Jacques Herbin Les Encres Essentielles... Bulk Refilling Station?

[tamiya]

Any FPNer live near a LPS (local pen shop!) who is a retailer of Jacques Herbin, anybody noticed their bulk refilling station for Les Encres Essentialles?

 

The ink range was announced probable 24mths ago and spread worldwide say in the past 12mths.

 

Ironically "Jacques Herbin" is the fancy luxury offshoot of J.Herbin which already offers decent line of FP inks at reasonable prices... and Les Encres Essentialles retails for AUD50 a bottle. (MontBlanc regular line sells for about AUD35... that's luxury enough for my budget. Quink & Wayermans sells for around AUD12.)

 

Not only are they crazy expensive, there's 10 (afaik) colours in the Essentiales range... other than the Austral Blue and the Abyss Black, the rest aren't really ink colours that anybody would use in high volumes, would take me forever to finish 50ml.

 

Which begs the question, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING when introducing the Bulk Refill Station to us unwashed masses?

 

The rack of 10 glass dispensers takes up a serious anount of realestate, retailers must really hate them. Each jar probably holds about 2L, I've only ever seen them half full. Wide mouth bunged with big cork.

 

And they're clear glass... do I really want to buy ink that's being displayed unprotected from UV etc for months on end in the store. Plus what contaminants might enter the big jars &/or nest inside the dispenser tap. How airtight is that cork, is the ink evaporating!?

 

Was chatting to sales friend when I first spotted the refill rig overseas... first thought - hey that's cool if I can buy bulk Herbin ink, can I fill BYO bottle? Alas no... they're only allowed to refill into emptied Jacques Herbin Essentiales bottles matchingly labelled - no changing colours.

 

Meh... lost interest by then... even didn't bother to ask How Much.

 

 

So a year on... any FPNer availed of the Refill service yet?

[tamiya]

Les Encres Essentiales range...

 

VERT AMAZONE - 50ML BOTTLE

AMBRE DE BALTIQUE - 50ML BOTTLE

GRIS DE HOULE - 50ML BOTTLE

NOIR ABYSSAL - 50ML BOTTLE

BLEU DE MINUIT - 50ML BOTTLE

BLEU AUSTRAL - 50ML BOTTLE

VIOLET BORÉAL - 50ML BOTTLE

ROUGE D'ORIENT - 50ML BOTTLE

TERRE D'OMBRE - 50ML BOTTLE

ORANGE SOLEIL - 50ML BOTTLE

 

https://www.jacquesherbin.com/en/ink/essentielles-ink.html

[senzen]

I have two of these, and was only aware of the filling station at Le Bon Marché in Paris, which in spite of its name is a high end department store... So not for us the unwashed masses, unless you've seen them elsewhere? I think it's a cool concept for an upmarket segment that doesn't think twice about prices (so not me!).

 

As for the inks themselves, they have slowly grown on me, mostly Bleu Austral (which looks green to me), Ambre de Baltique has a harder time because it's so close to another I already had, Callifolio Inti. Other inks in the range also look interesting.

[tamiya]

So far I've spotted 2 locations

 

Last month when weekending in Singapore I had brief opportunity to pop into Fook Hing. Noticed the huge glass vials but I was in a huge rush, literally only had a 5min window to dash in & survey if they had any interesting products since my last raid; was all dressed up & running late to a dinner event.

 

Last week back in Melbourne noticed same setup at our local Milligram in city.

 

 

Both places I noticed the levels of every jar was exactly same "halfway"... which to my uneducated mind suggests that's how they were delivered from new & nobodys bought any.

[tamiya]

I think it's a cool concept for an upmarket segment that doesn't think twice about prices (so not me!).

Cool concept for sure, but don't you find it jarring? ie upmarket product line = less likely target for refilling demand/need?

 

I'd be in rapture if I ever saw a bulk refiller for Pilot BlueBlack

 

Otoh... still Undecided about dispenser... vs how about 50ml in a foil pouch for half the price of fancy glass bottle? It'll keep the ink clean & unexposed to UV.

 

Or if ppl really wrote such large amounts, offer big bottles of 100-350mL. Glass or PET bottle, even a nalgene - all good. Resealable tetrapack like what Ready2Drink Ribena comes in would be cooler still.

[Intensity]

It's just a curiosity gimmick to get people excited about using inks. A marketing strategy.

