DIAMINE 150TH ANNIVERSARY TERRACOTTA INK REVIEW

Back when I reviewed the Diamine Shimmertastic inks (quite a while back! Read my review HERE), there was one color (of the three I had on hand) that really stood out: Diamine Shimmertastic Brandy Dazzle. But as I pointed out more than once in the past, I'm really not a fan of particle inks. After quite a search for something to match Brandy Dazzle in color (but sans the gold particles), I was told that it's actually based on another Diamine ink: Diamine 150th Anniversary Terracotta. 

It took me a while to get a bottle, but it was well worth the wait. It's indeed almost identical to Brandy Dazzle, but instead of focusing on the particles, this one is all about the shading. Quite a lot of shading. 

The earthy red-brown color is dusty, yet at the same time rich and colorful, leaning somewhat closely to another public favourite: Diamine Ancient Copper (but lighter). Shading is definitely one of the strong suits of this ink. It shows a dark reddish color on top of the lighter base, and the shading is crisp and defined. 

It has a silver-green sheen, but it rarely shows up on this Rhodia paper. In swabs it becomes visible but it doesn't really contrast strongly with the ink itself (unlike the red sheen you see on a lot of blue inks). 

Diamine inks in general perform quite welll, and so does this one. It's definitely on the wetter side, and doesn't bleed or feather from what I've experienced. Dry times are fairly decent. 

I like this ink a lot, the color is totally my thing, and I love how it shades. It really has a Mediterranean vibe to it I think (as you can tell from the little Moroccan-inspired pattern I drew on the written review page). The 150th Anniversary inks from Diamine retail for 9.5 EUR (16 USD) for 40ml triangular bottles. They were originally supposed to celebrate Diamine's anniversary. But I'm fairly sure they are meant to stay in the permanent collection, since they keep releasing more colors to this day.

INKTASTIC: KAWECO SUNRISE ORANGE INK REVIEW

I'd say Kaweco recently released two new inks, but that was almost a year ago, and I'm just terribly behind on reviews. Kaweco already had a pretty decent selection of inks, with eight typical colors to choose from. The two latest inks are Smokey Grey, and Sunrise Orange. Let's focus on the latter...

Kaweco Sunrise Orange has a lot going for it. And on top of that it's actually one of the more usable orange inks I've come across. It reminds me a lot of Lamy's special edition ink of two years ago: Copperorange. It's not the typical bright, burns-your-eyes-orange, instead it's a bit darker and more subdued. 

Sunrise orange shines in slightly wetter nibs. I always use a Lamy Safari for these ink reviews, which is not THE wettest writer. But nevertheless it shows off some decent shading. In really wet nibs (or in swabs as you can see above), it shades to a dark brown-ish orange, in other nibs the shading is more subtle. 

Lamy Safari, medium nib

Lamy Safari, broad nib

Kaweco inks may not be the most exciting in the world, but they are quite well-behaved in general. It seems a bit on the dry side, however not to a point where it gives issues with flow. It's very well-behaved: no bleedthrough, no feathering. Dry times are moderate. There's no waterproofness to talk about, any contact with water completely wipes it out.

Lamy Safari, 1.5 stub

Kaweco Sunrise Orange is a strange ink. It's not extraordinary in any way, it doesn't have crazy shading or sheen. Yet it doesn't need all that to be a cool ink. It's subdued and dark enough to be used for 'normal' writing (ok maybe take that with a grain of salt), but it's still a fun and colorful ink.

Kaweco inks all come in small 30ml bottles (or standard international cartridges). The bottled ink runs for 10 EUR / 13.5 USD. It's often said that Kaweco inks are overpriced but I'd have to disagree. True, they are not the cheapest out there, but I think they are good value for money. 

Note: This product was sent to me by Kaweco, 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: PELIKAN EDELSTEIN SMOKEY QUARTZ INK REVIEW

This is an ink I've been looking forward to for quite a while. Each year, Pelikan succeeds at putting out a good looking ink year after year in their Ink Of The Year collection. Each year, the color of the next Ink Of The Year release is determined by a competition in which you can mix your own ink. This year's (or rather, last year's) competition resulted in Smokey Quartz, a muted brown ink. My thanks to Joost from Appelboom for providing this ink for review! 

I had actually been anticipating a brown ink for this year, so I'm quite happy with this one. There seems to be a trend of slightly more muted colors for the last three releases, which is right up my alley.

Smokey Quartz is -unlike the gemstone it's based on- not really a grey-brown, but more of a coffee/chocolate brown. Despite it not entirely matching the name, it's still a very nice dark brown ink. The lighter cappuccino cofee brown base is covered with a layer of dark chocolate brown shading. Depending on the nib you use, the base color can be a bit darker, so shading isn't always as pronounced, but it's definitely there.

Edelstein inks are generally well-behaved, and this one follows the trend. It's a smooth, relatively wet ink, flow was good in all pens I tried it with. It behaves perfect on decent paper (Rhodia), no bleedthrough or feathering at all. Dry times were average, maybe slightly on the longer side because it's a relatively wet ink. It's not a waterproof or iron-gall ink, but it's surprisingly water-resistant. 

