Diamine Woodland Green Ink Review

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

Spring is upon us, and that means there's probably a lot of new greenery popping up around you. It's felt like a long winter, so it's great to see some color coming back into the world. I've always had a special place in my heart for green inks of all kinds. I happened to pick up a sample of Diamine Woodland Green over a year ago, but totally forgot that I had it. When I was cleaning up my ink sample collection, I picked it up and decided to give it a try in one pen. Well, 2 more pens later, I've decided it's a new favorite green ink for me.

Woodland Green is a medium to dark green ink depending on the pen it's in. It makes me think of deep, dark forests of Oregon or Bavaria that have thick, mossy greenery from floor to ceiling. And, like a forest, the green changes brightness depending on where you are. To me, it's a beautiful blend of greens that makes it a pleasure to see on paper. It's a dark enough shade to be professional, but still has gobs of character and interest when you look closely.

Like all Diamine inks that I've ever tried, this one behaves like a champ. No bleeding, no feathering, and plenty of gorgeous shading in the right pen. I enjoy using this ink in something like a medium or italic nib. Extra fine and fine nibs seem to limit the color from really showing off the incredible shading characteristics. In a large-nibbed pen, the shading is very satisfactory, but mediums do just fine.

Dry time is a little long on this one -- somewhere around the 25 second mark. While this is to be expected for green inks, it's still a bit on the long side. Not a great ink for lefties or notebooks that you'll close immediately after writing, that's for sure.

Even with this long dry time shortcoming, it's a delightful ink to use. It's refreshing on the page, and invites you to keep writing or doodling.

Like most colors, there are just too many green inks out there to choose from. It's impossible to try them all. For a medium to dark green with great shading, I couldn't be happier with Woodland Green. I'd be hard-pressed to find something that would replace this one in my rotation.

JetPens sells the ink in a large 80 ml bottle, or cartridge packs of 18. Both options are very well-priced, which is a great deal for such a beautiful ink. Definitely give it a try the next time you're in the mood for a gorgeous green.

Diamine Shimmering Night Sky Ink Review

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

Whether you like shimmering inks or not, they are fully upon us. While J. Herbin was the pioneer in these types of inks recently, it seems like other ink makers have jumped on board to offer their own shiny, sparkling inks.

I have a couple of J. Herbin inks that feature particulates that reflect light or sheen curious colors, so I was interested to see how Diamine's version compared. In the case of Night Sky, the effect is very subtle, but done very well. I'm still not certain that this is a black ink, but that seems to be a unique problem of my own.

Basically, this is a Diamine ink with or without the shimmer. That means that it's well-behaved and balanced in most properties. It's a pleasure to write with, just like all other Diamine inks I've tried. The shimmering effect in Night Sky is subdued to the point that it can be difficult to detect in certain light. When it does catch the light, it can be delightful — just like catching a clear sky at night with a full span of stars.

This is a saturated ink in that the color is full and consistent. I personally love saturated inks, so that's right up my alley. Still, for a dark ink, there's relatively zero show-through on the other side of the page. Again, something I've come to expect from Diamine. When writing, I've not noticed feathering or bleeding of any kind. There's also no sheen once the ink dries, but that's a fairly uncommon trait in inks. Finally, the ink dries in about 15 seconds in the 1.1mm stub nib I used for the review. In smaller nibbed pens, it dried faster. Like most inks, dry time will vary with every pen, but this seems to be a fairly fast drier.

As far as the color of the ink goes, it's billed as a black ink. To my eyes, it looks more like a black-gray or black-purple. I've asked for other opinions on the color, and no one has corroborated my version of the story. So, take that with a grain of salt. Either way, it's not a pitch black color.

Then, there's the shimmer. After filling the ink for the first time, I wrote some sample lines and waited for the shimmer to appear. After a few minutes, I still couldn't find the shimmer and wondered if there might be a problem with the ink. I quickly discovered that I had missed a small note included in the box that instructs you to "shake gently" before filling your pen. Of course - the particles need to be disturbed and floating around so that they make it into your pen. Makes sense.

The only criticism I have about this (and it's a big one for me) is that "gently" has nothing to do with the shaking method needed in order to dislodge the particles in the bottom of the bottle. I had to shake vigorously for about a minute before everything was unsettled from the bottom. Maybe I have a fluke bottle, but it's worth noting that you might need to put a bit of effort into this. For my own comfort levels, shaking a full bottle of ink for a minute puts me on the "moderately nervous" side.

Flip the script

Anyway, I inked up the pen without any mishaps. Finally, after writing a few more lines, I could see the shimmer. It takes a few seconds for the glistening bits to show up — it must have something to do with the ink drying. Once they show up, they are subtle and require good lighting. For Night Sky, the flakes are silver instead of gold.

The nice thing about the Night Sky ink is that you can still use it in an office setting because of how subtle the shimmering effect is. Unless you're using a large-nibbed, wet fountain pen, it can be easy to miss it. To me, this is a desirable feature since it doesn't completely take over the ink. It's there, but it's not in your face about it. However, if you want the sparkles in your ink to actually light up like a disco ball, this one will disappoint.

