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Perle Noir, Herbin

Perle Noir is one of the most recommended and well reviewed black inks out there. When I bought this ink a few years ago, I was disappointed. It is not the blackest, not the smoothest, not the fastest drying ink, not an archival ink, not the cheapest.  I decided to give it a second chance so I eyedropped a Preppy with it and filled a Lamy All-star. Over the past few days I have written many pages of work notes with the ink. Perle Noir is a well behaving black ink that is sold at a reasonable price, but it doesn't excel in anything. Below some writing samples, followed by drying times and test in water resistance. Drying times are about average to slow, 45 secs with a broad nib on Tomoe River 52g paper. The ink is certainly not water resistant, but it can handle an accidental drop.   The full characteristics: Feathering none Shading hardly any Show through negligible 
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Kyanite du Népal



Herbin recently released their latest color in the ' les encres 1798'  series: Kyanite du Népal. I pre-ordered this ink about six weeks ago. It looked really spectacular in the annoucement and I was anxious to try it out this week when it arrived. The color is a bright blue (that leans a bit towards teal in my opinion) and has silver particles. Clearly visible in the bottle, much less on the paper when writing. Not a real surprise, it's the same with the other colors in this series too.

In practice, the color is a lot less spectacular. I like the color, not for office use (too bright, too shiny) but for (not too long) personal communication or greeting cards it is a very nice color to use from time to time. 

Like any ink in this series  it is very well behaved. Smooth, a bit wet, no feathering, neglilible show-through, and a very nice shading. Drying time was surprisingly fast (15 seconds) and water resistance very low. Shimmer is clearly visible with a cotton swab, much less so in even broad or stub nibs (even after turning the bottle upside down a few times to distribute the silver particles through the ink better). 

Because it is a bright, not too dark blue with a hint of teal I compared the color with Montblanc's Miles Davis (much lighter, much more blue), Iroshizuku's Ku-jaku (a lot greener) and Iroshizuku's Tsuki-yo (much darker). None of these colors come really close.

All in all it is a very nice ink and a unique color. Great to use for cards and short notes.

Written on Original Crown Mill Vellum paper
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