Ink Review: Diamine Misty Blue

[Chrissy]

Today I’m reviewing a sample of Diamine Misty Blue

This is a mid-range blue ink that leans slightly green. For those of you who used to like Montblanc Meisterstuck Diamond Blue, Diamine Misty Blue is a very good replacement for that one.

I felt it was a restful blue, a blue ink that is easy on the eye, that looked neither too dark nor too light nor too bright. A really pleasant mid-range blue that is quite an unusual shade. Almost like a vintage ink in appearance. Despite having lot’s of blue inks, I found it difficult to find some that were close to this colour until I took out my bottle of Montblanc Meisterstuck Diamond Blue. MMDB leans very slightly more green, but is still quite a close match to Misty Blue.

I found it an excellent flowing ink that was quite wet. It had excellent lubrication with all of the pens I used.

I didn’t see any woolly line, spread or feathering on most of the papers I tried it with, apart from the always predictable Field Notes paper.

With broader nibs it looks considerably more saturated than it did with finer nibs.

It showed through on some of the cheaper papers I experimented with. See the pictures.

I found it behaved very well. I didn’t experience any start-up or clogging problems with it. This was despite me leaving the caps off of all 3 pens while I found and cut pieces of different papers to try it on. Clean-up was particularly easy. No problem at all removing Misty Blue from hands or pens using soap for hands and plain water for pens.

I have read reviews where reviewers found that Misty Blue changed colour upon drying. This was not my experience with my sample. It’s the same colour now as it was when I wrote with it yesterday and earlier today. Whether it will change colour in a few days remains to be seen.

It was not particularly water resistant, but it didn’t disappear after a few minutes under water.

 

• This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, but shows reasonably good water resistance.
• Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a quite shiny surface at 100gsm, and I used a M nib, this ink dried after just 11-14 seconds when using the kaweco Sport F nib. Although it took longer to dry with both of my wetter nibs..
• No smear after dry.
• It has excellent flow and lubrication. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests, and found and cut papers to try it on.
• It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles.
• Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.
• It's a reasonable price.

​

[ManofKent]

Thank you.

 

I'm not a big blue fan, but I like this one, probably because whilst far from identical in tone it feels like it belongs in the same family of blues as Tsuki-yo .

[Chrissy]

  On 5/8/2017 at 2:59 PM, ManofKent said:

Thank you.

 

I'm not a big blue fan, but I like this one, probably because whilst far from identical in tone it feels like it belongs in the same family of blues as Tsuki-yo .

 

You're welcome. I must admit I struggled to find examples of similar inks to Misty Blue in my blue ink stocks. Tsuki-yo was one I once tried, but I no longer have any.

[ManofKent]

  On 5/8/2017 at 3:53 PM, Chrissy said:

 

You're welcome. I must admit I struggled to find examples of similar inks to Misty Blue in my blue ink stocks. Tsuki-yo was one I once tried, but I no longer have any.

 

PM me your address and I'll drop a vial in the post. I'm sure it must be a criminal offence not to have any, although looking at this on my laptop, rather than my work PC Misty Blue looks a fair bit (a bit more than a tad) lighter.

[senzen]

Great review, I'm liking this one...

[Chrissy]

  On 5/8/2017 at 6:57 PM, pseudo88 said:

Great review, I'm liking this one...

 

You're welcome.

[Chrissy]

  On 5/8/2017 at 6:37 PM, ManofKent said:

 

PM me your address and I'll drop a vial in the post. I'm sure it must be a criminal offence not to have any, although looking at this on my laptop, rather than my work PC Misty Blue looks a fair bit (a bit more than a tad) lighter.

Thank you, that's very kind. PM sent.

[lgsoltek]

I think Tsuki-yo is much darker. Anyway I love this blue. There's a dusty feel about it.

[Chrissy]

  On 5/8/2017 at 9:58 PM, Lgsoltek said:

I think Tsuki-yo is much darker. Anyway I love this blue. There's a dusty feel about it.

 

Yes you're right. A dusty feel is a good description of the colour.

[TheDutchGuy]

  On 5/8/2017 at 9:58 PM, Lgsoltek said:

There's a dusty feel about it.

Well said! Very interesting ink. Wonderful shading. Relaxing. Good flow. Good lubrication. Good value for money. At first glance very similar to Waterman Mysterious Blue, but much more mysterious ;-). A short phrase makes these two inks appear almost identical, but a full page is quite different. Misty Blue is much more interesting in my opinion.

