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I was excited to try my first two Dominant Industry inks. One is quite nice, if impractical for most writing purposes. It's a somewhat unusual light, powder blue with a (faintly pink) silver shimmer: it's called Snowfield, in the Pearl series. (There's an apparently similar but probably less icy blue, too -- I think it's called Glacier. I don't know how they compare.) The other ink I got was Lungo (Standard line), described as coffee scented, though the smell supposedly dissipates quickly. It's a dry, medium-dark ashy brown, and it smells like pickled coffee. My nostrils are still burning.

Coming May 2017 The fountain pen experience is much more than simply putting a pen to paper. The right pen, the right paper, the right ink and the right environment can all combine to create an incredibly enjoyable and uplifting experience. Sometimes the unpleasant smell of some fountain pen inks can detract from this experience so we've created a range of scented inks to add a new dimension to the fountain pen experience. We've chosen a selection of uniquely Australian scents and tested them thoroughly to ensure the scents do not interfere with the free flowing and well behaved characteristics that Blackstone inks are famous for. These scents are designed to enhance the writing experience and provide a subtle but noticeably pleasant fragrance when the bottle is opened and when writing. Australian Bush - Ink Colour: Green The classic aroma of the Australian Bush, a crisp and vibrant blend of Australian Native Eucalyptus, Kunzea, Lemon Myrtle, Rosalina and Nerolina. This is what you can smell when you walk out into the bush after rain. Blue Cypress - Ink Colour: Green/Blue Callitris intratropica Common Name: Cypress Pine A sweet, earthy, woody smell reminiscent of herbs and balsam. The Blue Cypress is mainly found in the Northern Territory and North Queensland, can live for over 200 years and grow to 45m. It has highly fragrant wood, bark and leaves all of which are used to extract the scent. Kunzea - Ink colur: Red Kunzea ambigua Common Name: Tick Bush, White Cloud, Duncane Kunzea A mild eucalyptus and myrtle smell with hints of pine and herbs. Mainly found in cool coastal areas of Australia, Kunzea is a tall shrub with white, pink or red flowers. Kunzea was given the common name Tick Bush because native animals are often found sleeping underneath the plants to get rid of ticks and other parasites. Blue Gum - Ink Colour Blue/Green Eucalyptus Globulus Common Name: Tasmanian Blue Gum A very pleasant, mild and spicy eucalyptus smell. The Blue Gum is a massive gum tree that can grow up to 100m. It is found mainly in Tasmania and Southern Victoria and is the floral emblem of Tasmania. New leaves are covered with a blue/grey waxy bloom which gives it it's common name. Brown Boronia - Ink Colour: Brown Boronia megastigma Common Name: Heaven Scent The Brown Boronia has a wonderful, lemon scented aroma which is not surprising considering they belong to the same plant family as citrus. Regarded as a serious contender for the title of ‘World’s Best Perfumed Plant’ by Don Burke, Brown Boronia is an evergreen, Australian native plant with flowers ranging in colour from yellow to dark brown. Wild Orange - Ink Colour: Orange Capparis mitchellii Common Name: Wild Orange or Native Orange The wild orange has a sweet, fresh, orange scent but is not related to oranges or citrus, nor to the Wild Orange (Osange Orange) of the USA. It is actually a member of the Caper family. The Wild Ornage is widely distributed throught Australia and is a well known 'Bush Tucker' food. It starts life as a rambling vine and grows into a tree up to 6m in height.

