Mauve - Glare

[visvamitra]

I enjoy discovering new things and hubting for hidden treasures. That's why I'm always eager to try new ink brands.

Glare is an indian fountain pen and ink manufacturer. They offer a line of fifteen inks sold in plastic 60 ml bottles. As indian post office makes sending inks difficult it's not that east to try them outside India. Glare inks on the other hand can be easily ordered through ebay. Mine bottle was sent in styrofoam and described as "rubber part"

I used this ink for some time and I'm ready to share plenty of scans and my thoughts on it.

Packaging

Ink comes in cardboard box. The label is mainly black and red and rather nice. What I find interesting is the fact that there's MSRP of the ink printed on the box (275 rupees). I haven't seen it on other inks. The bottle is made of plastic and is quite functional. Color of the lid doesn't harmonize with the color of the ink. What's pretty cool and definitely useful is the use of plastic Inner cap to stop leakage and spills. Similarly to Stipula inner lid it's quite hard to open it without getting ink on your fingers. All in all I think the packaging is rather functional but somewhat aesthetically challenged.

Ink

Mauve is second Glare (or rather repacked Daytone) ink I tried. While the hue isn't exactly thrilling I like it. I'm strongly into purples and violets recently. What I enjoy most about these inks is flawless behavior.

The flow is very good and consistent. I'm usually interested to see if the ink starts after I leave the pen uncapped for a while and Mauve, exactly as Olive Brown reviewed some time ago, starts even after two minutes (a try made with Lamy Safari).

It didn't cause any feathering or bleedthrough even on cheap copy paper. It doesn't offer any useful water resistance but, on the other hand, if you accidentally spill water on the text it shouldn't blur instantly. The thing that could be much better is lubrication - it's nowhere near Sailor inks. On most papers and in wet pens you won't feel a discomfort however on bad quality or "harsh" paper you may feel too much feedback.

The saturation is good but not super strong. The ink is easy on the eyes and, what's quite pleasant, easy to clean from the pen. The same can't be said about many purples.

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

Software ID

Color range

Campus Myo, TWSBI 580, stub 1.1

No-name notebook (absorbent paper), TWSBI 580, stub 1.1

Leuchtturm 1917, Lamy Al-Star, broad nib

[white_lotus]

Very nice. How do these companies differ, Glare and Daytone? Is one just buying ink from the other and repackaging it?

[tinta]

I always enjoy your thorough reviews, but I just could not get attracted to this particular colour. I do enjoy similar colours, like R&K Scabiosa or Herbin's Poussiere de Lune, with a wide, wet italic.

[inkstainedruth]

Not quite what I'd call mauve, but a nice color nonetheless. Of course I already have several inks that are roughly this color, but thanks for the review.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[visvamitra]

@White_Lotus - I believe Glare buys ink in huge bottles from Daytone for pennies and sells it in much smaller bottles for much more pennies. Still the price is rather low and these inks behave flawlessly. I'm impresse by their quality (no misbehavior, even on Moleskine).

[chingdamosaic]

Not a fan of this ink/color, but really enjoy reading your review as always!

The way you observe and criticize the qualities of an ink are so inspiring. I never considered the starting issues or whether an ink is easy to clean. Now I know what to include next time when evaluating a new ink!

 

Btw, if you don't mind, may I ask for how many years you've been using fountain pens, and for how many hours on average do you write every day? (Just curious how you manage to acquire so much experience and insight )

 

Anyways, thanks again for sharing such a great review! Looking for more in the near future!

[visvamitra]

@chingdamosaic - thank you for kind words. I've been active fountain pen user for six - seven years. I write quite a lot during the day - usually between 15-25 A4 pages each day at work. On the other hand I'm using broad nibs so it's not that difficult to fit A4 sheet

[amberleadavis]

FLAWLESS BEHAVIOR??????

 

 

 

I'm impressed. Thank you Vis, for all your hard work.

[cleosmama]

I like this shade of mauve much more than the Oster Australian Opal Mauve I just bought (which just looks watery to my eye, except on Tomoe River paper on which it is kind of interesting, but not exciting).

[fountainpagan]

I don't say it enough, but I am very gratefful to all your extensively informative reviews. Thank you, Vis.

 

Not my colour, this Mauve. But I got Olive Green after reading your review, and am very happy with it.

[Barkingpig]

I don't say it enough, but I am very gratefful to all your extensively informative reviews. Thank you, Vis.

 

Not my colour, this Mauve. But I got Olive Green after reading your review, and am very happy with it.

 

 

+1

[visvamitra]

Thank you guys

 

Here's scan presenting Mauve's water resistance. WHile it's not impressive, it's not non existentr. I've soaked the paper for +/- 2 hours.

 

[chingdamosaic]

Thank you guys

 

Here's scan presenting Mauve's water resistance. WHile it's not impressive, it's not non existentr. I've soaked the paper for +/- 2 hours.

 

 

Thanks for your reply and this follow-up pic!

Now this seems like a good ink to sketch with

[Aquaria]

When I was 13, I would have adored this color and made heavy use of it to write love notes to my boyfriend(s) or send notes to friends in class. Yeah, I was sort of a naughty girl when I was 13. I outgrew it. Eventually.

 

To my (now) middle-aged eyes, it would get limited use, because an entire page of it would make me go blind from the (pardon the pun) glare.

[ENewton]

I find this color appealing. Given that Glare ink is difficult to obtain outside of India, I am tempted to put a few drops of something--Scabiosa maybe?--into a vial of Solferino to see whether I can create something similar.

 

Thanks for the inspiration.

[effrafax]

Great review, as always, Visvamitra. If this ink behaves as well as you say, it's obviously a completely different formulation to the Glare Turquoise I reviewed a few weeks ago. If they're not careful, Glare will get a similar reputation to Noodlers for producing inks with vastly different properties!

[miel]

Thank you for the review.

I really like the color ... and ... yes placed an order

Hope to have this ink soon in a pen.

[bob_hayden]

Here is a handwriting sample with a normal pen. I think the color is most accurate in the first image in this thread. Mine lacks a bit of grey and blue. This is a low key rather pastel color but quite legible.

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/GlareMauve.jpg