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I adore Graf von Faber-Castell Violet Blue ink. When I was looking into getting a bottle, I could not get an accurate impression of the color from on-line photographs. The ink looked different everywhere. One review said it was vibrant. None of that was really accurate when I finally did get my bottle and started writing with it. Violet Blue is a powdery, muted color-shifting ink, translucent and highly shading. It can go from almost pink-lavender to deeper lavender-purple, and even bits of blue. I would say even though it is a blue-lavender, it also has a warmth to it where the sophisticated muted pink element comes through. I've had a Sailor Kobe #57 Hime Ajisai (Hydrangea) and while also beautiful, the Kobe ink is different: more fluorescent fibrancy, more saturation. I prefer this GvFC. When drawing with the ink and using a water brush, the pink is water resistant, and the light blue-lavender lifts off. This ink reminded me strongly of Hydrangeas--the more lavender-pink ones. As it happens, there are lots of hydrangeas in full bloom in my area now, and as I was walking home today I decided to pluck a few flowers and do a photo shoot. The lavender hydrangea flowers are exactly the color of this ink. The pink hydrangea flowers match the water resistant component of this ink very well too. Without further ado, here are some photographs for hydrangea lovers: (Tomoe River 52g in a Hobonichi Cousin planner) Fabriano Bioprima paper: While not as strong of a match, Graf von Faber-Castell is also strongly reminescent of Blue hydrangea flowers in its color range: powdery light blue that shades toward lavender. I also immediately though of blue hydrangeas when I started writing with Gulf Blue.

Review for Organic Studios Vanadium This is part of Organic Studios' Elements series of inks. The ink is handmade in Maryland. THE ELEMENTS SERIES – our take on a collection of the essential colors of any writing ink collection. These inks makeup a set of ‘simple’ colors, tasked with coloring the basic spectrum of pure colors. These chemistry-themed inks were our first foray into the ink world, and have stuck with us ever since. This is a light "blurple" color tending towards lavender. It is similar to the element vanadium, but vanadium itself is variable in intensity of color. It would have been nice if this was darker with greater shading. I do like this color, but it is very light, almost too light for use. I actually use the color for sketching because it is a bit more water resistant, and works for base sketching with watercolors.

I love anything purple, and naturally this extends to fountain pens and inks! However, from my limited exposure (mostly Goulet Pen's selection), I can't seem to find a true lavender ink. Even Private Reserve's Purple Haze, the lightest purple Goulet carries, ends up being a standard medium purple in my EF Pilot Penmanship. I know Diamine and J. Herbin make "lavender" inks, but it seems from from my limited experience that they're actually closer to a regular purple rather than the pastel-like shade you'd expect a lavender to be. Short of diluting my purple inks, are there any truly lavender inks any of you can recommend?

Pretty similar to Iroshizuku Murasaki Shikibu:

This one really goes hand-in-hand with the review I had posted of OS Mark Twain. They are color-cousins. Maybe more like siblings. This color looks to my eyes to be a very similar hue as Mark Twain, just lighter and with less shading. Overall Impressions: It's a light dusty purple color. Appropriately titled a lavender. It has a good flow in the pen. There's some decent shading. Not much water resistance. Since Mark Twain came out, though, I can't see someone needing both inks. I like Mark Twain better, but that'd be personal preference. My suggestion, figure out which of these you like better, and pick one of them. One nice thing, is most of the normal run Organics Studio inks, this one included, clean up really nice and easy.