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

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...

In the last few years Diamine has released a few series of shimmering inks. Fun inks that come in some intriguing colors. After cocoa and night sky, I decided to try moon dust. It is one of the strangest inks I have ever used. It looks like pencil writing but with more bling. As usual the shimmer is high but difficult to catch on a scanner. The ink can be used in an office setting (note taking) but is best reserved for short fun notes and greeting cards.  The ink is well behaved. No feathering, beautiful shading, negligible show-through, wet but not too wet, well lubricated and normal drying times. Shimmer is clearly visible (shake the bottle before filling your pen!), even in medium nibs. The ink can even take some water. Dropping some water on the grid and carefully removing it after 20 seconds resulted in hardly any damage. Apart from the shimmer, which gives it a "pencil look", Moondust is normal gray ink. The difference with Graf von Faber Castell's Ston...