Lamy Safari, F nib

Lamy Safari, B nib

Lamy Safari, 1.5mm stub 'calligraphy' nib

Smokey quartz is a nice ink in a row of excellent special edition releases. Pelikan does a great job with their Ink Of The Year collection, and I can't wait to see what will come next! Edelstein inks come in cartridges (long international), or really good-looking 50ml bottles. The bottles run for 15 EUR/ 25 USD. 25 USD is steep, maybe a bit too steep, but it's definitely worth 15 euros! Given that enormous price difference depending on where you get it, I think getting them from an EU retailer such as Appelboom is your best bet.

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: KWZ BROWN-PINK INK REVIEW

Admittedly, at first I was mostly curious about this ink because of the name: Brown-Pink... Doesn't sound like an awfully good combination, does it? 

But in reality, KWZ Brown-Pink is neither brown nor pink, it's a deep, dark eggplant purple. Maybe with some imagination I can more or less grasp that the combination of brown and pink would end up looking something like this. 

Well it doesn't matter anyway, a name is just a name. What matters is that this is a really pretty ink and one that's very nice to use as well! The color is a bit flat, without too much shading, and I couldn't find hardly anu sheen either. This is one of very few inks that I find interesting just purely for the color itself!...

And maybe also a bit for how it behaves. All KWZ inks I've tried so far, including this one, have a beautiful rich, smooth flow, and make writing with pretty much any pen feel even more effortless, which is something I can really appreciate in an ink. 

KWZ inks are fairly affordable, so combined with the interesting colors they produce, that's a recipe for success! Bottles of their regular ink (excluding the Iron-gall inks) retail for 10 EUR (13 USD) for 60ml of ink, which is a competitive price point.

INKTASTIC: KYO-IRO STONE ROAD OF GION INK REVIEW

Kyo-Iro is my first encounter with this relatively new -at least in our regions- Japanese ink manufacturer, and it's quite a good one! It's a collection of inks developed by and for the TAG stationery store in Kyoto, but luckily instead of keeping it store-exclusive (I'm looking at you, Sailor!), they are distributed worldwide. I went for Stone Road of Gion because I seem to be enjoying a lot of moody, darker inks lately, and Stone Road of Gion fits that description completely. 

It has a strong vintage look about it, the color -somewhat remniscent of the brown hue of those really old photographs- is kind of a balance between grey and brown, with very low saturation and quite light. 

The color itself is unique, which was enough reason for me to choose this one. You see, after 100+ inks, it becomes quite hard to find something completely new, and refreshing. Another reason to like this ink is the incredibly neat shading, that ranges to a very dark brown in some areas, and depending on which pen and nib you use. 

As far as other properties go, you'll have a hard time finding sheen, because there isn't any. But that's not too uncommon for grey/brown inks. It's quite a well-behaved ink in terms of feathering and bleedthrough. Dry times aren't too long because it's a noticeably dry ink - the main drawback of this ink.

The main disadvantage of Kyo-Iro inks is their price, as they currently run around 25 EUR or higher for a 40ml bottle. Appelboom, who also provided the ink for this review, also offers small sample vials with a couple of ml to try before you buy, and see if it's worth the money.

Note: Appelboom is a sponsor of this blog. This product was sent, 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: ROBERT OSTER KHAKHI INK REVIEW

New ink brands are popping up around every corner it seems. Obviously that's a good thing because it shows more and more people are getting interested in fountain pens. Additionally something new and interesting to try is always exciting, so you won't hear me complain at all! 

However, at first I am usually a bit hesitant to try out new ink brands. You don't know if the quality is good, there's no proof of long-term quality or how it affects your pens,... So it took me a while to explore what seems to be one of the most hyped ink brands of the moment: Robert Oster Signature ink. German store Papier&Stift offered to send me a few bottles to review, so of course I had to take the opportunity. One of the colors they sent is this: Robert Oster Khakhi.

The wide variety of colors seems predominantly a selection of bright, vivid colors, but it's the darker, more unique inks that I seem to be mostly interested in. Such as this khakhi green. It's a murky olive green/ochre yellow. Yes, I do realise green and yellow are two different colors, but this is definitely something in between, it's hard to describe if you don't see it in person (the pictures will give you an idea but it seems to be just a hint more yellow in person).

So far all Robert Oster inks I've been able to try seemed to behave very well, and they offer a few properties that I really enjoy in an ink. 

Lamy Safari - medium nib

Lamy Safari - broad nib

Lamy Safari - 1.5mm stub nib

It's more than dark enough to be legible in finer nibs, but it shines in wider nibs, or even stubs. You can get a nice amount of crisp shading from it, no sheen though. It's a well-behaved ink with a moderate to wet flow and it plays well in all pens I've used it in so far. They also seem to be quite resistant to bleeding and feathering, but they are not waterproof

It has been a pretty pleasant first encounter with the Australian brand. Which shows from the amount of bottles I bought in the past few months (cough, quite a few...), I think it's safe to say that they have some pretty great inks. 

Despite only being a relatively young brand, they already offer somewhere around 60 different colors, and I seem to constantly find new and unique shades that I like. Robert Oster Khakhi is an interesting one, with a rather strange color that is hard to define, but beautiful nonetheless. If you like more subtle, earthy inks, this is one to try out. Robert oster inks come in tall, slender plastic bottles that are easy to fill from. Prices are on the higher side, at 16.5 EUR (16USD) for a 50ml bottle, but they are worth it in my opinion.

Note: this product was sent to me by Papier & Stift, 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.