(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.)
Montblanc's color of the year for 2018 is a lovely, bright emerald. It's a rich color--nicely saturated and well-behaved. It's also the exact same color as probably a dozen other less expensive inks. This bottle was a birthday gift from my lovely husband, who likes to spoil me and knows to go to Anderson Pens to do that.
The ink comes in its sturdy ribbon-pull drawer box, which holds the beautiful rippled 50-ml glass bottle with the boldly logoed Montblanc lid. I really like these bottles. They're deep enough for a good fill, but squat enough to be sturdy on the desktop. They're beautiful in their construction--the sort of bottle I'd keep around if I could ever empty one.
One thing that did surprise me about this ink is that it's very wet. Most of my Montblanc inks are dry--some unpleasantly dry and almost unusable in a fine nib. This one is nicely lubricated. That does mean a long dry time, though. It took between 30 and 35 seconds for a fully dry line on Clairefontaine paper. For me, that's worth the writing experience, but lefties and folks in a hurry might find that a downside. If you routinely buy Montblanc inks because you like your inks dry, this one might not meet expectations.
It does have some lovely shading, from a pale spring eggshell green to a deep teal. There's no trace of any sheen, even where I've pooled the ink. But it definitely has character and depth to it. I can tell I've been writing with a snazzy liquid ink.
It has almost no water resistance. Don't even sneeze on your paper. If you soak up a spill very quickly, you might be able to see a few lines, but if water sits for even a few seconds, all trace of writing disappears.
Color-wise, it doesn't appear to be a very complex color recipe. It's a true blue-green. Which might be why it has so many twins on the market.
It's a good thing it's such a lovely color that I'm not likely to get tired of any time soon--because I now have a lot of it. There's a good chance you have some, too. So, unless you're collecting Montblanc inks, you can probably save yourself the $43 for 50 ml. Or, if you're super picky about ink behavior and prefer wet inks, this is the best one I've tried. Of all the emerald greens in my collection, this will be the one I reach for first. If this hadn't been a gift, I probably would have skipped it (don't tell my husband that; I'm trying to encourage this sort of behavior) but I am enjoying it a lot.
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