Posts filed under Ink Reviews

Wearingeul Macbeth & The Phantom of the Opera - A Review, Part 1

(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 very excited when the Bossman picked up Wearingeul Macbeth and The Phantom of the Opera at this year’s Atlanta pen show for me to review, but only getting to it now. Sorry! To make up for it (and also because it’s fun), I decided to make this review a two-parter. Don’t worry, I won’t leave anyone hanging about how these two inks performed, so without further ado…

*Wearingeul Macbeth (left) and The Phantom of the Opera (right) I love that the mask is a sticker than you can peel off, if you so choose!*

For Macbeth, I used the clear TWSBI Go with a Medium nib and a TWSBI Swipe with a Medium nib for Phantom for the writing samples in the notebook. For the other writing samples, I used the Kakimori steel dip nib on the Col-O-Ring cards, as well as the 52 gsm, 68 gsm Tomoe River and Cosmo Air Light 75 gsm papers.

*Macbeth is a medium grey ink with light purple shimmer. The included “swatch” is much more purple than the actual swatches.*

*Writing sample and swatch on 68 gsm Tomoe River Paper.*

*Writing sample and dry times on 68 gsm Tomoe River Paper.*

*Chromatography didn’t travel very far and was mostly light grey with a little bit of pink.*

Macbeth had an average flow, which was surprising, since grey inks can sometimes feel a little dry. It was well-behaved in the TWSBI Go with decent shimmer in my writing sample and no clogging. I had expected it to dry pretty quickly but it took ~40-50 seconds to dry on 68gsm TR. It would definitely dry faster like Rhodia, copy paper, Cosmo Air Light or with drier or finer nibs.

I don’t have a lot of grey inks, let alone many that were very similar to Macbeth, so I picked some that might be more readily available: Wearingeul Me in the Mirror (grey with silver shimmer), Montblanc Oyster Grey (cooler tone, less blue), Diamine Snow Storm (probably the most similar in color and shimmer), Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun (a bit too blue and too light but kind of close), Kiri-same (too brown).

*Phantom is a medium dark, slightly denim-leaning, blue ink with dark red sheen. It is not a super sheener but the wetness of the pen/swatch will influence how much red you get.*

*Closeup of the subtle red sheen around the edges.*

*Unlike Macbeth, Phantom’s chromatography traveled very far and probably could have kept going. It starts off as a purplish grey, transitioning to pink and then a bright blue/cyan.*

The Phantom of the Opera had a much wetter flow, which you can tell by the broader line that the Swipe Medium nib laid down (the nibs are the same as the Go/Eco, but there can always be minor variations between nibs/feeds). I was expecting it to take much longer to dry, based on how much smearing there was at the 40-50 second mark but it was dry by 60 seconds. One of the annoyances of some sheening inks is that it could smear long after it has dried. But not so with Phantom. I smeared it with my (dry) finger several minutes after letting it dry, and again the next day (as I’m writing this) and there was no smearing!

Inks similar to The Phantom of the Opera:Pure Pens Westgate Hotel, Anderillium Flying Squid Blue, Fanyantan #24-B The Sea, Inkebara Midnight Blue (this and the remaining swatches are a bit lighter), KWZ Walk Over Vistula, Krishna Paakezah, Organics Studio Ralph Waldo Emerson Twilight Blue.

Wearingeul Macbeth and The Phantom of the Opera can be purchased for $20 and $21, respectively, for 30 ml at Dromgoole’s. Wearingeul keeps coming out with a lot of great inks, so I’m glad they are available in a reasonable 30 ml size.

That concludes this first part of my review of Wearingeul Macbeth and The Phantom of the Opera. Tune in again next time when we see what else is up my sleeve!

(Disclaimer: This ink was purchased from Dromgoole’s for a discount at the 2023 Atlanta Pen Show.)

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Posted on July 7, 2023 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Wearingul, Ink Reviews.

Diamine Sailor’s Warning Ink Review

Sailor's Warning was one of two ink formulations chosen by the /r/fountainpens community on Reddit earlier this year, continuing a wonderful trend by Diamine in working with many collaborators - big and small - to create inks. Given all of the recent changes with Reddit, will they continue this project? Who knows, but let me be the first to ask: Mastodon ink when?

If you are Mastodon curious, check out the wonderful community being built at Penfount, where you can find all the details you need. And if you are shimmer ink curious, well, Sailor’s Warning is one you will want to take a look at asap.

