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Today I'm reviewing Diamine Indigo A pale blue-grey ink from the standard range, Diamine Indigo is an unsaturated, muted colour. I expected it to be darker but it isn’t as dark as it’s name suggests. I filled my Lamy Safari and Parker 45 converters with it. Then left them on my table for a few days. When I went back to the pens, they started writing straight away. No hard start. Neither of them didn't skip once. It wasn’t very saturated and felt slightly watery on my Xerox smooth Colour/Mono laser 100gsm paper. The flow was OK, certainly not wet, but I would have liked a little more lubrication on some of the papers I used. It’s a subtle, subdued colour, that’s easy on the eyes. It exhibited good shading and it didn’t feather or spread on any of the papers I used it with. It didn’t show through as much as more saturated inks either. Although it showed through slightly on the papers listed, it didn’t show through as much as the scans suggest. It showed some water resistance. If you’re a fan of muted inks that exhibit sharp, crisp lines and good shading, this could be one for you. Flow Rate: OK. No hard starts during my writing.Lubrication: OK. I would have preferred more.Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: Not at all saturatedShading Potential: Plenty of shading seen.Sheen: None noticed.Show-Through:Field NotesHobonichi Techo paper.Tomoe River 52gsm paper (not very much)Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen on any paper even Field NotesNib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over 1 week in the penStaining (pen): Not seen after several days - very easy clean-upStaining (hands): Very easy clean-up off of skin.Clogging: Not seen.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, but shows good resistance.Availability: Available from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

My latest ink samples from Diamine include a couple of lighter blue inks that I wanted to test. So here is the first one: Beau Blue I would describe it as a pale blue, a light cerulean blue or a light sky blue. It leans slightly towards the green edge of the blue colour spectrum like Waterman Inspired Blue and J. Herbin Blue Pervenche but it's less saturated. It's not a deeply saturated ink but I saw some shading. No noticeable sheen. It felt quite wet in my Lamy Al-Star with B nib, and because the B nib lays down more ink, the colour looks darker than when I used the Lamy NexxM with M nib. Both pens I used wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. The flow was very good, not dry, with pens and the lubrication felt good along a line. The dry time on all of the papers I used was 15-16 secs, which some may consider is quite a long dry time. Once dry there was no smearing. Diamine Beau Blue isn't at all water resistant.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 Lamy M and B nibs this ink took 15-16 secs to dry using the M nib. No smear after dry. It exhibited good flow and 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 bottles Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site. It's a reasonable price. Ink blot of kitchen paper roll