Posts filed under Pen Reviews

Benu Haute Collection - A First Look

(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!.)

A couple months back, Benu announced a new addition to their family of fountain pens - the Haute Collection. This collection “embodies elegance and modern sophistication with its faceted design and striking finishes.” Thank you to Bryce Gillett from Luxury Brands of America for sending these pens for review.

Benu is known for their colorful and sparkly pens, which tend to evoke a squeal with grabby hands or a shudder because it’s “too much”. As I said in my Benu comparison article a couple years ago, they definitely aren’t boring, nor would you confuse them with other brands.

The Haute Collection comes in 10 colorways - Satin, Decadence, Grace, Perle, Lustre, Chic, Lush, Flair, Icon, and Allure. Bryce kindly sent Grace and Perle for review.

*Grace (top) and Perle (bottom) from the Benu Haute Collection.*

Each of the colorways of the Haute Collection are unique and offer not just different colors but also different levels of sparkle and mixes of colors. Grace, for example, has blue with bits of turquoise sparkly flakes. It also has subtle bits of black mixed into the blue resin.

*The black flecks in the blue resin gives it a nice depth.*

Contrast this with Perle which is a primarily pink pen with a light blue gradient in the middle, and very fine light blue shimmer throughout the resin. The cap band and grip section is clear with silver flakes.

Sparkly ombre light pink to light blue in the center, along with a clear with silver flakes in the cap band and grip. Note that the nib unit’s top band is gold-toned - the distinction is visible in person but isn’t super clashy due to the silver flecks in the grip.

Unlike the Euphoria, which has 11 facets on the barrel and cap, the Haute Collection pens have four “main” facets and subtle, smooth, thinner facets that connect the main facets.

*The Haute Collection (left) and Euphoria caps - you can see the more square profile of the Haute versus the Euphoria.*

*The reflection is from the slim facets.*

Schmidt puts the nib sizes in the little square - both of these pens have Medium nibs, as indicated by the script M in the middle of the square. If your Benu nib doesn’t have this design, it is likely a Jowo nib, which has the size on the side of the nib.

The Haute Collection is similar in size to the Benu Euphoria with a slimmer cap and barrel. The grips are similar in size.

*Comparison pens capped (left to right): Benu Euphoria, Sailor Pro Gear, Pilot Custom 823, Benu Haute Perle, TWSBI Eco, Platinum 3776, Esterbrook Estie.*

The Benu Haute Collection pens are packaged in a Benu-branded white box with an inner paper pen “pouch”, warranty information and a long standard international cartridge (pretty rare to find long carts!). The included Schmidt K2 standard international converter (no metal on the tip end) is already installed in the pen. The Haute Collection is available with a steel #6 nib - Fine, Medium, Broad, Flex Fine, Stub 1.1, and Stub 1.5 (the latter 3 are Jowo and not Schmidt).

Writing samples of the Fine, Medium, Broad Schmidt nibs, along with others for comparison. From the Benu comparison article.

The Haute Collection pens retail for $210-252 and can be found at authorized Benu dealers including Dromgoole’s and Goldspot.

(Disclaimer: The Benu Haute Collection pens were sent for review by Luxury Brands of America. All other pens are my own, including the Benu x TPA Euphoria.)

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Posted on December 12, 2025 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Benu Pen, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

Tactile Turn Short Ultem Bolt Action 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 Bluesky. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)

Need a pen that can survive almost anything? Probably not! But is it fun to try one, anyway? Yup! Conditions at my work rarely reach the extreme levels this pen was designed for, but it's good to know that it's safe even in the crushing pressure at the bottom of my bag.

Tactile Turn Short Ultem Bolt Action Pen

Tactile Turn is well known for their bolt action pens, which come in a variety of sizes and materials, including super fun limited series. Of all the ones I've tried (which is a fair few, as they're my spouse's favorite), the Short Ultem Bolt Action Pen may be my favorite design. Not just because it's indestructible, but because it's so light.

