Callifolio Bleu Méditerranée - Review

[birchtine]

 

The L'Artisan Pastellier Callifolio inks I have stumbled upon are among the best regarding performance and of most interesting colours. Bleu Méditerranée is my favourite, although Atlantique and Equinoxe 6 are not far behind.

 

Two different wet pens (BB and flexible F) on Leuchtturm. The shading, purity of the blue colour and the warm glow can be enchanting. It may not be suitable for official documents but I am ready to stand my ground. The ink is also extremely shy and well behaved and it stays on paper exactly where it should, without spreading and messing around.

 

 

Bleu Méditerranée on Clairefountaine, Xerox Performer, Leuchtturm and Moleskine. The ink behaves exceptionally on all papers.

 

Samples a and f were written with rather wet pens (BB and M/B). Surprisingly, the lines in the Moleskine notebook and on the Xerox copy sheet are still clearly defined and the colour stays pleasantly vibrant. Usually, colours on these two papers become flat and dull.

 

The greater spread and feathering in b, c, d and e can be attributed to the extremely wet flexible pen which leaves puddles of ink. It took well over three minutes for the three-stripes to dry on Clairefountaine and Leuchtturm. Again, the performance of the ink on my super absorbent papers is way better than most I have ever used.

 

It's rather an extreme setup but shows how brilliant the ink is and illustrates well the advantages of paper designed for the use with fountain pens.

 

Callifolio Bleu Méditerranée is clearly exceptional but I can't really recommend it to everyone for two reasons: possibly insufficient lubrication and relatively low saturation. The ink appears dry and may make a pen feeling scratchy. Lower saturation will leave washed out colours in pens with more restricted flow. However, if someone likes the performance of Diamine Registrar's or Salix but strives for more exotic blue it's a great option.

 

Edited July 4, 2017 by birchtine

[visvamitra]

Another great review! Thank you. I'm a fan of Callifolio inks.

[birchtine]

Thank you! I'm aware of you being the Callifolio fan. I think it was one of your great reviews which turned my attention to their inks.

[lgsoltek]

I think this is what my mislabelled bottle of "Bleu Équinoxe 6" really is.

[birchtine]

I had the same feeling but wasn't sure whether it was Mediterranean or Azure. Equinoxe 6 is a very dark and saturated teal.

[lgsoltek]

I had the same feeling but wasn't sure whether it was Mediterranean or Azure. Equinoxe 6 is a very dark and saturated teal.

 

Shall we do a CRV (co-razy-view) to compare them?

[senzen]

I think this is what my mislabelled bottle of "Bleu Équinoxe 6" really is.

 

I just bought Bleu Equinoxe 6 based on your review! But I restrained my expectations... I got a greener blue, looks great, exactly what I wanted, But... Not as green a Vismamitra's, nor as purple as yours... Also got Souten.

 

[senzen]

What a great review birchtine!

[lgsoltek]

 

I just bought Bleu Equinoxe 6 based on your review! But I restrained my expectations... I got a greener blue, looks great, exactly what I wanted, But... Not as green a Vismamitra's, nor as purple as yours... Also got Souten.

 

 

Well I did say in my review that it's probably not the right label. But yours looks quite similar to what I get!

[birchtine]

Here are what I believe the correct samples of Bleu Méditerranée and Equinoxe 6 next to each other: https://inksnibs.jimdo.com/encres-inks/encre-bleue-2-blue-ink/ by plum73 from stylo-plume..org

 

Edited July 4, 2017 by birchtine

[visvamitra]

It seems there are huge differences between Callifolio batches. I agree that Bleu Equinoxe 6 is/was rather dark ink. Also Bleu Mediterrannee we bought few your ago during group buy made by polish fountain pen board users was weakly saturated. The one you show looks decently saturated. It seems colors and saturation of few inks were changed: biggest example was Oconto. Anyway if their inks will become more saturated, they'll surely find more enthusiasths.

[visvamitra]

There's also a possibility that it's actually mislabelled Bleu Pacifique or Atlantique. We'll never know unless Didier decides to spend some time and energy on updating website and inks line.

