The Nahvalur Eclipse was one of the pleasant surprises of my 2025 review queue. The design is admittedly not for everyone, but as a retractable pen, it works well, and is fun to use. I have one Eclipse in the Hepatizon with Silver Trim colorway, with a Medium Steel nib, to give away this week. And the winner is:
Congrats Robert! I’ve sent you an email to collect your shipping address.
Two pens enter, one pen leaves. Who took home the championship? (via uniball on Instagram.)
I got my hands on Pelikan Edelstein Pyrite, and I got Pelikan Edelstein Pyrite on my hands. It’s still there as I type this, and you know what? I’m good with that! Inky fingers for life.
Myke and I also put a bow on the uniball bracket, follow-up on a big miss on my pocket notebook list, and recap the Atlanta Pen Show.
This episode of The Pen Addict is sponsored by:
Enigma Stationery: Unique items, top brands and hard-to-find imports. Get $10 off.
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(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Bluesky. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)
The Awareness Project collection from Vinta Inks is a tribute series to endangered animals in the Philippines. This Sailfin Green Ibid 1829 is inspired by the Sailfin Lizard, or the Soa-soa Water Lizard, also known as the Ibid. The whole series is gorgeous, but this one stands out as perhaps one of my favorite ink colors ever made.
The ink comes in an amber glass bottle, which helps keep sunlight away from the ink, so it will last longer. The bottle has a black plastic cap with a good seal. The label is informative and has a small swatch of the color on it, so it's easy to see what the ink looks like. The bottle opening is wide enough for most pens, and the vertical design keeps the ink supply deep enough to fill from the bottle easily as the ink level gets lower.
The ink base is a lovely celadon green with brown undertones that give it an olive hue, with an added fine blue shimmer. It's a stunning effect that looks like sunlight sparkling on a tropical sea. Of course, it also looks like its lizard namesake. And it's all my favorite colors in one. Chromatography shows its complex color formula, with a rosy coral orange, gold-green, and brilliant teal.
It can be a little light in handwriting, but it pools beautifully. It has no water resistance. Water fully erased it, whether it was wiped, blotted, or let to sit. It has a fantastically quick dry time, with only light smudging by 15 seconds, and almost none by 20.
A 30ml bottle of this ink sells for $17.50 at Vanness Pens, which is considerably less expensive than many ink brands. You lose nothing on quality, though. The ink performs as well as any expensive ink. A portion of the proceeds from each sale also go towards Teach for the Philippines, which promotes education access for Filipino children.
A beautiful ink, at an affordable price, named after a fabulous lizard, with funds toward a good cause? This one is all wins. I could happily write in this all day.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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