Ink Review: Diamine Soft Mint

[Chrissy]

I have decided to review some of my inks. These aren't necessarily in any particular order.

This one is Diamine Soft Mint from the standard range. I decided to give this one a try because I wanted to see how close a match it is to Caran d'Ache Caribbean Sea.

It's an unusual mint green colour, that matches it's name very well. I found it's a much closer match to Caran d'Ache Caribbean Sea than Diamine Steel Blue is, as Steel Blue is both darker and more saturated. I was surprised when using my comparison sample of C d'A CS how blue it was and how unsaturated it looked.

As an alternative to Caran d'Ache Caribbean Sea, this ink might be worth a try. It's about the same brightness, but only very slightly more green.

I had Soft Mint in both of my Lamy Nexx M pens for several days while writing parts of the review, and I didn't experience any flow or lubrication problems. I found the ink flowed very freely on the smooth Xerox 100 g/sm ColorPrint paper that I frequently use for my ink reviews. It was a pleasure to write with this ink.

As usual for a Diamine ink, it's a well behaved, fairly saturated ink. It shows some shading.

This ink exhibited some showthrough and a few odd dots of bleedthrough on my Xerox ColorPrint paper.

• The water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink, although it was reasonably resistant.
• Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and the nibs used were a M and a stub, this ink was fairly quick drying. It dried in less than 10 secs. That's a very unusual result on this paper.
• It flows through the pen well and lubricates the nib well. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests and changed over uncapped pens.
• It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles, 30ml plastic refill bottles or cartridges.
• Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.
• It's a reasonable price

 

[alexander_k]

Thanks for the review. It seems a nice ink but I wish it were darker. Such pale colours can't fill a whole page for me, they're just for a few lines - headings, notes, illustrations. I guess I need more contrast between paper and ink.

[Feathers]

Great review and thank you so much for the comparison to Caribbean Sea! I LOVED Caribbean Sea and was so sad that they discontinued it. I just purchased a bottle of Soft Mint the other day, and haven't had a chance to play with it yet. Now, I'm really looking forward to i!

[Chrissy]

Thanks for the review. It seems a nice ink but I wish it were darker. Such pale colours can't fill a whole page for me, they're just for a few lines - headings, notes, illustrations. I guess I need more contrast between paper and ink.

 

 

Great review and thank you so much for the comparison to Caribbean Sea! I LOVED Caribbean Sea and was so sad that they discontinued it. I just purchased a bottle of Soft Mint the other day, and haven't had a chance to play with it yet. Now, I'm really looking forward to i!

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

My main reason for selecting this ink for a review was to directly compare it with C d'A Caribbean Sea.

 

I was advised that Diamine Steel Blue was a good replacement, but my findings are that it's darker and more saturated. In fact I love the way that D. Steel Blue behaves, and it has some shading.

[Misfit]

I was just trying to fill a short cartridge with this ink from a sample bottle. I had the sample in the sink and it tipped over. Drat. At least I got the cartridge filled. Some ink remains.

[PS104]

A tad too soft for me.

Agree with alexander_k. need more contrast

[senzen]

They should sell this at Tiffany's... Not my cup of tea but plenty of people could start their journey that way...

[Misfit]

It certainly changes character based on paper quality.

[FatherFP]

Thanks for the review. Certainly not something I can see myself using - looks like toothpaste.

[Misfit]

Came back to this review. I've been using Soft Mint in a Michael's Recollections mint colored planner calendar. The Mint planner is a different sort of mint, more light green. But the ink looks good coming from my Regal Alice 117 fountain pen in what they call turquoise.

 

The pen has a medium nib, and the ink does not show through. If I had it to do over again, I'd get the Midori Travelers weekly planner inserts. The 6 rings in the Recollection planner get in the way of writing. I really like the ink on that paper.

 

Inks can look different coming from different pens/nib sizes. If you are on the fence I'd recommend getting a sample or 30ml bottle.