[NicolausPiscator]

Wonderful review! And delightful comparison, thank you! L'Artisan Pastellier produces interesting inks...

[birchtine]

Thank you all!

 

I'm pretty sure that this is Bleu Méditerranée not Atlantique. I'm starting to think that my camera might shift slightly the colours because I can see a bit more blue and less turquoise in pictures in RAW, but the white balance is definitely correct. The only problem is that pictures in RAW bear less resemblance to what I can see in reality. It is all so frustrating

Edited July 5, 2017 by birchtine

[birchtine]

I confess I'm under the Méditerranée spell and apart from one pen with Diamine Registrar's all other pens are kept filled with my new favourite.

 

Here's another bunch of samples on the white Tomoe River from the CRV thread but others will follow

 

I hope you will forgive me for keeping banging about the confusion while using Atlantique and Méditerranée. I've thought that someone may find it interesting.

 

Part of the problem is that I have similar pens inked with both inks. Also, I tend to rotate inks in all my daily pens and because I'm a messy person I forget which pen is filled with which ink. In the result, I write a note with Atlantique and wake up next morning discovering Méditerranée on paper.

 

I decided to investigated the issue and share some thoughts.

 

The letters and the second row samples are 12 hours older than the first row fresh swatches (2-3 minutes old). The inks haven't dried properly yet. You can see from the picture that guessing whether a sample is freshly written with Méditerranée or Atlantique can be tricky.

 

 

After 4-5 minutes inks are dry but still there is a huge difference in colours of the Méditerranée swatches. Several days ago I undertook some additional observations and the ink takes approximately about 10-15 minutes to darken and to reach final colour maturity. Atlantique stays relatively unchanged.

 

Azure is also interesting. With time it develops a dusty appearance and in this respect it reminds me Pelikan Royal Blue.

 

 

The close-up of Méditerranée: after 5 minutes and 12 hours, respectively.

 

 

 

Another close-up: after around 5 minutes and 12 hours.

 

The colour shift isn't an uncommon phenomenon. However, apart from iron gall inks, colours seem to settle when inks settle dry on paper. In the case of Méditerranée the time extends to over 12 minutes which I find rather fascinating. Also, most inks tend to lighten up rather than getting darker with time. I wish Didier never changes the formulation. I absolutely love this ink.

 

Edit: Follow up: After 3 hours the fresh sample is now even darker than the older one (possibly a bit more ink was laid).

Edited August 7, 2017 by birchtine

[Bluey]

I think this may make an excellent ink for my Falcon which is the wettest pen I've ever tried. And needs taming.

[birchtine]

Hi Bluey, I'm not sure if Méditerranée belongs to particulary dry or taming inks. However, because it really works well on a wide range of papers and wetter a pen is more charming the result it's worth giving a try.

Edited August 7, 2017 by birchtine

[Bluey]

Cheers. I'm going to give it a try if I can find a sample on ebay. I've found even the dry Pelikan 4001 inks are too wet for the Falcon. Because the pen is so wet, shading is non existent no matter what the ink, so maybe this blue will be the answer.

 

Thanks for the review.

Edited August 7, 2017 by Bluey

[DrDebG]

Outstanding review! I have all of the Callifolio blues and your analysis is correct. Mediterreanee is more "blue" than Altantique. Atlantique is more saturated than Pacifique, which is a tad bit lighter. These three blues are probably my favorites. I love other blue inks, but I use these three more than any other. Another reason is because they are less staining than other blues (think Sailor Souten and Yama Dori - although this is teal).

 

Vanness Pens is where I purchase my Callifolio inks.

[birchtine]

Cheers. I'm going to give it a try if I can find a sample on ebay. I've found even the dry Pelikan 4001 inks are too wet for the Falcon. Because the pen is so wet, shading is non existent no matter what the ink, so maybe this blue will be the answer.

 

Thanks for the review.

Regarding Pelikan 4001 inks, I noticed that different colours vary greatly in terms of performance. In my opinion, Méditerranée is somehow similar in behaviour to Royal Blue but has better shading potential. I hope it will work for you.