Fountain pen inks reviews and comparisons

Fall is absolutely a season for brown inks. Cacao du Brésil is a grayish brown by Herbin that indeed slightly resembles cacao. Decent and low-key enough for the workplace but with enough character for personal correspondence and notes. A well-behaving ink as expected by Herbin. No feathering, hardly any show-through, good lubrication and not very wet. The ink has some nice shading. Drying times were below average (little over 25 sec). Water won't wipe out your writing immediately, but water resistance is low at best.  Compared to other browns Iroshizuku's Yama-guri and Diamine's Macassar are a lot darker, deeper brown and more saturated. Herbin's Café des Iles is significantly less dark and more red.  All in all this is a very nice brown ink!  Written on Original Crown Mill Vellum paper

A very bright, in-your-face red. Red as a firetruck, with a heavy dose of silver shimmer. The color certainly lives up to its name. It would be a perfect color for grading and corrections, if not for the shimmer. The shimmer makes it a bit too festive for that. So it's not suitable for the workplace, but for greeting cards, short notes or some personal writing, it will work pretty well. The ink behaves as expected: really good. No feathering, negligible show-through, moderate wetness, good lubrication, and average drying times. Shading is very low and he amount of shimmer is high. It's visible even in medium nibs. With a poster nib it's even too much. The ink doesn't like water.... the ink washes away almost immediately. Funnily enough, the shimmer stays.  Firestorm Red is the brightest red I have. Even Red Dragon is significantly darker. The Rouge Hematite looks much more purple in comparison (that surprised me). Lamy's Ruby is a lot less saturated. 

By special request of a dear friend, I was looking for a honey colored or gold colored ink and I ended up buying Diamine's Honey Burst, from their guitar series. More honey than gold, but yes, more or less the color I was looking for. Not something I'd use in the workspace, but it does work for personal correspondence and notes. Be careful though, long letters in this color are quite the strain to both the writer and the reader's eyes. Behavior of the ink is good, not great. No feathering, negligible show-through, nice shading, and not too wet. Drying times around average. The ink wasn't as smooth as I expected (or hoped). Writing with a TWSBI (stub nib) on Original Crown Mill Vellum paper felt a bit crude at times. Compared to other inks Herbin's Ambre de Birmaine comes pretty close. Desert burst from the same guitar series is more diaper brown, Herbin's Café des Iles is way more brown. All in all it's a nice fun color that certainly has its use

Some inks are just for fun. Unusable in the office, unusable for long notes, letters or stories, but they might work on for example greeting cards. I expected Corail des tropiques to be one of those colors. It's not pink, it's not orange, it's definitely not red. It mostly reminds me of salmon, but I'm sure there's coral out there somewhere in this color too. There is no arguing about taste, but personally I believe "ugly" doesn't even come close. Color aside, how does the ink behave? That was disappointment number two. I have a lot of different Herbin inks and even though they perform slightly better in a dry nib than in a wet nib, it's always good. Not this ink. The ink doesn't write nearly as smooth as other Herbin inks, giving a dry scratchy feeling, even in my (wet) Parker Duofold. At the same time there is some feathering and the ink spreads a bit. This can best be seen with the poster nib (title) and the glass dip pen (writing sa

Visiting one of my favorite ink stores this week the owner told me about one of her favorite colors, Vert de Gris by Herbin. A color I somehow noticed before so I had to try it. It is a strange color.. it's grey yes, but it's also green of course and when writing on paper it looks even more blue than green. The color is subtle, neutral and can be used in the office for note taking and of course for personal notes and writing too.  The behavior of Herbin inks was no surprise; Herbin produces unadulterated, good, well-behaving inks. No feathering, minimal show-through, nice shading (less than usual), quite wet and excellent lubrication. The ink writes very smoothly. Drying times a bit below average and there is some resistance to water... when you're quick enough you can still see what you wrote.  Big question is, what does this ink compare to? I wouldn't know... it's not a teal despite the blue and green and it's too green or blue to be a proper grey