Montblanc has put out some limited edition inks around Christmas time, and somehow I ended up with one, probably bought in Europe in 2007. Reading about them, it seems the silver cap on mine means it is from 2005, but the scent is heavy on cinnamon, so I am not sure. It seems the colour was the same both years, and a nice brown it is. Most browns are too light for my taste, or have an uneasy green tinge, or an unpleasant orange tendency. This one is a warm brown, quite rich. I used three pens and mainly Clairefontaine Triomphe paper, a gift of a FPN member —thank you! http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3QdMl-7KMko/VnTMkMxZiBI/AAAAAAAABjs/hDtc_ANu0Ys/s1600/MB%2B1.jpg Here's the back side of that sheet: No surprise that there's no feathering on Clairefontaine, but feathering was minor on more ordinary paper. Here it is on a medium-quality notebook made in Indonesia: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zTGAlJTrMSM/VnTMkGgA75I/AAAAAAAABjo/fZsjOzpUJtE/s1600/MB%2BIndonesia%2Bnotebook.jpg And here is a higher quality notebook, made in Thailand. I like the brown better on this ivory paper. Here's the quite yellowish Leuchtturm 1917, which had the longest drying time by far: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tuH2vQU7BZU/VnTMwHVI9kI/AAAAAAAABj4/-Jwrh4IqPoo/s1600/MB%2BLeuchtturm.jpg There's not a whole lot of obvious shading. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gG7F3lV3hjo/VnTMwS5HARI/AAAAAAAABj8/Yc0AKChjjGU/s1600/MB%2BLE%2B2005.jpg Though you can turn it up on coated paper, like this postcard: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6PwZh83UlpY/VnTOTt6KqCI/AAAAAAAABkY/dQaAi-uTtsM/s1600/MB%2Bpostcard.jpg I live in a monsoon area, so I am very interested in behaviour under water. For this water-drop test, I blotted the left half of the grid after about half a second, like I might do with an envelope that got rained on. The right side I let dry. This is my first review, and I didn't want to use another sheet of paper to do it again, so I will put this up as is. If I do another review, I will make two separate grids. It might be a bit hard to read after a long soak, but there is a grey element in the dye that is permanent. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5ndmIsk54KE/VnTOiWyykNI/AAAAAAAABkg/_No2i-nfbl4/s1600/MB%2Bsoak%2B1.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Te1lnqKaV1g/VnTOy8wvDTI/AAAAAAAABko/BTo1_0D6D7E/s1600/MB%2Bsoak%2B2.jpg And finally, a close-up of the comparison with other inks. The brush pen and the first three are the Montblanc. I actually like both the other browns I have (Burma Road Brown is more a khaki for me), but right next to Montblanc's seasonal brown, they lose a lot of appeal. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2gloaBU75tU/VnTNObDSU-I/AAAAAAAABkE/Uf960UPO2-o/s1600/MB%2Bcomparison.jpg

Several months ago there was a thread (which I can't find right now) about the release of De Atramentis Bookworm ink: a muddy green ink that smells of old books. *sigh*. I hunted high and low all over the world for this ink but couldn't find a stockist. In the end I asked the great people at larrypost.com.au (no affiliation, just a satisfied customer) if they could get me some and they promised to add it to their next order. Well it has arrived and my 3 bottles are on their way. So if you're in the antipodes, love the smell of old books and like green ink, head over to the good people at larrypost.com.au and get some before I buy it all!

Here is a little review of DeAtramentis Dianthus! Thank you to my friend Elle who gave me this ink sample! In short: It is a fun, bright ink with bright saturation. However, it does tend to feather and bleed on less than the best papers. I even had some feathering on Rhodia Premium Ivory - yikes! Overall, while I love the color, the feathering bugs me. And since I already have some very similar colors I opted to not purchase this one. Still a fun color to check out!

-This review is an adapted version of the one that can be found on my personal blog (www.pencilcaseblog.com). Visit my blog for more pictures, a copy of the written review and of course many other pen, pencil, paper and ink reviews. Enjoy the review! (De Atramentis Rote Rosen review: http://www.pencilcaseblog.com/2014/06/inktastic-de-atramentis-rote-rosen.html )- Discovering a new ink brand is always exciting, especially when the ink smells like roses! At first, I was really excited about the perfume, it was immediately noticeable when I opened the bottle. And I must admit that it actually smells quite good, like actual roses, not some synthetic rubbish! But as soon as the ink had dried on the paper, the scent faded away, and so did my original enthousiasm fade as well... So yeah, scents in inks, pretty gimmicky if you ask me. It doesn't make sense! What's the point of having ink that smells great from the bottle -even my pen smelled great when writing- but smells like any other ink (read: smells like nothing at all!) when it has dried? Conclusion: no, it won't make your love letters smell like roses! Luckily Rote rosen (literally translated: red roses) has some other qualities besides smelling good. The colour is very nice, it's a pink-ish, almost magenta shade, much darker than I expected at first, but I really like it! It also has very decent shading, so overall it doesn't appear as dark as it actually is. I was also really surprised by the performance of this ink, it is incredibly smooth! I would consider it on par with Iroshizuko inks. (So, yes that's quite good!) I expected the flow to be mediochre, as it is a red-ish ink (All other red inks I own have quite average flow), but this too was much better than expected, and I never experienced any skipping or hard starts with this ink in my TWSBI Mini! The dry-time isn't the fastest, but knowing how beautiful it is when it has dried, I can live with that! The price is on the higher side, at 13 Euros for a 30ml bottle, but I'll give it some credit because it looks great and is such a joy to use (And it will make your pens smell like roses!). As said, the scented properties are not really noteworthy, as you won't notice it anymore when the ink has dried. But all things considered I still think this is one of the prettiest and best performing inks I currently own! Dries ThePencilCaseBlog http://www.pencilcaseblog.com