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Lamy is a well-known German writing utensils manufacturer, with products ranging from fountain pens and inks to mechanical pencils. Every year in the recent times Lamy has been releasing limited edition pens and inks themed after certain colors. Usually the limited edition inks are made to match a particular pen. For 2020, Lamy released a vivid, deep blue-green Al-Star fountain pen with a matching ink named Turmaline. Tourmaline is a mineral with a wide range of hues, ranging from pink to very green. Lamy's rendition is a blue-tinted green, or you might call it a very green teal. If I look at written text under diffuse daylight from my window, the color is decidedly green. Lamy Turmalin is significantly more green than J. Herbin Emerald of Chivor and Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku. It is not as green as Graf von Faber-Castell Moss Green, but it is more green than any of the teal inks I have personally tried to date. The ink sheens quite easily in a magenta-red color, especially around the edges of the letters. Saturation is very high. Depending on paper and how wet your pen writes, it will range from a more green-turquoise to a deeper teal. Flow and "feel" of the ink in writing is similar to other Lamy inks I've tried. That is moderate-to-dry, depending on pen used, and moderately lubricated. Water resistance is extremely low--almost all of the ink lifts off and smears away, not leaving a readable line. The blue component is the most transient, so if you use a water brush to draw with this ink, the wash will be more blue than the base color of this ink. If you like nuanced inks, like the more translucent low-number Sailor Ink Studio series or something like Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine, this ink is the opposite -- punchy and saturated. Most of the nuance comes from the interesting variation from blue to green depending on illumination, and also from generous amount of sheen. As always, it's really difficult to show teal colors correctly, but hopefully showing this ink next to other well-known inks will be helpful for relative comparison. Photographs - the reason there are different tints on ivory paper is because I used a high quality multi-color-temperature lamp to enhance dull diffuse shade daylight from a nearby window to show off the colors better: Tomoe River 52g "white" : Scans: Fabriano Bioprima paper, comparing with Ku-Jaku. In person, Ku-Jaku is noticeably more blue and also more muted/grayed than Turmaline: Tomoe River 52g white: Nakabayashi Logical (/Swing) A-lined B5 size:

(P)ink Shoot-Out : Callifolio Andrinople vs Edelstein Turmaline Given that today is Valentines Day, I thought it would be fun to pitch a fight between two inks that are definitely up to the occasion. And what a surprise ! These turn out to be pink inks ! I’m not a pink ink person myself, but these inks crossed my path and somehow stuck in my collection. The inks entering the arena today are L’Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Andrinople and the Pelikan Edelstein Ink of the Year 2012 Turmaline. Both are really vibrant super-pink inks that I would normally dislike, but these two have a certain “je ne sais quoi” that turned my eye. The date being what it is, I thought it would be a perfect time to do a detailed comparison, and find out which of these inks I like the most. Enter... the Ink Shoot-Out. A brutal fight spanning five rounds, where heavyweight inks do battle to determine who is the winner. In the left corner – la petite Française Callifolio Andrinople. In the right corner, das Deutsche Fraulein Edelstein Turmaline. Which champion will remain standing at the end of the fight ? Let's find out... Round 1 - First Impressions Both inks are an eye-searing super-pink. The inks pop from the page – pink and proud – waiting for some joyful writing or drawing. Both are lovely, but there are some differences: The Edelstein ink is more saturated, leaving a well-defined line when writing.Edelstein Turmaline is also very well lubricated, making your pen glide over the page. In contrast, Callifolio Andrinople writes much drier with noticeable feedback from the paper.Callifolio is a more reddish purple, which in my opinion looks more appealing. I like the fact that the colour is more subdued (if it’s possible to say this of a pink ink).Evaluating this round, I find that the French girl has the looks, the German girl the moves. In my opinion, this evens out. For this round, it’s the judge’s opinion that both champions are on par with each other, resulting in a draw. Round 2 - Writing Sample The writing sample was done on Rhodia N°16 Notepad with 80 gsm paper. Both inks behaved flawlessly, with no feathering and no show-through or bleed-through. Pelikan Turmaline wrote like a dream, with very good ink flow and lubrication, and leaving a well saturated line. In contrast, Callifolio Andrinople is much less lubricated, and feels much drier. It also has visibly lower saturation. The Callifolio ink needs broader nibs for a satisfying writing experience. Turmaline on the other hand writes perfectly fine even when using an EF nib. Colourwise both inks look very similar in writing, the reddish undertones of Andrinople becoming more apparent in the broader nibs. Both inks also exhibit some nice and classy shading. The shading is not very prominent – ranging from rose to pink – but it’s definitely present, and enhances the character of your writing. For this round, the focus is on writing, and here the German ink clearly has the upper hand. A solid win for Pelikan Edelstein Turmaline. Round 3 - Pen on Paper This round allows the batlling inks to show how they behave on a range of fine writing papers. From top to bottom, we have : FantasticPaper, Life Noble, Tomoe River and Original Crown Mill cotton paper. All scribbling and writing was done with a Lamy Safari M-nib. Both champions did well, with no show-through nor bleed-through. But this round is not about technicalities, it is about aesthetics and beauty. Are the fighters able to make the paper shine ? Well – the choice is difficult and highly personal (almost a blonde vs brunette thing). In my opinion, Callifiolio Andrinople is the more beautiful of the