Sailor x Dromgoole’s Apricot Jam & Mint Jelly Ink Review

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

I was super excited to see this Dromgoole’s Instagram post about their inky collaboration with Sailor and next thing I know, a set of the inks shows up in the mail for review! How awesome is that?!

This is Dromgoole’s first ink with Sailor and they are named Apricot Jam and Mint Jelly. Just a reminder that, despite their tasty sounding names, the inks aren’t meant for eating/drinking :-). These two inks were launched this past Saturday on October 19, 2024 and come in 20ml square glass bottles like the Sailor Shikiori and 50 States series.

Sailor x Dromgoole’s Apricot Jam (top) and Mint Jelly - I love the cute artwork!

As in the past, all swatches were done on Col-O-Ring cards using a Kakimori steel dip nib, while writing samples were done with a TWSBI Go with a Medium nib and a Lamy Vista with a steel Medium nib. The TWSBI Go is a wetter writer and the Lamy is a drier writer, so these two give me a good idea of how an ink will look from different pens. The notebook used for writing samples is the Endless Recorder with 68 gsm Tomoe River paper. Dry times for the Vista are shown with “(V)” and the Go will be below that and might also be shown with “(T)”. Dry times may be a bit slower on 52gsm TR or faster on paper like Cosmo Air Light, Rhodia, copy paper, or with drier or finer nibs, etc.

Apricot Jam is described as a “golden yellow with hints of orange”, but it is more orange with wetter pens. Even in drier pens, like the Lamy, the orange is more than just a hint. It’s also not a bright orange (like Sailor Apricot or Kin-mokusei), but more of a golden orange with a tinge of brown. It is a readable ink whether you use it in drier or wetter pens. The ink dried pretty quickly as well.

Writing sample of Apricot Jam on 68 gsm Tomoe River Endless Notebook.

You get more shading from the drier-writing Vista compared to the wetter Go. The ink is quite a bit lighter when writing in cursive too.

Apricot Jam’s chromatography definitely had a lot of yellow, with a bit of pink (giving it the orange color), but what surprised me the most was the edge of green and turquoise at the very upper edge!

Inks similar to Sailor Apricot Jam: Callifolio Inti (very close but just a hint of brown in person), Nahvalur Mango Sorbet, Robert Oster 2023 CA Pen Show Sunset, Robert Oster Ng Special ‘16, KWZ El Dorado.

Mint Jelly is described as “shades of minty green” but when I swatched it, I was surprised at the color and double checked it against the IG post to make sure I had the right color. I also checked the box/bottle art which matches the ink. I had expected more of a light/pastel green or a bright spring green since that’s what Google says mint jelly looks like. The Mint Jelly ink, on the other hand, is more of a light but moody/dusty green.

Writing sample of Mint Jelly on 68 gsm Tomoe River Endless Notebook.

The ink is much lighter with the Vista than the Go, especially with cursive vs print.

I did this chromatography twice because that blue-gray line did not want to budge and I wanted to make sure I didn’t make a mistake! There is just a hint of yellow that moved up a little, which gives this ink its greenish color.

Inks similar to Sailor Mint Jelly: Pennonia Zuzmo Lichen (a bit too green and peachy). Kyo-no-oto 08 Urahairo (also too green, but probably the closest), Troublemaker Sea Glass (too dark), and the remaining 3 - Sailor Ink Studio 162, Troublemaker Petrichor, Colorverse December 7, 1787 - were too blue.

Sailor x Dromgoole’s Apricot Jam and Mint Jelly inks on 68 gsm TR.

Both inks had just a wee bit drier than average flow, with Mint Jelly a touch drier than Apricot Jam. As expected, the dryness is more noticeable in the Lamy. Both Apricot Jam and Minty Jelly had similar dry times around 30 seconds (or faster). Apricot Jam was fine in both pens but I didn’t love Mint Jelly from the Lamy. It was a very nice color in the Go though. I really like that both of these aren’t the typical orange and green inks that are out there and I especially love that they are lovely shaders too.

I inked up the Montegrappa Mia, Grigio Arancio, Medium nib with Apricot Jam, and paired the Leonardo Momento Zero, Giada, Elastic Fine nib with Mint Jelly.

Only 500 bottles of each color were made with no current plans for restocking. Apricot Jam and Mint Jelly are currently available on their website or in store for $20 each (shipping is not included). I hope there will be more inky collaborations to come!

(Disclaimer: Thank you to Dromgoole’s who provided these inks at no charge for review purposes. All other inks and notebooks are my own.)

Vinta Inks Blue Blood Dugong Bughaw 1521 Ink Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Just a few months ago, I reviewed my first Vinta ink and was really impressed by the performance and the sheening characteristics. I was excited to try more, and that's exactly what I'm doing today with Vinta Blue Blood Dugong Bughaw 1521. From Vinta, here's some background on the name:

"Dugong Bughaw" is a term denoting the ancient Filipinos who were part of the royalty. Nevertheless, one can say also say that every Filipinos' blood runs blue brought about by the archipelagic nature of the country. This gorgeous sheening blue ink with undertones of pink and red is a literal representation of a blue blood.

