Sailor Pro Gear Cocktail Kure Azur with Medium Nib and Sailor Manyo Nadeshiko Ink: A Review

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

I won! I really won! Endless Pens did a giveaway on Instagram where you were supposed to come up with a creative new ink color and describe the ink. I suggested a color called Albuquerque Turquey, which I envisioned as a deep turquoise (to mimic the gorgeous New Mexico skies) with orange sheen (to represent the desert sunsets). I don't know if Endless Pens will ever make "my" ink, but I WON! The prize was a Sailor Pro Gear Cocktail Kure Azur (medium nib) with a bottle of Sailor Manyo Nadeshiko ink. Pardon me for shouting, but the past five years have been abysmal (toxic work environment, pandemic, losing my job), so to win a beautiful fountain pen and ink was like a little ray of hope.

Kure Azure Fountain Pen

The Kure Azur is part of Sailor's Cocktail series. Last year, Sailor re-released the entire series, and there was quite a scramble as people bought the more popular colors. I managed to nab the Après Ski (review here), but I couldn't justify buying the Blue Lagoon (regrets) or the brand new Kure Azur, even though I loved the colors.

The cocktail upon which the pen is based contains Blue Curacao liqueur, pineapple juice, grape juice, and apple juice (link for the recipe is below the photo). The result is a deep blue drink that gradually turns turquoise toward the top and is garnished with fresh orange (or lime or lemon).

Cocktail Image from Magic Skillet.

The body of the pen is a deep, sparkly blue. The cap is translucent turquoise, and the finial is a lemon-lime color that sets of the turquoise nicely. I had a hard time capturing the turquoise color of the cap in my photos, but trust me, it's turquoise. All the trims are gold.

My pen came with a 21k two-tone medium nib that writes like a dream. My Sailor Tequila Sunrise (reviewed here) had a rough medium nib that required some nibmeistering, so I was thrilled that this one wrote perfectly out of the box.

Sailor Manyo Nadeshiko Ink

Ink Bottle

Sailor's Manyo collection is based on an anthology of poems called Manyosyu, which incorporates many different themes, but flowers are especially prominent. The ink colors in the collection are based on flowers mentioned in Manyosyu. Nadeshiko is part of the second release of Manyo inks.

Nadeshiko is, at first glance, a China blue color. However, in swatches you discover streaks of teal and lavender. The ink does not appear to have any sheen (I had to take pictures before my ink splats were completely dry).

The beautiful shading properties of the ink show up well on Rhodia paper but only in the swab and ink bottle where the ink could pool. In my Kure Azur medium nib, the ink seemed washed out. I also discovered that the ink is rather dry, barely smearing even after only five seconds. It is also not waterproof.

Chromatography demonstrates how unsaturated Nadeshiko is. It contains light blue and purple tones.

Unsaturated inks are best displayed in wide nibs, and Nadeshiko is no exception. With a ruling nib, the ink's deeper blues, shading, and pooling properties are quite evident.

Although I like Sailor Manyo Nadeshiko, it's definitely not the best ink for finer Japanese nibs because of its dryness and lack of saturation. In wide nibs, however, it has great potential. It's a unique blue with Sailor's cool color-shifting magic.

Many pen dealers still have the Sailor Pro Gear Kure Azur in stock for $272.00 (but it is sold out at Endless Pens). I wonder if the Kure Azur was overlooked by buyers because of the re-release of so many other desirable models in the Cocktail Series.

Sailor Manyo Nadeshiko ink is $25.99 for 50ml at Endless Pens (although they are currently out of stock).

(If you didn't get it before, I WON this pen and ink! Thank you, Endless Pens!)

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Sailor Pro Gear Cocktail Series Après Ski: A Review

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

The Sailor Pro Gear Cocktail Series has been all the rage the past few months, ever since Sailor reissued all the pens as a set and individually. I already owned the Tequila Sunrise (reviewed here), and I managed to resist the urge to buy any of the reissued pens even though I desperately wanted the Blue Lagoon and Après Ski. That is, I managed to resist, until all the Blue Lagoons were gone and I found what I thought might be the last Après Ski on the planet at CultPens. I succumbed even though it was only available in a fine nib (not my preference with Sailor nibs).

The pen arrived in the usual Sailor box, and since all the boxes look the same, I didn't include photos here. If you happened to purchase the entire set, you got a spiffy acrylic display case with your insta-collection.

Après Ski means "after skiing," and the name apparently refers to a variety of cocktails one can enjoy after you sweep into the bar from the slopes. The color of this pen suggests some sort of mint-based cocktail. The clear finials might symbolize either the ice in the cocktail or the crystal snow from the peaks.

Let me clarify that I did not buy this pen because of any love for skiing. No. My one skiing experience on the slopes in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on New Year's Day over twenty-five years ago was a complete and utter disaster. Imagine a brand-new skier who rocked the bunny slopes only to be taken on the ski lift to the very top of the mountain. Imagine this brand-new skier having her first all-out panic attack on the ski lift (fear of heights), tumbling face first off the ski lift, and being dragged out of the way of other skiers. Then envision said skier snow plowing (in tears and terror) down the mountain whilst snow boarders swish madly past, blowing scornful snow in her face. See how she eventually plops down beside a tree and covers her head whilst her husband yells at her to keep going? Somehow I made it down that mountain, but I've never skied again.

