(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!.)
Inkvent 2023?! When it’s almost July 2024?! Isn’t that a little late, Kimberly? Yes. And no. As I’ve mentioned in the past few articles like this one, I’ve been having a bit of a slump when it came to ink swatching but Inkvent was a whole different beast. It’s a commitment to swatch 25 inks, even if it’s meant to be done one per day, you still gotta swatch them all. Unlike “regular” bottles or samples, Inkvent is a whole “thing” (insert hand waving and all that) and I just hadn’t been in the mood for that. Not in December of 2023, nor even in 2022.
I fell off the Diamine Inkvent Calendar hype train in 2022. I mean, I did buy it, but I just wasn’t that excited about swatching it. I would much rather swatch bottles and sample that I picked out, rather than 25 random, surprise inks. Of course, that’s the whole point of advent/inkvent and things like that, but I just wasn’t feeling it. So I didn’t even swatch 2022 until late December 2023, while on vacation at my in-laws’ house. I felt really guilty at having bought something at nearly full price and just sat on it for a year. Ouch.
I told myself I wasn’t going to let that happen for Inkvent 2023 and here we are, near the end of June and I just finished swatching those 25 inks and I couldn’t be happier and here’s what I realized:
- I could do whatever I wanted - Specifically, I wasn’t under any pressure to swatch every day. I didn’t have to open it on December 1, take photos/video and swatch and take more photos and post to IG. In fact, it was a huge relief not having to make or post ink swatches every day. I could skip days and it wouldn’t matter. I could do them in batches of 5 (which is what I ended up doing), or 3 or 10 (which I also did one day). This was really freeing
- I still enjoyed the December Inkvent posts - Just because I wasn’t swatching in December, didn’t mean I was going to avoid the December Inkvent IG posts, blogs, videos, etc. It was kind of impossible to avoid short of staying off the internet entirely (which probably isn’t such a bad idea, but that’s a topic for another day). I knew that I would eventually get around to the Inkvent Calendar, and I would have long forgotten what inks were in what order, which ones people liked, disliked, etc.
- Swatching in June still gave me the “inkvent experience” - Related to the above, by the time I got to swatching, I could only name a couple inks that were mentioned back in December but heck if I knew what colors they were or why people liked/disliked them. Doing this so much later meant that I was able to form my own impressions with each swatch and pick out my own favorites without being influenced (as much) by all the December buzz.
- Full-size bottles available in June! - People have been getting antsy about when the full-size bottles would be released and it turns out that they get released in June! Since I haven’t even used any of the inks in pens yet, I don’t have to worry about the mad rush to buy full-sized bottles, but it’s also nice to know that I could do so right now since there were a couple that I really liked.
- Diamine’s plastic seals were a royal pain - I cannot tell you how much of an annoyance the plastic seal was to remove from each little bottle. Even with scissors and some nail length, some of them were difficult to remove and wreaked havoc on my fingers. Posting about this to my IG stories revealed that this was a sore spot for a lot of participants too! Some folks told me that they used scissors or utility knives to open the seal but they also managed to damage the bottles too, oops. I found out, after the fact, that seam rippers could be used to cut the plastic without any risk of damage, so I might go that route if Diamine doesn’t perforate the plastic seal for 2024.
This was _after_ using scissors to snip a bit of the top - it took quite a bit of tugging just to get this far.
- Colored labels are the best - This isn’t something new - it’s just extra satisfying about seeing the colorful labels as I swatch each one. It makes them a lot easier to find too! It’s also how I can tell if I’ve swatched samples or little bottles like these. No label = no swatch.
Check out this little IG reel of how this picture came to be.
Even though this isn’t an ink review, I couldn’t pass up sharing some of my favorites (it was easier to pick out favorites as I was swatching them in batches of 5):
From Days 1-5, my favorites were Masquerade, Cashmere Rose.
Days 6-10: Buck Fizz, Jacaranda, Moon Beam.
Days 11-15: Rainbow’s End, Weeping Willow, Bah Humbug.
Days 16-20: Lavender Frost.
Days 21-25: Tranquility, Fireside Snug, and Sugar Snap.
Most, but not all, of the favorites were shimmers, but the standard inks that I really liked a lot were Weeping Willow and Jacaranda. Neither of the two scented inks made my favorites list as they were quite wet when swatching, so I’m curious how they would behave in a drier pen.
My two most favorite inks from Inkvent 2023 - Weeping Willow and Jacaranda.
So, what am I going to do for 2024 Inkvent? To no one’s surprise, I’m still planning to get the next Inkvent, but I don’t think I want to wait until next June to swatch them either. I’m going to sit back, relax, and follow along with everyone’s December swatches, IG, blogs, Twitch, etc. while I enjoy my Inkvent at a later date. Until then, stay inky and keep swatching!
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