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I've heard that the release date for these new inks is 4th November; Fountain Pen Day, so I'm posting separate reviews for them on here. I assume they will come in the same type of bottles as the previous set of shimmer inks, but I haven't seen the retail bottles yet. Currently I only have samples that Diamine very kindly sent me to test, and to review 'if I wanted to', but I've noticed that my samples don't need much shaking to mix the particles in, and the pens need very little shaking once they are filled.Generally speaking, I found all 12 of these new shimmer inks to be wetter than all of the other shimmer inks I have used.I have had these inks in these pens for over 2 weeks now. Every pen/ink combination has started straight away without a problem, and I have experienced no stopping or skipping.Some take longer to dry than others, and a couple just soaked into the paper straight away. The most saturated inks will show through and bleed through on cheap paper.None of them are waterproof inks.Diamine Shimmer Lilac Satin is a subtle lilac ink. It's not a heavily saturated ink and comes with silver shimmer. The silver shimmer shows up really easily. I used my Pilot Custom 74 that has a M nib and I had no trouble seeing the silver effect. This ink feels quite wet, but dries reasonably quickly. The first picture is a scanned review form, and the second is a photo. These have been adjusted with Photoshop to get the colour you see to look as close as possible to the actual ink colour.

Today I'm reviewing Diamine Imperial Purple ink Imperial Purple is a true purple that leans more towards the blue side of the colour spectrum. It’s an ink from the standard Diamine ink range. It’s a saturated ink that can show a little shading with finer nibs. I found it flowed well with all of the pens I tried it in, felt neither wet nor dry, and it’s lubrication was nice and smooth across the page. My review was written on cheap printer paper, that is quite absorbent, and I saw no spread or show-through. The lines were crisp and it dried quickly. On Field Notes paper it didn’t spread or feather, and only showed through a little. Writing on the reverse side of all of the papers I used would be acceptable as show-through doesn't look as bad on paper than when it is scanned and shown on screen. It's not sold as a waterproof ink but showed good water resistance. I used running water on the right half of the water test square. Purple inks are quite difficult to represent accurately on screen, I've done my best to get this to match the colour that it is on the paper. Flow Rate: Good - neither particularly wet nor dryLubrication: Good - felt smooth across the pageNib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: SaturatedShading Potential: Some shading seen with F nib.Sheen: None noticed.Show-Through:CiaK by InTempoOxford paperSilvine NotebookRhodia GraphField NotesHobonichi Techo paper.Tomoe River 52gsm paper (not very much)Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen on any paper I used, even Field NotesNib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after several days in the penStaining (pen): Not seen after several days - easy clean-upStaining (hands): Easy clean-up off of skin with bar soap.Clogging: Not seen.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, but shows good water resistance.Availability: Available in 80ml and 30ml bottles plus cartridges from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

Today I'm reviewing Diamine Violet ink. Diamine Violet is a typical violet purple that leans slightly more blue than red, but is a really attractive colour. It’s an ink from the standard Diamine ink range. Compared with some other lavender/lilac/violet inks it’s a more saturated ink than it first looked, and it can show plenty of shading with fine or medium nibs. I found it flowed well with all of the pens I tried it in, felt slightly wet, and it’s lubrication was really nice and smooth across the page. My review was written on coated printer paper, that isn’t very absorbent, and I saw no spread or show-through. The lines were crisp and it dried quite quickly for this paper. On Field Notes paper it didn’t spread or feather, but I saw some slight show through and bleed through. However, writing on the reverse side of all of the papers I used would be perfectly acceptable as show-through doesn't look as bad on paper than when it is scanned and shown on screen. Violet is not sold as a waterproof ink but showed some water resistance. Flow Rate: Good - quite wetLubrication: Good - felt smooth across the pageNib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: SaturatedShading potential: Shading seen with F & M nibsSheen: None noticed.Show-Through:Oxford paperSilvine Notebook (not much)Rhodia Graph (not much)CiaK by InTempoField NotesHobonichi Techo paperTomoe River 52gsm paperSpread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen on any paper I used, even Field NotesNib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after several days in the penStaining (pen): Not seen after several days - very easy clean-upStaining (hands): Easy clean-up off of skin with bar soap.Clogging: Not seen.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, but shows some water resistance.Availability: Available in 80ml and 30ml bottles plus cartridges from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