I bought the Après Ski purely for its delicious, creamy soft green color. It reminds me of spring (not snow) and tender shoots of grass and new leaves.

The pen has a translucent cap with gold trims. The top finial is clear with a red and gold anchor logo that really pops against the more subtle colors of the pen.

The body of the pen is also translucent, but not as much as the cap. It may be that the plastic of the barrel is simply thicker than the cap or, perhaps, it was purposefully made more opaque. The bottom finial is clear.

The Sailor Pro Gear is a small pen. It is 5 inches/128mm capped, 4.6 inches/116mm uncapped, and 5.9 inches/150mm posted. The grip is 11mm, and the barrel at its widest is 13mm. It weighs 25 grams inked and posted and 16.62 grams inked without the cap.

In my opinion, the weakest and worst feature of Sailor pens is the converter. I. Hate. Sailor. Converters. Not only do they hold a dinky amount of ink, but this particular converter unscrews itself when I try to fill it with ink. It's a compete mess and extremely frustrating.

"@##*& it, Sailor! Why can't you engineer a decent converter???”

The nib is a two-tone 21k gold fine. I think Sailor nibs are absolutely gorgeous, and this one is no exception. The tines are perfectly aligned, and, with a wet and dark ink, they produce a smooth, visible line.

A fine Sailor nib writes like an extra fine, and it has that famous Sailor feedback. Although I don't mind the feedback, the fine nib does not do my handwriting any favors.

If I write in teeny, tiny caps, like Brad, this nib is perfect! But that's not my usual style.

For longer periods of writing, the fine nib allows me to fit lots of words on the page, but my hand fatigues more quickly than with broader nibs. I think the finer nib causes me to write in a more cramped fashion.

This is a great nib for detail work. I planned to do a whole page of the tiny woven pattern. I gave up after filling half the page. But, hey, it looks pretty cool!

Most of the Sailor Pro Gear Cocktail Series pens are sold out by now. You can find a few of the less popular colors, but Après Ski is almost impossible to locate (except on eBay and for ridiculous prices). I somewhat regret not buying the Blue Lagoon as well (or instead of) the Après Ski. But over the past couple of years, I've managed to buy way too many Sailors, most of them Pro Gears.

See what I mean? And that's why I call myself a pen addict.

(I purchased the Sailor Pro Gear Après Ski with my own funds from CultPens.)

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Sailor Manyo Yomogi Fountain Pen Ink Review

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

Based solely on my collection of inks and what I normally have inked up in my pens, you could assume that I lean very unfairly toward the blue realm of ink colors. While it's true that I have way more blue inks than any other combined, I didn't try to amass this many on purpose. I'm just fascinated by the different shades of blue and how they play with green, purple, black, and red, and there just seems to be so many interesting inks that I need to try. The latest ink in my blue collection is Sailor's Manyo Yomogi.

The Sailor Manyo ink series is a collection of eight dye-based inks that represent popular flowers that are frequently mentioned in the Japanese Man'yōshū — an ancient collection of poems. Yomogi is a dark blue with a lot of green in the mix, as well as a gorgeous red/purple sheen in some areas. It's been a pleasure using this ink for the past couple of weeks, and it's still surprising me with the amount of character it can expose through shading and sheen alone.

Comparing it directly to other inks in Sailor's lineup, this is like a darker version of Yama-dori — one of my favorite dark teal inks to date. While this is an obviously blue ink, there's also a fair amount of dark green that transforms this from blue to teal depending on the width and heaviness of the stroke. it's fascinating to write with this ink and see how the colors change across the page. The shading is subtle, but it does just enough to vacillate between these colors sporadically and create something magical.

While shading is always a favorite characteristic of mine, Yomogi has another trick up its sleeve — some amazing red and purple sheen. You can only see the sheen in certain light and particularly where the ink pools up. When it happens, it's spectacular. I really enjoy seeing these red/purple hues pop off the page in certain light.

One thing this ink does not excel at, however, is dry time. It normally takes between 20 and 30 seconds for strokes to dry with this ink, which is a little on the long side for my preferences. I definitely have to remember to keep notebooks open a little longer than normal before closing them, and I can't imagine how problematic this ink would be for left-handed writers. While it's gorgeous, it certainly takes its time when drying. This is something worth considering before purchasing this ink.

And that's another thing — this ink isn't exactly cheap. For a 50ml bottle, you'll spend $24. Is this too much? I don't think so. The delight I derive from using this ink is well worth the price of admission, but you can find many other high-quality inks for a lower price if that's a major concern. In terms of Japanese fountain pen inks, this price is right on target, especially with recent price increases to keep up with inflation. 50ml will last quite a while, so it's a good investment in your own joy if this is an ink color that makes you happy. I've really enjoyed using it over the past couple of weeks, especially with all the cold weather that's hit the states over the last week.

You can find Yomogi at JetPens, along with many other Sailor Manyo inks.

(JetPens 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!