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J Herbin Gris Nuage Ink Review # 207 --- 🧾 Description Gris Nuage (Grey Cloud) is a very legible delicious light grey, with below average lubrication, wet and minimal shading. It’s most handsome on white paper. I enjoyed it most with Pilot Elite EF gold nib, and Karas Vertex with a full flex FPNibs with ebonite feed. With Lamy Safari it depended on nib size and paper. With fude nib it was scratchy. It can have a faint reddish halo on Iroful. If you want an expressive grey this can be an ok choice. For drawing, I found it too pale. I prefer darker greys, so I can create different values. --- 🧪 Chroma --- ✍️ Writing Samples (scan) Rhodia / Iroful Midori /Tomoe River 68gsm Hammermill 20lb 📸 Photo Rhodia/ Iroful Midori / Tomoe River 68 gsm Hammermill 20lb Close-up Iroful 🔍 Comparison --- 💧 Water Test --- 🎨 Artwork Silver lining Inspired by French expression, “La tête dans les nuages” (head in the clouds). Pebeo Silver marker and De Atramentis Document Cyan/turquoise mix, Talens Mixed Media. Inktober 2025 - Day 9 - Heavy J Herbin Gris Nuage/ Diamine Grey (the darker grey) Inktober 2025 - Day 12 -Shredded The mouse is having a fit over the cat’s midlife crisis — being “shredded.” J Herbin Gris Nuage, Diamine Grey (mouse). --- - Pens Used: Pilot Elite EF, Lamy (EF/F/M/B) , Jinhao 450 fude, Karas Vertex with FPNIBs extra wet ebonite feed. - What I Liked: Colour, drawing. - What I Did Not Like: Low lubrication with EF/F/B and Fude nibs. - Writing Experience: Depended on nib size, wetness. - Pros: Lovely tinge of grey. Small bottles. - Cons: Low lubrication. Pale 🧷 Ink Characteristics - Shading: Some. - Ghosting: Yes on copy paper. - Bleed Through: Same as above. - Flow Rate: Wet. - Lubrication: Below average. - Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. - Start-up: Did not notice. - Saturation: Pale but legible. - Sheen: Faint reddish on Iroful. - Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Faint, stylish with flex nib. Gives a vintage feel. - Nib Creep / Crud: Did not notice. - Staining (Pen): No. - Clogging: No. - Cleaning: Easy. - Water Resistance: Decent. --- 🛒 Availability - Available in 10/30 ml bottles and small international ink cartridges. --- 💬 Closing I was expecting a very pale grey; however, I was surprised by its legibility. With a good pen it can sing, with a dry pen and the wrong nib, it could be awful. For art work it is difficult to create nuance. No fountain pens were hurt in preparing this review. Please don’t hesitate to share your experience, writing samples, or any other comments — the more the merrier.

J Herbin Corail des Tropiques Ink Review # 203 --- 🧾 Description J Herbin Corail des Tropiques (Tropical Coral) is one of the 5 new inks added to the Pearl of ink series in 2018. The other 4 being: · Bleu Calanque · Bleu des Profondeurs · Vert de Gris · Rouge Grenat As I suspected it is wet with below average lubrication. There’s ghosting on copy paper, faint on Tomoe River 68 gsm. Bleed-through on copy paper. It's very easy to clean. Colour mimics the color of the tropical corals, a mix of salmon, pink, red. As this is not the colour like, I won’t say anything more. However, I really enjoyed this ink for artwork. Watch out this is a bright ink. 😎 --- 🧪 Chroma --- ✍️ Writing Samples (scan) Rhodia / Iroful Midori /Tomoe River 68gsm Hammermill 20lb 📸 Photo Rhodia/ Iroful Midori / Tomoe River 68 gsm Hammermill 20lb Iroful – Close-up 🔍 Comparison --- 💧 Water Test --- 🎨 Artwork Koheshi Dolls Inktober year-long challenge 2025: Doll Pilot Kakuno EF, Karas Vertex FPnib Ultra-flex, Noodler's Ahab with FPR flex nib. J Herbin Corail des Tropiques, Diamine Graphite, Tintenlabor Schokolde iron gall ink, Talens Mixed Media Paper. Squid Inktober year-long challenge 2025 Cat & mouse in Nautilus discover the giant squid. Diamine Graphite, Tintenlabor Schokolade, Yellow highlighter. Hide and Seek This one was for @lapis Cat & mouse were scuba diving playing hide and seek, when someone else decided to join them! Diamine Graphite, Tintenlabor Schokolade, De Atramentis Document Cyan/turquoise mix Paper is Talens Mixed Media --- - Pens Used: Pilot Kakuno EF, Lamy (EF/F/M/B/ Stub 1.1) , Kanwrite with a FPR ultra flex. - What I Liked: Looking at tropical coral pictures. Drawing. - What I Did Not Like: Not my favorite colour. Low lubrication. - Writing Experience: You really don’t want to know. - Pros: Bright cheerful colour. Great for ink washes, accurate colour, small bottles, price. - Cons: Too bright, low lubrication, a bit too common. 🧷 Ink Characteristics - Shading: Too bright to see. - Ghosting: Yes, on cheap paper. - Bleed Through: Yes on copy paper. - Flow Rate: Wet. - Lubrication: Slightly below average. - Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. - Start-up: Good. - Saturation: Very bright into your face. - Sheen: Did not notice. - Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Did not notice. - Nib Creep / Crud: Did not notice. - Staining (Pen): Nope. - Clogging: No. - Cleaning: Very easy. - Water Resistance: Loves water. --- 🛒 Availability - Available in 10/30 ml bottles. --- 💬 Closing This is a very bright coral colour. It’s fun for doing washes, and probably markup. But there are already too many inks in this shade. No fountain pens were hurt in preparing this review. Please don’t hesitate to share your experience, writing samples, or any other comments — the more the merrier.