 

Also, those inks are quite overpriced outside of Europe. They can be purchased from European on-line vendors for reasonable prices: 18.50 euro from La Couronne du Comte including VAT, or 15.29 euro excl. VAT when buying from outside the EU! When I saw these bottles in Japan at Itoya for around $30 each, it was a sticker shock. But they cost $28 in USA from gouletpens. This is pretty typical of what many brands encounter on the international market: some distributor takes a big cut, and MSRP is much higher abroad. Hence why a lot of people order Japanese pens directly from Japanese vendors, etc.

[tamiya]

Yeah Australian street pricing is often crazy high markup, nothing new there... I buy more bottles whilst travelling overseas &/or at discount than paying RRP locally if I'm able. (RRP EUR18.90) But it's a "relative" thing too... if you price your "everyday Essentialles" line dearer than MontBlanc & Iroshizuku, I'd expect better colours/performance/etc... but they're not.

 

 

Marketing gimmick for sure.

 

But for some odd reason... I'm thinking its "wasteful" to have that much ink just sitting around going stale. We pay crazy money for tiny volumes of ink in a tiny bottle. Mind puts 2+2 together and "somebody" must be paying for that wastefulness... and I don't want to be that somebody.

 

Ditto with Volkwagen group, they've been fined billions of $$$/euros for their Dieselgate indiscretion. Who's ultimately "paying" those fines if not the end customer? Hence today hesitant about even considering buying any new VW, Skoda, Porsche... meh ok ok, by time I'm ready to order that new Porsche, they've probable have recovered their losses

[Intensity]

I think we pay for the glass bottles and individual packaging + all the profit down the line: to the manufacturer, to the distributors, to international distributors, to end stores, any delivery and other overhead in between. The actual cost of ink is quite likely very low. buying ink in bulk is generally much cheaper too. For example J. Herbin's 100ml bottles of ink vs. their 10ml bottles of ink, or if you look at Pilot's standard ink in large bottles vs small bottles. The ink is cheap, the individual packaging and overhead for per-item sales is not.

 

Since you mentioned Iroshizuku inks: those cost ~$15 USD (+tax) in Japan for the standard 50ml bottles and $16 USD (+tax) for the anniversary special edition inks. Those same anniversary inks went for $30 in the US initially.

Edited December 22, 2019 by Intensity

[tamiya]

 

 

Since you mentioned Iroshizuku inks: those cost ~$15 USD (+tax) in Japan for the standard 50ml bottles and $16 USD (+tax) for the anniversary special edition inks. Those same anniversary inks went for $30 in the US initially.

Chatting to a few retailers there's something odd with those golden Iroshizukus. First (small) batch got released mid year & they promptly sold out fast, leaving behind long waiting lists. So the retailers all requested extra stock... and Pilot delivered. Then strangely the demand just vanished, retailers have been sitting on unmoving stock for a quarter, they're all getting antsy.

 

Some places I've seen are offering full sets of 50ml bottles for near the same price as the Gods Set of 7 little 15ml of the same colours...!

[Intensity]

I think the classic Iroshizuku colors are "tried and true" favorites. The limited edition ones are mostly not as interesting and remind me of a box of crayons. They are translucent and situational colors, other than Hoteison. I almost bought Hoteison while in Japan, since it was so "cheap" there, but it wasn't my cup of tea. It looked like a darker J. Herbin Vert Empire in person--I was hoping for more Lamy Petrol level of blue-green as some store photos make it out to be, but it was decidedly not teal-shifted. I liked the two-tone Murasaki Shikibu more than Juro Jin. Murasaki shikibu separates slightly into purple and blue hues in broad nibs and fresh fills, not sure Juro Jin does this. Also Juro Jin is even more pale than the already translucent Murasaki Shikibu.

[tamiya]

Yeah the original Iros were a real box of Crayolas they're what started this colour craze. Might own maybe 10 if I counted the little bottles, but there's always a pen inked with konpeki or amairo. Occasionally Fuyugaki or Murasaki Shukibu. Can't remember what the rest are.

 

The golden Iros are more subdued pastels they're bordering on Edelstein territory. Admittedly I did get suckered (ie "I'll make you a deal you can't refuse!") last month into buying some... I managed to decline the discounted whole set but brought back BIS and HOT according to my holiday snaps.

 

Yep, more little boxes added to the mountain of unopened bottles... if ever I get around to opening & writing all that ink, Pilot will be celebrating 200th Anniversary by then