Saturday, July 22, 2017

INKTASTIC: LAMY PETROL SPECIAL EDITION INK REVIEW

Inktastic: Lamy Petrol special edition ink review
Maybe the most elusive ink of the moment? At least that seems to be the status Lamy is going for with their special edition Petrol ink. It's the ink that matches this year's (2017) Safari Petrol special edition release. But whereas the pen is rather easy to get a hold of, the ink is lagging behind and is only available sporadically. I don't know what it is with brands having issues fulfilling shipments of new releases to retailers, but it seems to be happening more frequently, and it can be really frustrating. 
Inktastic: Lamy Petrol special edition ink review
But I assume you didn't come here for a rant, so  let's have a look at the ink... 

I knew it would be quite difficult for Lamy to top last year's Dark Lilac ink with their new release, but they did a respectable job. Note that I don't say they actually made a better ink than Dark lilac, it's still not on the same level in my opinion. 
Inktastic: Lamy Petrol special edition ink review
Petrol is, as the name suggests, a petrol blue-green kind of color. It actually makes sense that they'd go for something in this color family, since Pelikan's success with last year's Edelstein Aquamarine and J.Herbin with Emerald of Chivor, both of which are somewhat in the same ballpark in terms of color. However Petrol is much, much darker and less saturated, leaning close to a dark grey-ish color. I found that it compares quite strongly to KWZ Rotten green, for those of you familiar with that ink, which is also this mucky, dark, green-ish ink. Judging from chromatography results, it's basically a blue-black, but with a hint of olive green in it to give it that petrol color. 

I like the color a lot actually, because it's something sober and classy. This is an ink I'd feel comfortable using for everyday writing at work, or school. It's not distracting, easily legible and yet not just another boring black.
Inktastic: Lamy Petrol special edition ink review
One area where I knew Petrol would struggle to improve over Dark Lilac, is sheen and shading. Petrol definitely has shading, but because the base color is already quite dark, the shading doesn't provide a stark contrast like you get from lighter inks. Sheen is also kind of mediocre. On the right paper, and in places where it gets the chance to pool, you can notice some dark red/black sheen. But that being said, you really need to lay down a lot of ink for it to become easily noticeable. All in all, a bit underwhelming I must say.
Inktastic: Lamy Petrol special edition ink review
Inktastic: Lamy Petrol special edition ink review
Inktastic: Lamy Petrol special edition ink review
Other than visual properties, it does perform very decent. It's a relatively wet, free-flowing ink, resulting in fairly long dry times from my experience. It's smooth but not noticeably lubricated. I wouldn't call it waterproof, but the strong black base of the ink does have some water-resistance so it remains faintly visible.
Inktastic: Lamy Petrol special edition ink review
All in all, this is definitely an ink I can see myself using for note-taking and stuff like that. It's a nice subtle ink with a little pop of color to it. If you can get a hold of a bottle of Lamy Petrol, I think it's definitely worth checking out, as they are priced very reasonably around the 10 dollar mark for a 50ml bottle. I got a sample of this ink as part of the Inxperiment, which is Appelboom's ink sample subscription service. They often include samples of interesting new inks, so it's an easy way to check those out!
Appelboom pennen
Note: Appelboom is a sponsor of this blog. This product was provided free of charge, so I could write this review. I was in no way influenced in the making of this review, the opinions shared in this review are completely my own! This post does not contain affilate links.
Inktastic: Lamy Petrol special edition ink review

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