Pilot Acro ILMILY Ballpoint Pen Review

Look, the marketing department deserves to get paid too, ok? I mean, how else can you explain Pilot’s ILMILY stationery lineup? What does ILMILY stand for, you ask? “I Like Me, I Like You.”

ILMILY is a lifestyle stationery collection, featuring products with soothing colors, and designed around themes like positivity, happiness, warmth, and general awesomeness. Ok, I’ll stop having fun with the name now, because Pilot has created a product idea we can all get behind.

The ILMILY lineup features several different products, from pens and markers to paper and pen cases. Pilot releases ILMILY products as a series each season, with each containing various products themed to be used together. For example, the first series in 2021 contained a dozen Pilot Pastel Gel pens, FriXion stamps, journaling stencils, small envelopes, and colorful paper pads. The products are made in limited quantities, with each new season bringing us new stationery goodies.

All products are sold separately, which is how I was able to get the Pilot Acro ILMILY Ballpoint Pen from JetPens. The standard Acroball is a personal favorite of mine, so I was interested to see how this upgraded barrel design compares to the standard.

Writing-wise, it compares perfectly. It was safe to assume as much, seeing how they use the same refill. Acroball ink is Pilot’s version of hybrid ballpoint ink technology, made popular by the Uni-ball Jetstream. I believe it is just as good as Jetstream ink, but Uni simply had 1. A years-long head start, and 2. Far better barrel designs, which place them at the top of the market.

The ILMILY Acroball features an 0.5 mm black ink refill. It is fine, clean, and fun. The upgraded barrel of this specific model features a smooth, shiny barrel, that, while called slim, feels like a standard barrel diameter and width. It is very lightweight, and reasonably plain-looking outside of the faux-chamfer where the barrel unscrews. The knock is very clicky.

The barrel colors I have are Winter Navy and Summer Light Purple. Both are excellent, although my preference lies with the darker model. There are six other barrel colors available as well.

At this point, we have sorted out that this is a good pen, and we all love each other. But what we haven’t sorted out is if this is a pen you should rush out and purchase. At $13.25 each, that answer is clearly no. That is a heck of a premium to pay for aesthetics. It looks awesome, that’s for sure, but the standard Acroball has an arguably better barrel, and an inarguably better grip, and is 1/4th the cost.

I like the fact that Pilot has created the ILMILY lineup. I’ll always take good stationery, with a good story. That said, cost will-be a long term limiting factor for many consumers, especially with quarterly limited releases. But Pilot is taking a different tack, with different marketing, for a different market. I love to see it, and I hope it succeeds.

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

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Visconti Van Gogh Fountain Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

Most of my experience with Visconti pens has been staring at them through the glass of a display case, thinking "no way" but feeling a little bummed about it. Because they're gorgeous, but overpriced. So having the chance to try one out at last is priceless.

The packaging certainly makes an impression. The box is textured like a paint canvas and has the image of a Van Gogh painting on top, presumably whichever painting inspired the color scheme for your pen.

My pen is the Orchard in Blossom, with a beautiful blue-grey sky base, with pops of delicate floral colors and splashes of green grass. The pens are meant to look like the painter's oil palette as he creates his masterpieces, and they've nailed that look beautifully.

It has rose gold trim, though other versions have different trim to correspond with their respective paintings. The pen body and cap are gently faceted and taper at each end. There is a wide cap band with "Visconti Italy" on one side and "Van Gogh" on the other. The bottom finial is plain, while the top has the Visconti V logo. It has the classic Visconti Ponte del Vecchio clip, made to look like the iconic bridge in Florence, Italy. It is a hinged clip, so the whole thing lifts easily and clips securely.

The cap has a magnetic closure with a very satisfying click. It does post securely, but you risk scratching that gorgeous finish. The grip section is smooth metal with a slight ridge at the end to keep your fingers from sliding.

The pen takes cartridges or a converter, and it comes with a converter and a bottle of ink, which was a lovely surprise. The ink is a rosy purple to match the blooms in the painting. It's a great ink with lots of character that shades in different purple tones.

The nib in my pen is a rose gold-plated steel nib. It is beautifully etched. But it has some mild QC issues, which is not unheard of for Visconti. This nib is meant to be a Fine, but whoa. The slit in this nib is very wide, a canyon compared to the average nib. It's enough to affect the capillary action and made it difficult to get ink flowing at first. But once it got started, it flowed like a fire hose in a very wet, broad line. It writes with a controlled dribble. It didn't take long to write the pen empty. It's smooth and pleasant to use--I don't dislike the way it writes, but it's definitely not performing as it's supposed to.

Given the nib issues and the price ($260 for a steel nib, yikes), it's not a pen that I can fully recommend, despite its other qualities. If you're fortunate enough to be in a place where you can try one or peek at the nib, or purchasing from a vendor that does nib checks, then I'd say it's definitely worth looking into. I still really like this pen. If money was no object, there are three other colors I'd get! But it's not perfect, and at its price point, it really should be.

(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!

Faber-Castell Design Ambition Fountain Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

I've had my eye on the Faber-Castell Design Ambition for ages, watching lovely limited editions come and go, but never at quite the right time for me to snag one. So I was thrilled to finally get the chance to play with one in this lovely shade of blue. I know, from the Neo and the Loom, that I like Faber-Castell nibs, though the Loom body didn't work well for me. I loved the Neo, but wanted more fun colors. This model seems to deliver on all my wishes.

The cap and finials are a chrome finished metal, and the body is wrapped in a resin sleeve with the OpArt Sky Blue guilloche pattern. While from a distance it looks like a pale blue, up close you can see that the grooves are an almost lavender-grey color, or maybe a putty color, depending on the light. In any case, it's very visually interesting and the grooved texture makes it easy to grip.

That grippiness is an important feature, as the pen lacks a defined grip section. There's debate, in the pen world, about whether or not one is supposed to try and hold it by the wee metal nub that holds the nib housing. And you could, but I doubt it would be very comfortable. It's very small, slick, and would force your fingers onto the fairly sharp step in the resin. Holding the pen further back on the resin body works much better for me, and the texture still gives me good control of the nib.

The cap snaps to close and has a nicely springy clip that pivots into the cap itself, so it clips firmly and easily onto pockets or papers. The cap is etched with a faint "Faber-Castell" that doesn't intrude on the sleek design. The cap posts, but only loosely on the shallow metal end and doesn't click in place, so it may wobble or topple when writing. There is no decoration on the finials. It is all simple elegance.

As I have experienced with all Faber-Castell pens, the steel nib is great. This one is an extra fine, and it writes with the perfect balance of fineness and wetness. It flows enough for me to enjoy the ink, but is fine enough to write in small grids or fill pages with copious class notes. It's been the pen I reach for first for school these past few weeks.

In short, this pen was worth the wait, and at $100, it's also worth the price. As pen prices are creeping up around the globe, this price starts to look better and better. It's a good quality pen for a price that's low compared to its peers. I wouldn't recommend it to folks who must post, or who hold their pens right at the nib base, but to all else, I say it's a gem.

(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!