J. Herbin Opale Nocturne Ink Review

We are many milliliters deep into Inkvent season, and while I’m not participating in any daily ink slinging, that doesn’t mean I can get my shimmery ink on!

J. Herbin Opale Nocturne is the latest shimmer ink from the company who may do shimmer inks better than anyone. I know, those are fighting words, but ever since Emerald of Chivor knocked down the door over a decade ago, J. Herbin has been on a can’t miss kick with each of their yearly releases.

When I first saw the images of Opale Nocturne, I immediately wondered if this is Emerald of Chivor, part two. Once I got it in hand, I realized that it’s not particularly close, outside of the Gold shimmer that both share.

Translated to Night Opal, this Blueish-Green ink has a hint of Grey going down on the page, and then dries into an interesting Dusty Blue. The color should be simple to describe, but it’s just a bit different than any shade I use regularly. Add in the shimmer, and it’s a clear standout.

I used a TWSBI 580 ALR with a 1.1 mm Stub Nib for this review, and it worked well. The flow is wet, and the shimmer shows up in nearly all of the lines. The amount varies with how long I have been writing - there is more shimmer on the first few lines after uncapping the pen, and if I don’t stop for many lines the shimmer lightens up. That’s normal behavior. The ink never missed a beat on the page, and any time I uncapped it over the past couple of weeks it wrote immediately.

The key with shimmer inks is to use a pen with good flow, and the wider the nib the better time you will have. Also, choose a pen that is easy to clean. I’ve used this pen many times with shimmer ink and never had any issues.

In the grand scheme of all the J. Herbin 1670 shimmer inks, this one ranks near the top. Emerald of Chivor is still the S-Tier choice, but Opale Nocturne is in the conversation. It may only be behind Shogun for my own personal shimmer use.

At $34 for a 50 ml bottle it is on the expensive side, but the quality is worth it. And the bottle is one of the best in the business, and no, I don’t mean my 10 ml sampler! You can pick up a 4 ml sample from Vanness Pens if you want to try before you commit.

What is your favorite J. Herbin shimmer ink release? And what other ink color looks like this base Blue/Green/Grey? I’d be interested to try it out!

(Exaclair, the US distributor of J. Herbin, sent me this ink at no charge.)

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The Wet Pen Western Trillium Ink Review

Fountain pen inks from The Wet Pen have been on my radar thanks to readers of this site, and I finally got my order in a few weeks ago. Hello fresh ink!

I bought six inks, and Matthew, the maker behind the brand, threw in two more of his favorites, bringing my total to eight. I tested them all with a couple of dip nibs, trying to find the one I wanted to ink up first.

Kokuyo paper.

That, of course, proved to be impossible. To solve that issue, I grabbed the pen I wanted to ink up, my LAMY 2000 Stainless Steel with an Extra Fine nib, and made a decision from there. Western Trillium was the winner, given that 1. the color is lovely, and 2. it doesn’t appear to need a wide, wet nib to display its characteristics, like some of the other inks I purchased.

Col-o-ring paper.

Even though any color would match the plain steel color of the LAMY, I made the right choice. Western Trillium is a flower found primarily in the Western United States that starts out White when it initially blooms, and then changes into a beautiful Magenta/Pink as it matures. That’s the shade that The Wet Pen matched here, and it turned out great.

It doesn’t take much to get me to enjoy a color in this spectrum. Magentas are some of my favorites, and Western Trillium lands a little bit on the darker, or Purpler, side. According to the product description, Blue will show up in the shading on certain papers, so that makes sense that it is Purple-leaning.

Life Noble paper.

The performance from this Extra Fine nib has been perfect. Flow is fantastic, with some shading and a moderate to quick dry time. Again, this is an EF nib, so it’s not going to pop in all the categories, but you can see more of the character in the swatches, or with the glass dip nib pen.

Yoseka Notebook paper.

Overall, it is so far, so good with Western Trillium. It has been a good, consistent writing ink so far, and I love the color. At $16 for 50 ml, or $12 for 20 ml, it’s also a good value. I look forward testing out more inks from The Wet Pen soon.

(I paid full price for the ink used in this review.)

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Pelikan Ink of the Year: Edelstein Apricot Achat

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

Pelikan announced Apricot Achat as their Ink of the Year for 2025 back in February and then announced their matching pen in June. Most folks, including me, waited on purchasing the ink, in hopes that it would be included in last weekend’s Pelikan Hub. Unfortunately, not every hub got Apricot Achat for their attendees. Some hubs (like mine) were lucky enough to get the ink, while others got a seemingly random assortment of inks, which may or may not have included Apricot. I thought I’d do a mini review of this ink so you can decide whether or not it’s worth adding to your collection.

Pelikan Edelstein Apricot Achat swatched on Col-O-Ring with a Kakimori stainless steel dip nib.

In the past, most of the Edelstein inks, including the Ink of the Year, had black caps. That changed starting with Moonstone (2020), which had a silver cap. In 2021, Pelikan released its first shimmer ink, Golden Beryl, which was a gold colored ink with golden shimmer. That ink had a gold cap. The following two years, both Apatite and Rose Quartz had silver caps and neither were shimmer inks. Last year, Golden Lapis was a blue ink with gold shimmer, and again a gold cap. When the official photos of Apricot Achat were released with a gold cap, some thought it would be a shimmer ink, but it is not. Anyone else figure out the logic? Me neither.

One of the official pictures from the Apricot Achat press release.

Star Ruby (IOTY 2019) and regular Edelstein inks, like Onyx, had black caps. Silver caps and no shimmer for Moonstone, Apatite, and Rose Quartz, but gold caps and shimmer for Golden Beryl and Golden Lapis, but no shimmer for Apricot Achat.

I had to pillage the nibs from a few pens in order to get writing samples. After swapping the nib, I primed the nib a bit and then made a few scribbles on some scratch paper (where I discovered one of the nibs wasn’t fully cleaned, eek!) before making the “official” writing sample.

Writing samples with the Pelikan M200 Apricot Achat with nibs ranging from Extra Fine to Double Broad, and also Italic Broad.

The Apricot Achat is quite legible, even with the Extra Fine nib. I suspect that it would be lighter in some of the drier pens/nibs out there, like the Lamy steel nib, finer Sailor nibs, etc. Pelikans are fairly wet writers, so Pelikan compensates for that by making their inks on the drier side. Some of their inks are much drier than others, especially those in the 4001 series, as well as lighter colored inks like this one. I don’t think I would enjoy using this ink in a drier pen.

Decided to use the different nib sizes to write another page of Meditations. Each nib is used for four lines, starting with Extra Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad, Double Broad, and Italic Broad.

It’s really hard to tell the difference between Double Broad and Broad when the letters barely fit between the lines.

I didn’t have as many inks in this color as I thought I did. Most of the inks that were “similar” were much more saturated, or were more orange (and not peachy/apricot-y enough) or too yellow/red/etc.

Inks similar to Apricot Achat: Colorverse Space Needle (a touch too red/pink), Troublemaker x Flax Pen to Paper Momo Mochi, and Sailor 2023 Pen Show Ink (a bit too bright).

At $38 MSRP for a 50ml bottle, Pelikan Edelstein Apricot Achat is definitely on the pricier side, but if you really like the color, you can often find it for less at vendors like Dromgoole’s.

(Disclaimer: I purchased the Pelikan M200 Apricot Achat and the Maruman Mnemosyne notebook (from different vendors), and received the ink as part of the Pelikan Hub.)