Diamine Inkvent Calendar Day 1

It’s Day 1 of the Inkvent Calendar reveal! Happy Holidays everyone! Every day from today through the 25th Pen Addict will reveal what’s behind each door of the Diamine Inkvent Calendar 2019. If you have the calendar and don’t want the surprise spoiled, don’t open Pen Addict until after you’ve opened the door on your calendar. If you don’t have the calendar and want to enjoy the experience vicariously, come to Pen Addict at 8:00 a.m. each day to see the ink and a brief review.

Day 1’s ink is called Blue Peppermint.

Blue Peppermint is a light turquoise shimmer ink with silver particles.

You can see the shimmer best in the close-up photographs.

Ink testing on white Rhodia paper shows the brightness of the color a little more clearly but the shimmer isn’t as obvious. The ink is fairly light, so using it in broader nibs is recommended. One thing to note about all the 7ml bottles in the Inkvent calendar: the openings are quite small. For the Col-o-ring Cards, I carefully poured some ink into the cap and used a dip pen. I was able to fit Lamy Vista nibs into the bottle, but if you want to use the ink with larger nibs, you’ll have to fill your pen using a syringe or converter.

Blue Peppermint is a gorgeous light turquoise that reminds me of the antique ornaments from my parents’ first Christmas tree. It flows well, dries quickly, and might be the perfect unique color for addressing your Christmas cards.

(Cult Pens provided the Diamine Inkvent Calendar to Pen Addict free of charge for review purposes.)

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Diamine Inkvent Calendar 2019: Introduction (No Spoilers!)

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

By now, most of you have probably seen pictures of the Diamine Inkvent Calendar. This has to be one of the best ever ideas for pen addicts across the globe! I mean, what true geeky fountain pen person wouldn’t want to open up a new bottle of ink every day of Advent?

Most of the Inkvent calendars are sold out, however, so for those of you who weren’t able to purchase one, I’m going to give an introduction to the calendar itself in this post. Then, on each day of December, I will reveal the ink behind each door of the calendar and provide a brief overview and ink test. It’ll be a virtual Inkvent calendar for all Pen Addict readers!

The Inkvent calendar is made of sturdy cardboard with blue, white, and gold decorations. It measures 10.24 inches/260mm wide x 13.72 inches/350mm long x 1.4 inches/35mm deep. Unfortunately, there’s no hanging tab included to display the calendar on your wall. So, you’ll either have to lean it against a wall or buy a sturdy self-stick hanging tab (the calendar is rather heavy with all the glass bottles inside).

Behind each door is a 7ml glass bottle of ink (on the 25th there’s a 30ml plastic bottle). The inks were specially created for this calendar, and the colors can’t be found elsewhere in Diamine’s collection. Included are standard, shimmer, sheen, and shimmer/sheen inks in a variety of colors.

I’ve had so much fun opening these inks and testing them (talk about inky fingers!) The variety of colors and types of ink is fantastic. If you purchased this calendar, you won’t be disappointed. If you didn’t, you can enjoy it vicariously over the next 25 days.

(Cult Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

Vinta Azure Fountain Pen Ink Review

Vinta Inks have been one of the more popular inky releases this year, with an interesting product lineup of pastel colors, shimmer, and sheen - all in beautiful packaging.

While I could hav gone with one of the wilder colors for my review, I stayed in my wheelhouse with Vinta Azure. Experimentation, right? Mostly, I’m a chicken, and a little stuck in my ways when it comes to ink colors. There aren’t many shades I prefer over a beautiful blue, especially with the shading and sheen this one offers.

And sheen is king with this one. The base ink is a blue that is deep, but retains some brightness where it goes down thinner on the page. Once it dries, Azure is a sheen machine, with 80-90% of the line covered in a bright red/pink sheen. It looks fantastic.

For this review, I used an Aurora Optima with a fine flex nib on a Yoseka Notebook. The combination of heavy ink flow from the nib and this paper made this ink look darker than it will on other pages with other nibs. You can see more of the base ink color on the Rhodia and Tomoe River samples. It gives off a very Bungubox Sapphire vibe, with a hint of Sailor Sky High, albeit it with a lot more sheen.

At $12.50 for a 30 ml bottle, Vinta Inks are good quality and fairly priced. Plus, for each bottle they sell, Vinta donates to educational initiatives in their home country of the Philippines. That is something I can definitely get behind.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at no charge 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!