[inkstainedruth]

Interesting. I was not familiar with this ink, but on my screen the old scans look a LOT bluer than has been my experience with WMB (which *definitely* leans more teal -- and on some paper and out of some of my pens looked so green that people thought it WAS a green ink. I don't see that happening with Misty Blue.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Tas]

A recent discovery and now my favourite blue. SO much character. So friendly on the eye and a joy to use. It has recently married my Lamy 2K and they are both very happy :)

[lgsoltek]

  On 7/18/2019 at 6:21 PM, Tas said:

A recent discovery and now my favourite blue. SO much character. So friendly on the eye and a joy to use. It has recently married my Lamy 2K and they are both very happy :)

Oh I had that combo once. It was great.

[TheDutchGuy]

  On 7/18/2019 at 6:21 PM, Tas said:

A recent discovery and now my favourite blue. SO much character. So friendly on the eye and a joy to use.

Couldn’t agree more. A truly lovely ink.

[MissCellany]

Wow, this ink really pops on Tomoe River paper! I've been obsessing over blue inks lately, this one might have to come to me next. >.>

[TheDutchGuy]

I’m a sucker for blue inks and I adore many of them, all for different reasons. I love Herbin Bleu Nuit and Bleu des Profondeurs becuase they are somehow so very very French. I love Sailor Jentle Blue because it’s a total workhorse ink that looks great, flows great and behaves in any pen and on any paper. I love Sailor Shikiori Yonaga because it’s the wettest ink I know of and it lubricates like nothing else. I love Sailor Jentle Souten because it just looks so lovely. I could go on and on, including Waterman Mysterious Blue, various KWZ blues, Kaweco Midnight Blue... So many great inks! But if I had to pick one blue ink, just one, it would be Diamine Misty Blue. I’m so glad I discovered this ink.

[TheDutchGuy]

I’ve got to sing the praises of this ink again. In addition to all off the virtues as already mentioned in this discussion, it also has a tendency to reduce a pen’s line width. I love that. The only other ink that I know of which does this, is Sailor Kiwaguro. To elaborate a bit, many ‘watery’ inks tend to spread out over the paper a little bit before the ink dries, increasing a pen’s line width. Misty Blue and Kiwaguro do the opposite: before the ink dries, due to surface tension phenomena, the ink pulls towards itself which decreases a pen’s line width. Awesome.

Edited July 10, 2020 by TheDutchGuy

[Karmachanic]

Love this for it's gentle subdued look. Marvelous shading. Currently getting along nicely with the Pilot 912 FA. When I'm feeling more rambuctious I turn to RO Blue Sea.

[JulieParadise]

For the #50shadesofbluechallenge (link to the hashtag on Instagram), a challenge over at the German PenExchange forum for July & August 2020, I inked up all my pens with all the 50+ blue inks I have. The snapshots might also be of interest to some here.

 

As you can see, this ink is indeed somewhat muted, but not too misty or murky; I find it rather friendly and even vivid in a wetter nib. The photo shows the ink in one and the same pen (a Montblanc Masterpiece 142) before and after tuning the nib from a rather dry F to a jucier Italic Medium.

 

 

The similarities to Akkerman Dutch Masters Ceruleum Blauw are striking. If there is any difference, than maybe Akkerman's ink on the left is a bit more saturated and Misty Blue on the right and in the middle pic leans a tad more towards green, maybe:

 

Even applied in heavier layers over masking fluid does not give away more than "heavier layers are darker", but on the sides you can see that both look pretty much the same again.

 

 

The masking tape would not rub off without smudging and smearing into the white areas, so I show you the photo with the fluid still on. Akkerman on the left, Diamine to the right on the picture underneath; both small pics show Akkerman DM Ceruleum Blauw shot within some seconds with and without clouds outside.

 

Even the little labels on my bottles show a variety of tones although both Akkerman labels were touched by drops from the same bottle of Akkerman, both Misty Blue labels were created with drops from the older Diamine bottle but on got a heavier layer of ink. --> Which shows how much the thickness of layers or the amount of ink you have in one place matters to the colour it dries to.

 

That is why I am such a fan of splashes, as these show the range of tones an ink can give in general, whereas written text shows how this translates to pages where it was used.

[TheDutchGuy]

^--Wonderful photos, thanks! I really love this ink.