Ultem 1000 is not just resistant to heat, flame, chemicals, and force, it's also super lightweight. This pen, made entirely from Ultem 1000 with a few titanium accents and a stainless steel clip, feels like it could blow away in a breeze. I can write with it for hours without getting any hand fatigue, and it doesn't add any weight to my overpacked bag.

This short length is the Goldilocks of the Tactile Turn offerings. I also love their mini size, as I adore a good pocket pen, but it isn't as comfortable for longer writing sessions and has fewer refill options. The body of the pen has the signature ridged texture of all Tactile Turn pens, which make it easy to grip.

The steel clip is very sturdy and clips firmly to papers and pockets. The titanium bolt works smoothly, with just enough resistance to make it an exceptional fidget. The nosecone unscrews to access the refill, and the refill is the one thing I don't love about this pen.

The short size comes with the Schmidt EasyFlow 9000 medium refill, and mine was super smudgy. It never seemed to dry all the way, so even pages that were written the previous day were smudging when I touched them. That's not a dealbreaker for me, just a temporary annoyance. There are a lot of other refills that can replace this one when it runs out. They even have a handy list on their website.

The Short Ultem Bolt Action Pen sells for $99 at Dromgoole's, which is quite a good price considering the difficulty of working with the material and the specialized machinery required.

This pen has been in my purse since it arrived (alongside the Buccaneer Tactile Turn Mini Bolt) as one of the main pens I reach for on a daily basis. It certainly won't be my last Tactile Turn pen. I nearly ended up with a new one just by going to their site to grab the link. I highly recommend them, and this one especially.

(This product was purchased from Dromgoole’s at regular price.)

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Posted on December 4, 2025 by Sarah Read and filed under Tactile Turn, Pen Reviews.

Zebra Mildliner Double-Sided Dot Marker Review

The Zebra Mildliner lineup is about as popular as it gets for markers and highlighters. The colors are amazing, the uses are endless, and the styles are plentiful. So, what was missing from their lineup? Dots.

Dot markers were not something I knew I needed until I got the Kuretake ZIG Clean Color Dot Double-Sided Marker in my hands, and they were a game changer. Why? I don’t highlight much, but I do like to embellish my pages with various marks, and in various colors. Dot markers give me a fun option to play around with.

I bought this set of 10 Dual-tip Dot Markers this Summer from Zebra at the Atlas Stationers Sidewalk sale. I hadn’t seen them before, but apparently I hadn’t been looking hard enough, as they are available in a few pack sizes (2, 5, and this 10,) although not in the massive variety of shades found in the classic chisel-tip Mildliner lineup.

These dual markers feature two styles of tips: the aforementioned Dot tip, and a more traditional Bullet Marker tip on the opposite end. The Dot side is pressure sensitive, meaning you can press lightly for a small dot, or squish it down for a bigger one. This works perfectly since the tips are designed to bounce back and retain their original shape. The marker side is fine, but I would rather have a classic chisel tip on that end, or an even finer plastic tip for something different. That side is fine for filling in or coloring, but they don’t see much action.

Zebra Mildliner Double-Sided Dot Marker Colors

The colors of this 10-pack are great, which should come as no surprise for a product with the Mildliner name attached to it. Cyan and Fuchsia are two of my favorite shades, while Summer Green isn’t quite my jam but fits well within the group, which overall gets a solid A-grade.

Zebra Mildliner Double-Sided Dot Marker Highlighter — *Not a great highlighter with the Zebra Sarasa R Gel Ink Pen.*

If there is a downside to this product, it is that the Kuretake ZIG Clean Color Dot markers exist. I think the Kuretake version is better because I get that finer tip I’m looking for on the other side of the double-sided marker. They also have more colors than the Mildliner Dot lineup does, at least for now. Most options of both pens average out around the $2 per pen range, with some configurations of the Kuretake costing a bit more.

That said, Mildliner gonna Mildliner, and if you are in that ecosystem already, you will like what their Dot Markers bring to the page.

(I paid full price for this set of markers directly from Zebra USA.)

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