That being said, this is a solid ink. The sticker on the bottle is pretty, the price is fair, and it has a neat trick up its sleeve. I'm not sure I'll delve any deeper into Diamine's Shimmering line of inks, but the Night Sky is one that I'll probably dip into every so often to add some flair to an otherwise boring black ink.

The Diamine Shimmering Night Sky comes in a 50 ml bottle for around $20. There are several other colors to the Shimmering series, and feature silver or gold flakes depending on the ink color.

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

Diamine Shimmer Inks: 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.)

It was inevitable, of course, that Pen Addict should do a review on Diamine's line of shimmer inks. But what to say, now that everything's been said? Diamine Shimmer inks shimmer! That about covers it.

When Diamine announced the new line last fall, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook went crazy. Everyone was talking about the new inks. J. Herbin offered some limited edition inks with glittery particles. But Diamine introduced ten glittery colors all at once.

As soon as the inks were released, reviews began popping up everywhere. The word "Shimmertastic!" inundated the pen community's ink vocabulary. Pictures of glittery ink appeared all over the web accompanied by whoops of excitement. Ink with all the magic of unicorns!

At first I resisted. I had purchased three of J. Herbin's shimmering inks (Rouge Hematite, Bleu Ocean, and Emerald of Chivor), and I wasn't all that impressed. The glitter fell so quickly to the bottom of the ink bottles after shaking, I had to rush to fill my pens. I never felt I could suck up enough glitter. Then I had to keep shaking my pen. And, unfortunately, the best examples of the inks' glitter and sheen were brought out in ink blobs, not writing samples. I also worried about what the ink might do to my nibs and feeds. Those bottles languish at the back of my ink drawer.

So, I waited until the initial buzz wore down before I ordered Diamine glitter ink. I purchased three bottles: Blue Lightning, Purple Pazzazz, and Golden Sands. I chose these three colors because I had seen photos of Blue Lightning and loved the color. The purple looked like it would be great for Christmas cards (though, admittedly, I only sent one Christmas card this year). And the gold looked spectacular for any special occasion. At $20.00 per 50 ml bottle, these aren't cheap inks, but they are a little less expensive than J. Herbin ($27.00).

Here are writing samples of each color:

Purple Pazzazz

Large Nibs

Small Nibs

Blue Lightning

Large Nibs

Small Nibs

Golden Sands

Large Nibs

Small Nibs

The only color I've used frequently is Purple Pazzazz. This is mainly because I put it in my TWSBI 580, which is my industrial strength pen. I wasn't worried about glitter particles ruining this pen. Although I have not heard people say that the Diamine Glitter ink is clogging their nibs, I'm not ready to leave it for long periods in my really expensive pens.

Right now I have Blue Lightning in my Sailor Pro Gear with a Cross Point nib. This nib really shows off the ink because it has such a broad stroke.

I put Golden Sands in my Conid Minimalistica, but after writing a few pages with it, I dumped it out. The ink leaked everywhere, and it didn't work well with the Conid's nib. I may try it in a different pen, but it seems like a paint brush might work better.

So far, I've been impressed with the shimmer capabilities of Diamine's inks, even in finer nibs. With the J. Herbin inks, it seemed that only wider, wetter nibs could really bring out the fantastic colors and shimmer. But, the Diamine inks glitter even with medium and fine nibs (though I doubt you'll see much glitter with extra-fine nibs). After writing in my journal with my TWSBI (medium nib), I could see the glitter when I held it in the sun.

What's interesting to me about the three bottles of Diamine I own is that each ink behaves differently. Blue Lightning seems a bit dry compared to the other two inks. Purple Pazzazz is wet, but not overly so. Whereas Golden Sands seems downright watery and difficult to control.

If you like glittery ink, then you'll like the Diamine Shimmer line. They seem to have gotten the formulation right in that the glitter particles are tiny and flow more easily through feeds and nibs than the J. Herbin inks (this is my very unscientific opinion). You'll still have to shake the bottles well before inking your pens, and shake or roll your pen before writing to get the glitter flowing.

Pros

• Diamine Shimmer Inks come in ten colors and they aren't limited edition.
• The glitter is quite visible in sunlight and bright indoor light.
• The glitter particles do not seem to pose a problem for feeds and nibs, but it's always smart to exercise caution with specialty inks. I wouldn't advise leaving these inks in pens (especially vintage pens) for long periods of time.
• Both wide and narrower nibs produce glitter.

Cons

• The glitter shows only in bright light.
• You have to remember to shake the bottle well before filling your pens and to shake or roll your pens before writing.
• Glittery inks have their uses (invitations, seasonal cards), but they do evoke visions of unicorns and teenage girls (at least in my mind). I probably won't be grading papers with these, but, after a crazy semester like this one, purple glitter might be just the thing for writing 30% on someone's exam. Who knows?
• These inks are definitely not water resistant.

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