champions – I find its more reddish appearance much more appealing. The only exception is with Tomoe River paper, where I prefer the looks of Edelstein Turmaline (on this paper it’s a really striking and vibrant pink). For this round, Andrinople gets the upper hand and is granted the victory. Round 4 - Ink Properties Both inks have drying times in the 20-25 second range on the Rhodia paper, with Andrinople the quickest-drying of the two. Both inks also do fine on the smudge test, where a moist Q-tip cotton swab is drawn across the text lines. There is some smearing, but the text remains perfectly legible. The smearing is more prominent though for the Edelstein ink. For the droplet test, I dripped water onto the grid and let it sit there for 15 minutes, after which I removed the water droplets with a paper kitchen towel. Neither of the champions exhibits good water resistance – all that lovely pink writing just disappears, leaving only smudges ! The Pelikan ink leaves some traces of the original though, which might be reconstructed with a lot of patience. The chromatography shows that Turmaline leaves a greyish residue – as was apparent in the droplet test. You can also clearly see that Turmaline is a more intense pink, and one with a surprisingly complex chemical composition (notice the very water-soluble yellow and light-grey components at the top). With Andrinople, the chroma shows the more prominent existence of the red undertones. In this round, both inks show more or less the same behavior. Andrinople dries a bit quicker and is a bit more smudge-resistant. On the other hand, Turmaline is more soak-resistant (in comparison with Andrinople that is – both inks score very low for water resistance). There is no clear winner in this round. Round 5 - The Fun Factor Welcome to the final round. Here I give you a purely personal impression of both inks, where I judge which of them I like most when doing some fun stuff like doodling and drawing. Both inks do well, and the lack of water resistance allows for nice effects when using a water brush. I really enjoyed using them. Pelikan Edelstein Turmaline was easier to draw with using a fountain pen – no doubt owing to its better lubrication. When using a brush or dip pen, you won’t notice the drier feel of Callifolio Andrinople though. On the other hand, I really like the somewhat more reddish appearance of Andrinople. On the light side of these inks’ colour spectrum, they produce an almost identical light-rose colour. It’s only on more saturated parts that Turmaline shows it’s more pinkish nature. I really wanted a clear winner for this round, but in all objectivity I have to admit that both inks were on par with each other. Both inks dealt some good punches, but neither of them dominated the fight. I had a great time using them both ! So for this round, I have no other choice than to declare a draw. The Verdict Both inks are joyful, lively and vibrant pinks that are guaranteed to bring colour to your page. For writing – Pelikan Edelstein Turmaline is technically the superior ink. In the looks department, I definitely prefer Callifolio Andrinople myself. In this fight, both champions put on their best show, but in the end no clear winner emerges. So – as a first in this shoot-out series – I leave it up to you to pick your winner. If you prefer blondes, go for Pelikan Edelstein Turmaline. If you prefer brunettes, the French ink Callifolio Andrinople is an equally good choice. And in case you’re interested: my own vote goes to Callifolio Andrinople ;-) Postscriptum: in case you want to buy a bottle – be aware that Pelikan Edelstein Turmaline was a limited edition ink that is no longer produced. You can still pick up a bottle of Andrinople though, and use the occasion to explore some other Callifolio inks. I’ve done so myself, and never regretted it.

Ink Review : Pelikan Edelstein Turmaline --- Ink of the Year 2012 --- Pen: Lamy AL-star, M-nib Paper: Rhodia N°16 notepad 80 gsm Review In 2011 Pelikan introduced the Edelstein series of high-end inks, available in a variety of colours. The theme of the Edelstein concept is the gemstone – each colour corresponds to the beautiful colour of a gem. The inks themselves are presented in 50 ml high-value bottles, that are truly beautiful, and worthy of a place on your desk. In this review I put the spotlight on Turmaline, the Edelstein Ink of the Year 2012. This is a limited edition ink, that’s probably difficult to find today. Pelikan themselves describe the colour as “plum”. Myself, I just see a very bright and flamboyant pink. I’m the first to admit that I’m not a “pink ink” person, but nevertheless this ink has a strange attraction. Perhaps it’s the boldness of the ink’s colour… this is definitely NOT a shy or subdued ink. Technically, the ink behaved really fine, with good flow and saturation, and a good contrast with the paper even in the finer nibs. With broader nibs there is some really nice shading that accentuates the pinkyness of the ink. Overall a pleasurable ink to write with. Drying times are reasonable, ranging from 10 to 20 seconds, depending on the type of paper. Turmaline copes well with a wide variety of paper – and can even tolerate the crappy ones. On Moleskine, there’s only some barely noticeable feathering going on – coupled with significant show-through and some bleed-through. On other papers the ink behaved impeccably. Turmaline is not a water-resistant ink though. It smudges easily, but without impacting the readability of the text. It could handle 15 minutes of water droplets fairly well, but when your writing comes into contact with running water, the paper is left with unreadable pinkish smudges. Although… for this ink, water-resistance should not be a concern – I doubt you’ll use this colour for business correspondence ;-). Be aware that this ink will stain your pen – it takes some serious cleaning to remove all ink residue from inside your pen. The chromatography of this (p)ink looks very interesting, with some water-soluble yellow and grey components. Conclusion I think for a pink this ink doesn’t stink. This is not a colour for me, but if you like pinkish inks, this one is probably worth looking at. It’s bold and bright, and definitely an attention-drawer. my overall score: B+