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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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Roasted Chestnut, Diamine


My second ink from the 2019 Diamine inktvent series, bought in a full size bottle. A medium dark brown that reminds me of cold winter nights with a fireplace. Warm enough for personal correspondence and writing, but subtle enough for work notes as well.

Not surprisingly for a Diamine ink, the ink behaves really well with high, beautiful shading. No feathering, good lubrication, negligible show-through and a quite wet ink. Drying times are average, 35 seconds on Tomoe River paper. 
The ink doesn't like water much, even a little bit of water will ruin the writing. Diamine calls this a standard ink, there is no sheen or shimmer. 

The bottle is beautiful, but as the Jack Frost ink, putting the cap back on straight is impossible, the threading in the cap is quite poor. 

I have compared the ink to a few other medium dark browns. Herbin's Terre de Feu is more red, Lie de The comes close (a bit more light) and Diamine's Cacao Shimmer is - besides the shimmer - a lot lighter. 

 Roasted Chestnut is a wonderful brown ink, I really like it!

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