Pairings Party: Nahvalur Original Plus Powder Blue, Wearingeul Undine

Even if I’ve reviewed a product before, I like to return to it every few years if the company keeps it in the lineup. It doesn’t have to be changed much, if at all, but I do want to see if anything is different as the product matures. And let’s be clear, I’m a simple man. I see fun colors, I’m interested.

That’s the case with the Nahvalur Original Plus in Powder Blue. It caught me by surprise in 2023 with how nice it was, and it has continued to be one of the best mid-range, bang-for-your-buck, pens going.

In testing the Powder Blue Original Plus, it performs exactly as my first one in Matria White. That’s a good thing. The only difference is that I chose the 1.1 mm nib for the new model, as opposed to the Fine nib in the … original.

Outside of color and nib, the Original Plus is known for using a vacuum filling mechanism. That’s not something often seen at this price point, and it works great. Filling is easy, it seals off well when not in use, and cleaning is a breeze because you can unscrew the grip section and run water through the barrel.

Nahvalur releases new colors of the Original (Piston-filler,) and Original Plus two or three times a year, including the just launched full color Original in translucent and opaque barrel models at the Washington D.C. Fountain Pen SUPERSHOW this past weekend. I still prefer the clear barrel/color cap and finial style, but all of them look great.

When choosing an ink for Powder Blue, my default choice would normally be Pink, but I went more matchy-matchy with Wearingeul Undine. I’m not sure of the story behind the ink, and reading the product description I’m not sure I want to, but wow is this a nice color. It’s a bit of a dual shader, with a colorful Turquoise/Teal combo (is that a thing?) with a lot of Pink/Purple shading. It flows great from the 1.1 mm nib.

Recommending both of these products is easy. In thinking about the Original Plus, it is a $63 pen (with some sale options at $47,) and I think that is fair for what you get in this market. As I was thinking about it in the context of other pens in this price range, would I choose the Original Plus, or the Pilot Prera?

As a bonafide Pilot stan, I think it’s a coin flip. The Prera has a better nib, and the Original Plus has a better filling system. Both come in fun colors, and should hold up as well as plastic barrel pens can.

Where would you rank the Original Plus versus the Prera, or the TWSBI ECO or 580? It’s right there in the mix for me, and I’m glad to have another solid option in this range.

(These products were purchased from Dromgoole’s and Goldspot, respectively, at a discounted price.)

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Wearingeul The Autumn Night After a Thousand Years Ink 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!)

Wearingeul is quickly becoming my favorite ink brand, largely because their inks are fun and interesting, but also because they have the best ink names. The Autumn Night After a Thousand Years is part of their "The Color of Literature" line, in which all the colors are inspired by lines from Korean Literature. This color is inspired by Lee Yuk-sa's poem "Musa" which means "the dancer." The poem features starlight shining through tree leaves, and the ink invokes this imagery with its dark olive color and gold shimmer.

The color is subtle and stunning. Chromatography shows a charcoal grey base, with a slate blue tint, then sand brown, pine green, and a shock of teal. I want this chromatography strip as a tie-dye shirt immediately. The ink does have some water resistance, though not much. The grey base color stays put while the rest of it washes away. If you spilled your water on your writing, there's a chance you could still make out your words.

The ink has a reasonable dry time of just over 20 seconds, and while it does have a dry feel to it when writing, it flows very well. I had no issues with the shimmer causing any clogging. It does show some shading where the ink pools, but the real star here (pun intended) is the gold shimmer. It's not obtrusive, but it does show up in the written lines. It's very difficult to photograph the effect, but when the light hits the writing, it glistens. It's more pronounced, of course, in larger pools of ink. It's a serious ink with a bit of lovely whimsy, and I think it's fantastic.

This line comes in cube-shaped blown glass bottles with plastic lids and nice labels. The bottle's opening is wide enough for most pens and the bottle is sturdy. The 30 ml bottle costs $27 at Vanness Pen Shop, which puts it at the pricier end of inks in general. I would judge the quality of this ink as worth the cost. All the swatch images I've seen of it do not do it justice, and I found it almost impossible to accurately photograph. I highly recommend seeing this one in person, and using it to write some beautiful nature poetry.

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Wearingeul Tick Tock Croc Ink Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

It's another week, so that means I'm on my continued green kick. I'm personally loving all the green I've been subjecting myself to, and I don't see any signs of this recent obsession dying anytime soon. This week, I'm looking at Wearingeul Tick Tock Croc.

Tick Tock Croc is a cool toned forest green with a little teal that shows through in the shading. Part of Wearingeul's Peter and Wendy collection, this ink takes inspiration from Peter Pan and the namesake crocodile villain.

I've had a great track record with Wearingeul inks in the past, but this ink marks my first slight issue. After inking a pen and cleaning up the nib and section, the pen wouldn't write despite having plenty of ink loaded in the feed. Touching a paper towel to an area around the feed would pull lots of ink, but the ink just wasn't making it down to the tip of the nib. I emptied the pen and refilled it, and the problem didn't persist. I've never had an issue like that before, so it could just be a fluke. At any rate, this ink is a touch on the dry side. The TWSBI 1.1mm stub that I used for the writing sample is typically a very wet and soft-feeling nib due to the large surface and good flow. With this ink, the nib feels a tiny bit scratchy. The flow is still great, and it can keep up with a fast pace, but it just feels a little dry. Not a problem, but something to consider if you plan on using this with a pen that you know to be on the dry flow side as well. Might not be a good combination!

But, the dry flow translates to pretty fast dry times on the page. In most cases, the ink is basically smudge-proof after 15 seconds if you're using a medium nib or smaller. With this large 1.1mm TWSBI nib, the ink is dry at 20 seconds. Not bad!

Since this ink is taking inspiration from something that is dark green (at least in the Disney adaptation) and lives in the water, I love seeing both of these portrayed in the actual ink colors. The dominant color is a forest green, and there are teal shades that peek through in the lighter areas of the ink. The shading is subtle in variation, but still easy to see on the page with any size nib. In general, this is fantastic green shade with delightful teal and cold green accents that come out through the ink shading.

One thing that the marketing material mentions is that this ink also has a red sheening characteristic. Technically, this is true, but it's incredibly difficult to demonstrate. I tried many different swabs on different paper using different instruments, and I just wasn't able to bring out the sheen in a way that is easy to see. In the cases I could detect some slight sheen with my naked eyes, I couldn't capture with a camera. And, when I was able to pick out some sheening, it was more of a dark purple instead of red, which blended in with the dark green easily. For practical purposes, you can just ignore the red sheening aspect of this ink's marketing information. It's there, but not easy to reproduce. There are plenty of other green inks that create obvious red sheening with zero effort.

Overall, Tick Tock Croc is a beautiful forest green ink with lovely teal undertones that add a lot of character to an otherwise plain color. The quick dry time is also big plus, but just be aware that it might make your pen feel a bit scratchy.

You can pick this ink up from Vanness for $22 for the 30ml bottle, or you can also grab a small 4ml sample for a few bucks instead. One cool thing to note about the bottle is that is features a holographic sticker on the front that changes between the standard logo and name to a graphic of a crocodile coming out of the water with its mouth wide open. Very cool! Not something that will influence anyone's decision to buy the ink, but it's definitely a fun surprise.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount 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.

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