The most interesting thing I noticed out of the box with this ink is the underlying color. I thought it would be bright red, and there is plenty of that shade, but the base color underneath that red is peach. That took me by surprise, in a positive way. My 1.1 mm stub nib in the TWSBI 580ALR Prussian Blue pen I used for this review spreads the ink thin at the top of the line, with the ink pooling more towards the bottom of stroke. That’s how shading happens, and in this case, that’s how the peach shade pokes out from underneath the red.

But let’s be clear, you aren’t buying this ink for the peachy-red color - you are buying it for the peachy-red color with shimmer! Diamine says the shimmer is silver, but I see a faint light blue tone where the shimmer breaks through. I think that shade is a perfect match for this ink, giving the ink a purple tone in some areas.

When I bought Sailor’s Warning, I was interested in how it compared to another favorite shimmer ink of mine, Wearingeul Dracula. My guess was that they would be close enough to be interchangeable, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Dracula is very red in comparison, with a brighter blue shimmer. In the end, these two inks are very different.

If there is any downside to Sailor’s Warning it is that it seems dry, even from this 1.1 mm nib. I expected more ink flow, which shimmer inks need to show off their primary property. I want to give it a try in another pen and a different nib to see if I feel the same way, but I’ve tested several shimmer inks in this pen and flow has never been an issue.

At $22 for a 50 ml bottle, Diamine Sailor’s Warning is priced well. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it, but I would make sure to use a wide, wet nib. That goes for all shimmer inks, so that should come as no surprise, but I find it to be especially true with this one.

That’s my Sailor’s Warning.

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Posted on July 3, 2023 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Diamine, Ink Reviews.

Nahvalur Explorer Mango Sorbet Ink Review

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

Summer is fast-approaching, so that means bright and colorful ink options abound. What could be better in the summer than a cold frozen dessert on a hot day? Sorbet can certainly do the trick, and that's what this ink from Nahvalur has me thinking about every time I pick it up.

Nahvalur Mango Sorbet is a dusty yellow-orange ink from their Explorer line of inks. This line of inks complements the Original Plus line of vacuum filler pens, and Mango Sorbet is a direct match to Gold Ocellatus. I don't have the pen, but I imagine the yellow-orange Mango Sorbet looks great swirling around the transparent reservoir with yellow swirls in the material.

Regardless of what pen you use this ink with, the color that comes out on the page is really fun. I've struggled to nail down the exact color of this ink due to the level of shading it exhibits, but it's a lovely yellow-orange that switches between more yellow and more orange with each nib stroke. The color saturation is a little subdued, which is exactly what I'd expect from an ink color that mimics the inside of a mango. Mango is a sweet and pleasant fruit, but both the color and taste are balanced and not too up-front. The ink does a great job of representing what my imagination comes up with when you say the words "mango sorbet."

Going back to the shading properties, this is my favorite thing about the ink. I loved using this ink in a wide, wet nib because it really shows off how much color variation this ink has to offer. Regardless of what nib you use, the shading manages to shine and offer lighter and darker versions of the ink color with each stroke.

In some light, I can detect a little bit of green, but it's rare and only when swatching the ink with a brush. I wouldn't expect any nib to get this out of the ink under normal circumstances. But, it was really intriguing to see this when making large pools with the ink.

Something this ink touts is a quick dry time, but I would call it average dry time. It's not a quick drying ink, but usually becomes smudge-proof after 15 seconds. The lighter areas are dry much sooner, but those areas where ink pools under certain letters are what take several more seconds to dry. This probably isn't a great choice for left-handed writers or anyone who drags their hand behind the nib.

Everything else about this ink is fantastic. I haven't tried an Nahvalur inks before this, and I'm impressed by how well it performs. In my mind, the fact that a renowned pen manufacturer is producing ink does not automatically mean the ink will be any good. For Nahvalur, they've at least done a great job with this specific ink, and I look forward to trying others. It's also exciting to see them pairing inks with pens! I'm not a stickler for matching pens and inks, but it is nice to find that perfect pairing.

Mango Sorbet is $12 for a small 20ml bottle. That's a good value for what you get when comparing to similarly-sized ink vendors. You can certainly find better value when buying a Diamine ink, but they have significant scale and connection since it's their main focus. If the color intrigues you, it's a great impulse purchase. And, if you happen to have one of the Original Plus Gold Ocellatus pens, you should feel compelled to pick up this ink to see how it pairs with the pen!

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

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