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It's starting to feel like Spring here so I have been writing with another bright Spring like colour. This one is Poppy Red. This is a really bright scarlet red. It jumps off the page. It's a saturated red ink that looks even better when it's used in a pen with a broader nib. It almost looked subdued when I wrote with it in my fine nibbed AL Star. I loved it in my Lamy red Safari and it was such a good match for it. I decided to try and draw a poppy, but I know I'm no good at drawing so I did it in steps. 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. It gets a thumbs up from me. This isn't a waterproof ink, but it has reasonable water resistance. By mistake the pool of water was left on the test patch for 20 minutes while I made and drank a cup of tea, then was blotted off with kitchen roll.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 12-15 secs to dry. That's quick on this paper.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 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottlesDiamine Inks sells it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.

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’m reviewing samples of the new set of Diamine Shimmer inks. This one is Diamine Firefly It’s a orange leaning, saturated, red ink with gold shimmer. It has some nice shading. Think a similar shade to Matador, Montblanc Corn Poppy Red or Sheaffer Skrip Red, but more saturated. 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 Safari 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 found Firefly a well-behaved ink. I didn’t experience any ignition or clogging problems with it. I had no problem cleaning it out of pens using cold water or off of skin using soap and warm water. It is not sold as a water resistant ink but it is water resistant. It looks more orange when wet. 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; 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): 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

My latest ink is Diamine Ruby Diamine Ruby is another very good red ink. It's not quite as bright or as eye-catching as Wild Strawberry, or Classic Red, but Ruby is still a nice, red. It's a well behaved ink in all of the pens and on all of the paper I tried it with. It's not overly saturated but I saw plenty of attractive shading. It goes even further towards the pink end of the colour spectrum, and could easily be described as cherry or dark pink. It is certainly the colour of rubies though, so it's another ink that does exactly what it says on the bottle. It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. The flow is very good and so is it's lubrication at the nib. Although the flow feels slightly different to Wild Strawberry and Classic Red, it didn't feel at all dry. The dry time was quite quick and there were no smears after it was dry. However, it was a warm day when I did the review. It has virtually no water resistance at all. The red inky water spread very quickly. I think it's a very nice pink/red ink, especially if you prefer pink leaning reds. Kaweco Ruby Red was the most similar colour, but that leans more purple than Ruby, and is less saturated. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink,and shows no noticeable water resistance.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Lamy M nib, a Parker B nib and a Waterman F nib this ink only took 14-15 secs to dry. No smear when dry.It exhibited very 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 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 samples from Diamine include Passion Red, so that's the ink I'm reviewing today. It'a a bright red, as you would expect. It leans more towards the pinkish side of the colour spectrum than Wild Strawberry and Classic Red, and it never looks orange. If you're being romantic, maybe it looks like a red blush in the cheeks or on the neck? Diamine Passion Red is a bright red. It's a very good performer in all of the pens and on all of the paper I tried it with. It's reasonably saturated but I don't see much shading and I saw no noticeable sheen. It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. The flow is very good although the lubrication along a line felt a little dryer than some other reds I've tried, particularly with the Pilot F nib. The flow feels slightly wet, and some will think the dry time on my thick, shiny paper is quite long. Although I forgot to do the water test before I scanned the main review sheet, this ink has virtually no water resistance at all. The red inky water spread quickly. This is quite common with red inks. Nevertheless, I think it's a good bright red ink. It is very similar to Diamine Tulip from the Flowers Gift Set. Slightly less pink than Diamine Classic Red, and Diamine Ruby. More pink than Diamine Poppy Red, Caran d'Ache Infra Red and Sheaffer Skrip Red. However, it's much more saturated than those last two red inks. With Passion Red, I see less of the dark outline around letters that sometimes shows up with other red inks from Diamine. 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 a Lamy M nib and a Pilot F nib, this ink took 18-20 secs to dry from the M nib. No smear after dry.It exhibited very good flow and good 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. Chroma Test strip:

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 Firestorm Red is a bright red ink that is similar to Diamine Tulip. It's a well saturated ink with silver shimmer. The silver shimmer shows up really easily. I used a red Lamy Safari that has a M nib and I had no trouble seeing the silver effect. This ink feels quite wet, but dries fairly quickly. The Lamy Safari loved it. The combination was a pleasure to write with. 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.

My latest ink is Diamine Classic Red Diamine Classic Red is a good, bright red ink. Not quite as bright or as eye-catching as Wild Strawberry, but still a nice, bright red. Classic Red leans more towards the pink end of the spectrum than Wild Strawberry does. In fact, even though I thought I had many reds, I couldn't find any in my collection, that I would say are almost identical to it. It's a well behaved ink in all of the pens and on all of the paper I tried it with. It's not overly saturated but I saw plenty of attractive shading. It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. The flow is very good and so is it's lubrication at the nib. Although the flow feels slightly dryer than Wild Strawberry, it didn't feel particularly dry. The dry time was fairly quick and there were no smears after it was dry. It has virtually no water resistance at all. The red inky water spread quickly. I think it's a very nice bright red ink, especially if you prefer pink leaning bright reds. Kaweco Ruby Red was the most similar colour, but that leans more purple than Classic Red. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink,and shows no noticeable water resistance.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Lamy M nib, a Lamy 1.1mm nib and a Waterman F nib this ink only took 15 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 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.

My latest ink is Diamine Wild Strawberry As we are at the end of the first week of the Wimbledon grand slam tennis tournament, we now have British strawberries in our shops. So I picked Wild Strawberry as my ink to review today. Diamine Wild Strawberry is a really bright red. It's a very attractive red, without particularly leaning towards pink or orange. It's also a great performer in all of the pens and on all of the paper I tried it with. It's quite well saturated but I don't see much shading and I saw no noticeable sheen. It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. The flow is excellent and it has great lubrication. Although the flow feels very slightly wet, it doesn't suffer from an overlong drying time. It has virtually no water resistance at all. The red inky water spread quickly. Nevertheless, I think it's a great bright red ink. It is very similar to Diamine Tulip from the Flowers Gift Set. Less pink than Diamine Classic Red, and a similar shade to Caran d'Ache Infra Red and Sheaffer Skrip Red. However, it's more saturated than those two red inks. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink,and shows no noticeable water resistance.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Lamy M nib and a Lamy 1.1mm nib, this ink took 17-18 secs to dry. No smear after dry.It exhibited excellent flow and lubrication and I found it particularly 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.

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.