamine Claret Diamine Claret is an ancient ink from Diamine. It's been around for a long time. Bearing in mind Diamine celebrated their 150th anniversary last year, when they first manufactured this ink, real claret was used to make it. However, there are now many rules about what inks can be made from, so Diamine have had to recreate it from available dyes, to try to get as close as they could to the original colour. So if any of you used it many years ago, you may have noticed a change. The colour really surprised me, as I expected Claret to be a darker red. I looked at my pen wondering if it wasn't properly clean when I filled it, but I knew it was. I'm fastidious about that. This ink is a full blown raspberry pink shade that leans blue. Not that I'm suggesting it's any the worse for that. It's reasonably saturated, and exhibits plenty of shading. It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping with both of my pens on several different papers. The flow is very good and so is it's lubrication at the nib. Although the flow feels slightly dryer than some of the inks I've recently tried, in that I couldn't see wet ink glistening on the line above the one I was writing, it didn't feel particularly dry. The dry time was quite quick and there were no smears after it was dry. It has no water resistance at all. The red inky water spread very quickly. I didn't really have any inks that were the same colour to compare it against. The ones I have are either brighter, with even more blue, leaning more towards purple, or darker leaning more red. So it was an interesting colour to try out. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink,and shows no noticeable water resistance.Bearing in mind the review template is on thick paper with a shiny surface, and I used a Lamy M nib and a Lamy 1.1mm nib this ink took 16-17 secs to dry. No smear when dry.It exhibited good flow and lubrication and I found it well behaved to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did my swabs and dry time tests.It exhibited some show through and bleed through on cheap paper.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.

My latest ink sample sent to me from Diamine is Diamine Flamingo Pink I received a PM from 'Thelonelyinkwell' asking me if I had a sample of Sailor Renoir pink ink that I could send him. Sadly, I don't have that ink. However, it started me wondering if Flamingo Pink might be a similar type of colour. This ink is a bright salmon pink shade that leans slightly towards the blue side of the spectrum. It's reasonably saturated, and exhibited plenty of shading in my tests. It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping with both of my pens on several different papers. The flow is very good and so is it's lubrication at the nib. Although the flow feels slightly dryer than some of the inks I've recently tried, in that I couldn't see wet ink glistening on the line above the one I was writing, it didn't feel particularly dry. The dry time was quite quick and there were no smears after it was dry. It has no water resistance at all. The pink inky water spread very quickly. I didn't really have any inks that were the same colour to compare it against. The ones I have are more blue, although Diamine Carnation was the only pink ink I have that is similar. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink,and shows no noticeable water resistance.I used a Lamy M nib and a Lamy 1.1mm nib and this ink took 15-16 secs to dry on my Rhodia Dot Pad 80gsm paper. No smear when dry.It exhibited good flow and lubrication and I found it well behaved to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did my swabs and dry time tests.It exhibited some show through on cheap copy paper.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.

My latest ink is Diamine Flowers Gift Set: Bougainvillea I decided to review a brightly coloured ink today. It's Bougainvillea, one of the Flowers Gift Set inks. All of the Flowers Gift Set inks are bright colours, and this one is no exception. It's a bright carmine pink. Great fun for Spring. I'm looking ahead hopefully. Bougainvillea has very good flow and lubrication. I had no problems with it while I was writing. It felt quite wet and I could see it glistening all along the lines as I wrote. It really suited my Lamy Nexx well.​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 Lamy M nib, this ink took 17-19 secs to dry. That's slower than some other inks I've reviewed recently.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 the Flowers Gift Set of 10 x 30ml glass bottles, and you can now buy 30ml refills in plastic bottles.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.

I have decided to review some of my inks. These aren't necessarily in any particular order. This one is Diamine Amaranth. I would call it a bright, slightly purplish, pink. It's a very good colour match to the Amaranth flower. Sorry about my poor drawing representation, but the flower is that sort of shape. If you compare this ink with Pelikan Edelstein Turmaline, you could almost call this a slightly muted or toned-down version. I plan to review Turmaline very soon. Water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink.Bearing in mind the paper I use is very smooth, and the nib used at that time was a 1.1, this ink took 11-12 secs to dry.It flows through the pen well but feels drier on the page than some other Diamine inks. Some may call it slightly chalky. Especially as I have reviewed Bilberry recently which is wet. It still seems to lubricate the nib quite well, although I could hear some feedback. I saw no skips or hard starts from either of the pens that both stayed uncapped while I swapped and changed, and did swabs and comparisons with other inks.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic refill bottles. It's also available in cartridges.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price