Vinta Azure Fountain Pen Ink Review

Vinta Inks have been one of the more popular inky releases this year, with an interesting product lineup of pastel colors, shimmer, and sheen - all in beautiful packaging.

While I could hav gone with one of the wilder colors for my review, I stayed in my wheelhouse with Vinta Azure. Experimentation, right? Mostly, I’m a chicken, and a little stuck in my ways when it comes to ink colors. There aren’t many shades I prefer over a beautiful blue, especially with the shading and sheen this one offers.

And sheen is king with this one. The base ink is a blue that is deep, but retains some brightness where it goes down thinner on the page. Once it dries, Azure is a sheen machine, with 80-90% of the line covered in a bright red/pink sheen. It looks fantastic.

For this review, I used an Aurora Optima with a fine flex nib on a Yoseka Notebook. The combination of heavy ink flow from the nib and this paper made this ink look darker than it will on other pages with other nibs. You can see more of the base ink color on the Rhodia and Tomoe River samples. It gives off a very Bungubox Sapphire vibe, with a hint of Sailor Sky High, albeit it with a lot more sheen.

At $12.50 for a 30 ml bottle, Vinta Inks are good quality and fairly priced. Plus, for each bottle they sell, Vinta donates to educational initiatives in their home country of the Philippines. That is something I can definitely get behind.

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

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Posted on November 27, 2019 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Vinta, Ink Reviews.

Maruman Mnemosyne Diary 2020 Giveaway

I’ve looked at a ton of diaries and planners for 2020 and I’m not sure any are more wild than the Maruman Mnemosyne Diary 2020. This is a planners dream, with two separate notebooks containing calendars, Gantt charts, daily note pages, and more. On top of that, there are additional accessories, like Calendar stickers and Monthly Block stickers that help turn this diary up to eleven. I’m giving away this full set of goods to one reader, so read the rules below and enter away!

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Maruman.

Life Bank Paper Review

What is bank paper? According to Merriam-Webster:

“a thin strong paper similar to but lighter than bond paper and commonly used for business letterheads”

Bank paper products, such as this A5 Life Writing Paper, have begun to appear more frequently in our world, mainly because it lives up to the definition above. The paper is thin, durable, and can handle almost any ink or graphite well.

This Life Bank Paper pad has been recommended to me many times, and I took way too long to acquire it. It is downright excellent. It features a light ivory color page with the slightest bit of texture and feedback. The 100 pages are glue bound in an A5 size, which make it perfect for letter writing. This is a pad that will be empty when you are done with it, not kept like a spiral bound pad.

I mostly wanted to test fountain pen inks on it, and I’m happy to say they work well. There is no feathering or bleed to speak of, even when I laid down heavy swabs of ink on the page. All nibs feel smooth on it, even though you can feel the texture of the paper. It’s a very light texture, and I didn’t feel it was detrimental, even when using my finest nibs.

The dry time was also decent. This isn’t a glossy page like Rhodia, so I expected it to be quick, and it is. The only ink that took some time to dry was with the Montegrappa Miya Flex nib, due to the fact it was putting more ink down on the page. Even so, dry time was fine, and a pink blotting sheet is included if you so desire.

There is some ghosting, as you can tell by my picture of the pages when still attached to the pad. I personally wouldn’t use the back of the sheet to write a letter on, but it is workable.

All of my non-fountain pens performed well on this bank paper, with the lone exception being plastic tip drawing pens. The texture causes problems with this type of pen, leaving white space in the line, or sometimes skipping. It is at least usable, which is more than I can say for other textured papers and plastic tips.

All ballpoint, gel, and rollerball pens worked well - even my micro gel ink pens. Brush pens performed better than expected, and pencil graphite was an absolute standout. The texture allows the graphite a darkness and depth that smooth papers do not.

Being a bank paper, you might think there would be a watermark in the page, and you would be correct. It’s not that noticeable when writing in the pad, but it is more noticeable once you remove the page and more light surrounds it. It’s by no means a deal-breaker, or even a minor annoyance, but I thought I would point it out in case someone really dislikes watermarks.

So, how will I be using this pad? You are going to make me write letters, aren’t you? I think that’s what this pad is tailor made for. The glue binding comes off so cleanly you would think these were loose sheets. I’ve even punched them for my William Hannah notebook.

At $20 for 100 pages it isn’t cheap by any stretch, but the A5 Life Writing Paper Pad is purpose built, meaning you should have a purpose in mind when buying and using it. It’s not a desk pad, work pad, or a scratch pad. It’s more than that, and should be used as such.

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

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