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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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Corail des tropiques, by J. Herbin


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 sample). 

 And even though the color is quite unique - other inks are either way more orange or way more pink - this means Corail des tropiques is a poorly behaving ink in a difficult  color. That makes it a waste of money in my eyes. 


N.B. Written on Original Crown Mill Vellum Paper

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