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There are more formal, and better reviews already posted, but as I have found the Purple I was looking for, here are a few thoughts: Note, that I'm not one of those weird people who like dry pens. I like pens that gush - both pens used are pretty wet writers. There's a reasonable amount of shading under that gold. Comes in a 50ml bottle. Not an expensive ink, but a little dearer than the excellent value standard Diamine Inks. Dry times are very paper and pen dependent, but I was getting smudging on most papers up to the 20 second mark (and beyond on less absorbent papers). Do a search - there are better reviews on here. I love it, and with a fine nib would happily use at work even with the odd sparkle. My fingers look like I've spent the day blackberry picking.

So, I'm thinking about getting a sample of an ink with glitter in it for our weekly challenge threads. I'm not particularly interested in glittery ink otherwise, but if I get it, I want to use it up (and use it with the glitter as intended). But the big question for me is whether it will come off the paper easily (like it comes off commercial greeting cards, for example). If it will, I want to ban its existence from the universe with all other forms of glitter! (Have you ever tried to get that stuff out of upholstery!?) But if it stays on the paper, then I'm OK with it. (If it makes a difference, I'm considering Diamine Blue Pearl and Diamine Magical Forest.) Thanks for sharing your experiences with shimmery / glittery inks.

Does anyone know whether Diamine shimmer inks can be mixed? It seems that it might be possible to put together a CYMK set from the Diamine inks -- perhaps Blue Lightning, Golden Sands, Magenta Flash, and Sparkling Shadows. It should be possible to make other colours so long as one doesn't particularly mind whether the sparkles are silver or gold

Hello all! I am new here but I have been lurking for quite some time trying to gather as much information as I could about pens and ink! I am a nun from the US so I don't have a lot of money to spend on pens, but I do love the art and the beauty that is found in the fountain pen world! I am looking for a workhorse pen, something I am use at work as a nurse, and something for personal writing. I was looking at the lamy safari dark lilac and the twsbi eco... I am a huge fan of anything purple ( you know that lovely shade of blue purple!) What is a good work purple ( dark enough to use at work but rebellious enough to be purple ) and a good journaling purple? ( I have to admit I am intrigued by the diamond shimmertastic lilac satin but I don't want any clogging or pen problems! I am so grateful to this community for the resource and inspiration you are and have been to me! Be back soon!

I just ran out of ink in my Pilot Varsity. I recalled that the "surprise me" ink sample from my most-recent Goulet Pens order is Diamine Shimmertastic Blue Lightning, and was getting ready to fill the Varsity with it. I then remembered that the Varsity uses a wick in the feed, and I was wondering if that would make it impossible for the shimmer particles in the Blue Lightning to make it to the nib. Has anybody used one of the shimmering inks (Diamine or the J. Herbin 1670 line) in a Pilot Varsity? What was your experience?

Sometimes inks are not made for being used at work, for taking notes, for normal correspondence... but they are so gorgeous that you simply don't mind what other people could think of you and keep using them like there's no tomorrow. The review which is going to follow is the complicated love story between me and Diamine Shimmertastic Sparkling Shadows. Diamine Shimmertastic Sparkling Shadow is a interesting grey ink, dark enough to be definitely usable, with high ammount of nice shading on every paper, and lots of nice gold glitters. Like most Diamine Inks, has really good characteristics: marvellous flow (despite the presence of glitter I've never experienced cloggings), well lubricated, smooth feeling when writing with every type of nib, no feathering, not a single bleedthrough (even under the third swab test). Dry times are fairly long, and it's not waterproof. But let's sto wandering around the main thing around this ink: It's a glittery ink. Glittery inks are not made for everyday based use, it's unlikely you'd be signing a paper with this kind of ink, it feels unprofessional and not respectful in front of the person you're writing to. I definitely agree, I respect the social convention by not using it if inappropiate, but I really cannot give a look to this ink without finding it gorgeous. It's a wonderful grey ink (and it's definitely not easy find a good grey ink) that gains a sort of third dimension by the adding of extremely thin gold particles. It ends to be an ink suitable only for drawing, for other artistic purposes, for signing holiday cards or doodling around... But the pleasure you feel while writing, the shining trace of ink you leave on the paper is something I find difficult to find in other inks. Ink with such glittery particles are usually known to be difficult to clean, I've to say that this particular one it's a little more difficult to clean and needs a little more mantainance, but just a little, cleaning is not a big issue in my opinion. So, the usual final question is : It is worth it? A bottle of 50 ml of this ink costs around 12€, and you acquire a huge ammount of a extremely well ingeneered ink. It's up to you, in my opinion this ink is worth every cent, but I like using it for different and personal reasons. If you want something you're like to use every day probably this is not made for you. If in doubt, buy it, for 12 € it's worth trying. COPY PAPER SCHIZZA & STRAPPA PAPER TRACING PAPER INKDROP CROMATOGRAPHY SHIMMER CLOSEUPS

Hello, FP friends. My wife gave me a bottle of Diamine Shimmertastic "Purple Pazzazz" for my birthday. I'd heard these inks can be finicky, so I didn't want to load it into one of my existing pens, all of which are unusual fillers or finer nibs. So, I bought a Kaweco Classic demonstrator with a broad nib, since it was inexpensive and I thought it would be neat as an eyedropper loaded with this shimmery ink. I loaded the pen, and I have to say the experience has been disappointing. Initially, there was good distribution of the gold fleck onto the written page, at least for the first few letters in a sentence. Giving the pen a gentle shake would help "recharge" the fleck, and I could get a few more letters with shimmer. That was fine, as I really didn't expect this to be for everyday writing anyway. However, now I get no gold fleck at all. no matter how I shake, rattle and roll the pen before writing. There's still gold fleck in the barrel, but none comes out of the nib in writing. It's just purple. Any idea what might be wrong? I'm going to disassemble and clean the pen, but figured I'd ask. Did I choose the wrong pen for this shimmery ink? Thanks!

I got four of these last week when they came out and I've been playing with them for a few days now. Quite apart from the shimmering aspect, the colours are surprisingly good and very nice. I got Night Sky, Blue Lightning, Golden Sands and Brandy Dazzle. I wanted to share my experience here and see if ti matched others. I find them a bit of mixed bag to be honest. I've yet to try Brandy Dazzle, but here are the others: Night Sky It's sort of thick and gloopy but writes a true carbon black with little grey. I like that a lot. The shimmer is very subtle and nice but I had repeated hard starts. Blue Lightning This is a very pretty colour with good shading and again the shimmer is very subtle and creates a very nice effect. Unfortunately it feels gritty on the nib and flow is poor. Golden Sands An unusual colour aptly named with the most dramatic shimmer effect that compliments the ink well, but flow is very poor and it feels 'stiff' to write with it. In all of the above I have used either a fine nib or a 1.1 stub. Perhaps they do better in a very wet broad nib, but I would be interested to know what others experiences are. I prefer the more subtle shimmer than Herbin's inks, but so far prefer the better flow of the Herbin's.