I’m reviewing samples of the new set of Diamine Shimmer inks. This one is Diamine Frosted Orchid This is a saturated ‘dusky lilac’/purplish ink with silver shimmer. It is like a more saturated version of J.Herbin Poussière de Lune I found it a wet and well flowing ink. It had good lubrication with the pens I tried it with. It’s a fairly well saturated ink for a ‘dusky lilac’ shade. With broader nibs it looks more saturated than it does with finer nibs, although it’s wet enough to show the silver shimmer with all nibs. It showed through on some of the papers I used. The pens I used were Libelle Nature Mosaic Cocoa M nib, Lamy Nexx M Stub 1.1mm nib, Lamy Nexx M F nib. The comparison inks were swabbed with a cotton bud and their ink names were written with a glass dip pen. I consider Frosted Orchid a well-behaved ink. I didn’t experience any ignition or clogging problems with it. Clean-up was easy. No problem at all removing it from hands or pens using soap for hands and plain water for pens. It is not sold as a water resistant ink but it is reasonably water resistant. The Mebin UK Notebook I used was supplied by someone on FPN who sold TR 68gsm Notebooks. The paper in the Mebin UK Notebook is quite thick at 95gsm, it’s acid free, and has a really smooth surface with no drag or tooth at all. Inks generally take longer to dry on this paper, so wetter inks tend to pool and I knew that they would show their shimmer well enough for me to photograph the sheen. The Moleskine Notebook is a UK clone, and I found there was very little spread on it. Flow Rate: Very goodLubrication: Very goodNib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: A fairly saturated inkShading Potential: Very goodSheen: Silver shimmerShow-Through:Tomoe River 52gsm.Cheaper generic 80gsm printer papers & lined pads.Field NotesSpread / Feathering: Not seenNib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over a week in the penStaining (pen): Not seen - easy clean-upStaining (hands): Not seen - easy clean-upClogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.Water resistance: Has some water resistance.Availability: Available from Diamine Inks web-site and other outlets. Back Mebin then back Moleskine

Today I’m reviewing a sample of Diamine Majestic Purple It’s a nice purple colour, neither too red nor too blue. I would call it a lilac colour. While I was testing it, I found it had good flow. I didn’t see any spread or feathering, nor any woolly line. It wasn’t really saturated but it wasn’t watery either. It had quite nice shading especially with the fine and medium nibs. After leaving Majestic Purple in the pen for a couple of days it started to feel just a little dryer, on some papers. It also felt slightly less lubricated along a line than some inks. On the other hand the cap on this Waterman Preface pen doesn’t seal very tightly, so I believe the pen would start to dry any ink. Diamine Majestic Purple is a similar colour to Lamy Dark Lilac, but is slightly less saturated. I could see the difference in saturation between them on the 1 pass swab test. Based on colour and performance, it would still be a good replacement for that ink though. Overall I found it behaved well, and I like it. Despite all of my best efforts with scanning and photos, this ink looks slightly more blue on screen than it does on paper. I tried my best to adjust it to perfect in Photoshop, but Photoshop wanted to be problematic. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, and it has little or no water resistance.Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a quite shiny surface at 100gsm, and I used several different nibs, this ink took 14-15 secs secs to dry. No smear after dry.It exhibited good flow and I found it reasonably smooth to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.

My latest ink is Diamine Tyrian Purple This week the Wimbledon tennis tournament started and I'm a big fan of watching it all on TV. So I thought it would be appropriate to review a purple ink as that's one of the Wimbledon colours. Tyrian purple is a technically bromine-containing, reddish-purple, natural dye. Diamine's version is a reddish purple ink that I would call a 'dusty' purple. It's a very attractive colour. It's also a great performer in all of the pens and on all of the paper I tried it with. It has very good shading, but no noticeable sheen. It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. The flow is excellent and it has great lubrication. Although the flow feels very slightly wet, it doesn't suffer from an overlong drying time. It's a quite water resistant ink. I could still see all of the writing, even after over an hour, although it darkened in colour. This is an ink that everyone should buy in an 80ml bottle. A great ink! I had a problem with my monitor matching up both the review ink colour as well as the comparison inks colours. So I paid particular attention to making sure that the review ink colour looks an accurate match next to the review form. However, I can confirm that my sample of Noodler's BSIAR is that shade of pink! Although this isn't sold as a waterproof ink, it shows good water resistance, as do many inks in this colour range. No fade test done, but this dye is known for not easily fading.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Libelle M nib, a Waterman F nib and a Lamy 1.1mm nib, this ink took 16-18 secs to dry.It exhibited excellent flow and lubrication and I found it particularly nice to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.