I was really happy with the performance of their Azure Maharlika ink, so I had similar expectations for Blue Blood. Luckily, I haven't been disappointed.

Blue Blood is a dark blue ink that I can't decide whether to call a blue-black or just a really dark blue. It doesn't have any of the black or gray tones that I would expect from a blue-black, so dark blue is probably a better generic color name. Either way, the color is deep and saturated in a way that is really satisfying to see on paper. The ink flow is fantastic and will improve the writing experience of any dry nib.

With the wet flow comes a big trade-off: dry time. I've measured dry time to be between 30 and 60 seconds, and Vanness notes the dry time at 50 seconds on their page. This is a slow-drying ink, so buyer-beware. This is a poor choice for lefties or anyone looking for a fast-drying ink.

The headlining feature of this ink isn't the color or the shading, no. Shading with this ink is minimal, by the way. The boldest feature of this ink, by far, is the sheen. This ink has a pink/red sheen FOR DAYS. I know I said that Azure Maharlika had some excellent shading properties, and it still does. But I did have to plan and work a bit to capture that sheening effect on camera. Well, with Blue Blood, it's more difficult to capture the dark blue color of the ink without the pink/red sheen taking over. That's how strong it is.

While capturing the ink in the form of ink swatches is fairly difficult due to the high sheen factor, the ink does remarkably well in more normal situations, like writing with a pen (go figure, right?). With most normal pens, there's plenty of dark blue on the page, but you can make the red/pink sheen really pop depending on the angle of light reflecting off the paper. It really is dazzling, and I'll take this effect every time over any kind of shimmering ink. Shimmers are cool, but sheening feels more magical to me.

If the dry time doesn't turn you away and the prospect of a super-sheening dark blue ink piques your interest, then I enthusiastically recommend Vinta Blue Blood. I haven't had this much playing with an ink in quite a while, and I'm still surprised when I flip to a page of a notebook where I've used this ink before — the dark blue and red/pink reflective sheen is so dramatic and eye-catching. I absolutely love it.

Vinta Blue Blood comes in a 30ml bottle for $14.50 or a 4ml sample vial for a few bucks. Either way, if you decide to pick some up, I sincerely hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Now that I've had two great experiences with Vinta Inks, I'm more excited to see what else they have.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Laban Hermes Sky Blue Ink Review

Laban Hermes Sky Blue ink is an addition to my "didn't know they made ink too" list, but this is a list that I'm always happy to see expand. We definitely don't have a shortage of ink choices these days.

My only exposure to Laban in the past has been their fountain pens and other ballpoint/rollerball writing instruments. They're a luxury brand on the more affordable side that offer a lot of unique and attractive designs. Until recently, I thought that's all they did. But it turns out they also make their own ink.

Hermes is just one ink out of the Greek Mythology collection, all of which are bold and striking colors. Hermes is a bright sky blue that really pops off the page. It's just dark enough to be easy to read while still obviously being sky blue. Compared to other sky blues from other ink makers, it's definitely on the lighter side.

The ink shades easily from the pervasive sky blue to a lighter sky blue as it dries. It's not a large amount of shading, but it provides some character and flair to the ink. Once the ink dries, I can detect a very small amount of bright sheen in some angles. It's not enough to even name the color of the sheen, but it does add a dynamic look to the dried ink on the page.

Dry time is pretty average when comparing to other inks. Typical strokes from a medium nib are dry in around 15-20 seconds, while larger strokes from a wider nib take between 20 and 30 seconds to dry. Nothing to write home about, but decent. For left-handed writers, this won't be a great option since it doesn't dry fast enough to avoid hand smudges while writing.

The flow of this ink is a little on the dry side. It's not enough to make the nib feel dry or scratchy, but it does mean nib/feed combos that lean to the dry side might struggle to supple enough ink. It does fine in the nibs I've tried, but I can definitely tell that the ink feeds slower than most inks. Not a good choice for a nib that you know is already a little scratchy, but it feels fine in a well-tuned nib.

One thing I noticed pretty quickly is that this ink can behave a little erratically on different types of papers. It does well when writing on coated papers (like Rhodia), but can be splotchy or invisible in some areas on uncoated paper. There's a good example of this on the swatch card in the photos. There are a couple of spots on the card that look much lighter than the rest. This is likely due to some sort of small imperfection in the paper stock that the ink refused to soak into for some reason. I've noticed it on other papers that aren't coated, so it must be something in the ink formula that makes it less resilient on different paper types. Not a dealbreaker, but an oddity that needs to be pointed out.

At $25 for a 50ml bottle, Hermes Sky Blue is priced a bit higher than other inks of the same size. Not to single anyone out, but for comparison's sake, a 50ml bottle of Robert Oster ink is $18, and that's an ink brand that almost always delivers flawless performance. I'd rate the behavior of Hermes Sky Blue behind the Robert Oster inks I've used, so that's worth considering given the price. I'd be happier and more willing to recommend it if it were closer to the $15-20 mark. Since I've only tried one ink from Laban, I can't say yet if their other inks are on par with this performance, but I certainly hope they behave a little better than Hermes Sky Blue. I'm definitely keeping my eye on them and looking forward to trying other inks from their lineup.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!