Ink Review: Diamine Matador

[Chrissy]

My latest ink is Diamine Matador. This is a bright red. It's brighter than Red Dragon and is what I would call a perfectly balanced red in the middle of the red range. Not too much blue or orange/yellow.

Because I like to compare the inks I am reviewing against other inks that I have, I decided to use Red Dragon, Monaco Red and Crimson as my comparison inks this time. However, no matter what I tried in Photoshop CS6, I couldn't get an exact colour replication for both Matador and Red Dragon on the same document for some reason. So I matched the document as closely as I could to Matador. Red Dragon has slightly more of a pinkish tinge than Monaco Red and Matador, but is less pink than Crimson.

I decided to use a parker 45 as I had one clean on my desk. It's been a while since I used one but I found this ink behaved very well with it. I believe it's a M nib. It was a pleasure to use with Matador ink.

I don't particularly like the idea of comparing blood red colours, as in D. Matador, Mb. Alfred Hitchcock or D. Oxblood. But if you wanted to do that, Matador is a bright red more like arterial blood than venous blood.

• The water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink but it shows a little water resistance.

• Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a M nib, this ink took 16-18 secs to dry

• 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.

• 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

 

[lgsoltek]

Thank you Chrissy for the review! It looks more vibrant than Red Dragon, which i find too brown for my taste. I might check out this one.

[amberleadavis]

Thanks Chrissy, I just bought this one. I like Crimson and Red Dragon so this one should be right up my alley.

[Chrissy]

Diamine Matador is definitely the bright red of the inks I tested. I personally like Red Dragon, as my 'go to' red, even though it leans a bit more brownish than Matador. If I was a gambling person I might suggest that Diamine could almost have used Red Dragon as their base for Red Lustre. (But don't tell anyone LOL)

 

Also, I recommend red ink users might have a look at Diamine Burgundy Rose because I believe it's an excellent copy of Montblanc Alfred Hitchcock