J Herbin Vert Réséda Review #177 From Herbin website: Vert Réséda (Green reseda or Green mignonette): réséda is a plant famous for its delightful fragrance. I honestly don't get the name of this one. I checked some of the photos online and couldn't see the relevance (Reseda Odorata) Photo Credit: Native Plant Trust: Go Botany This is a cheery neon green, somewhere between Bleu Calanque and Diabolo Menthe. It’s a greenish turquoise / malachite. Ink is wet, with below average lubrication. There’s some shading, with a B nib. Ink has little to no water resistance. While the colour is bright and lovely in some Caribbean resort, I found the colour too harsh on paper. However, it’s fun for doing ink washes. Dry time was confusing. I wonder if my pen was primed in the beginning to get such inconsistent results. Cleaning was easy. Colour is impossible to scan or photograph. Chroma: Writing Samples: Colour is somewhere between these different scans. Photo: I tried to colour correct this one. It is quite close. Comparison: The scanner could not capture any of the colours right. You can check these three on the Herbin website to get a close idea https://www.jherbin.com/fountain_pen_inks.html Water test: Left side (10 seconds under running water. After 24 hours) Art Work: Hiding from Love The colour is quite close here. De Atramentis Document Brown. Paper is Talens mixed media square pocketbook. A Star is Born You can see the nuance between Vert Réséda and Bleu Calanque. Note the green colour has darkened because the grey mixed with it. J Herbin Vert Réséda (dress) J Herbin Bleu Calanque (background) KWZ orange Kala Moonlight Tide (Grey) · Pens used: Pilot F3A soft EF, Lamy (EF/F/M/B/ Stub 1.1) · What I liked: I’m thinking about it…washes · What I did not like: Doesn’t have nuance. · What some might not like: Low lubrication, · Shading: With a B nib. The ink is too harsh to discern shading. · Ghosting: Yes, on cheap paper. · Bleed through: A bit, but not much. · Flow Rate: Wet · Lubrication: Below average but acceptable. · Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. · Start-up: Ok · Saturation: Nope. · Shading Potential: Good luck with that. · Sheen: No. · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: I didn’t look for it, but there might be if you look under a magnifying glass. · Nib Creep / “Crud”: Did not notice. · Staining (pen): No. · Clogging: Did not notice. · Cleaning: Very Easy. · Water resistance: Nope · Availability: 10/ 30ml bottles, cartridges. Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier

J.Herbin – Iris Sagesse La Société Herbin, Maître Cirier à Paris, was established in 1670. This makes J. Herbin probably the oldest name among European ink makers. Today, Herbin produces a range of beautiful fountain pen and calligraphy inks, writing instruments, gift sets and accessories. Herbin inks are made in France, and the finishing touches on the bottles are still done by hand in Paris. In January 2025, five new J. Herbin inks were released in the Perle de Encres series. This Iris Sagesse is one of them. The others are Gris Galet, Rouge Amarante, Vert Cactus and Vert Forêt. The inks follow the tradition of their predecessors: well-made inks, that sell at an affordable price (about 10 euro for a 30 ml bottle). Of these five new inks, it was Iris Sagesse that immediately drew my eye, so this is the first one that gets to be reviewed. Iris Sagesse is an intriguing ink with a colour that effortlessly shifts from violet to blue and back again, depending on whatever magic makes the universe tick. Is it the light? The paper? The angle you look at it? The saturation? … I’ve been unable to pin it down. And I don’t care. Because what J. Herbin presents us with is a beautiful violet-blue ink that is a pleasure to use. Not only for writing, but also for more artistic uses. Definitely an ink with character! A word of warning is at its place here. As you might expect from my above description, Iris Sagesse’s colour is difficult to capture correctly. In scans, it looks too purple, in photos too blue. And to make matters worse, it also depends on your computer screen. The way I see it: violet-blue, with the blue dominating. But the violet tones will not be tamed, and sometimes unexpectedly take the front. It’s unnerving… you look at your writing and it’s definitely blue. Look away and back again, and you might think violet. Crazy! And lovely! Iris Sagesse has an intense colour with high saturation. It’s also a well-lubricated ink, that flows easily from pen to paper. A bit too lubricated maybe. With a wet pen, the ink flow is a bit too gushy, and a lot of ink is deposited on the page. As a result, you get little variation in your strokes - shading doesn't get a chance to surface and gets buried under too much ink. When you tame the ink flow, things become a lot more interesting. The violet-blue meanderings become more pronounced. Soft and subtle shading appears. As such, I prefer this ink in dry-writing pens, or in finer nibs, or with stub nibs that distribute the ink across a broader surface. A bit of experimentation is required to find the right pen/nib combination. The saturation sample below illustrates the point. The colour span of this ink is fairly narrow, with little difference between the areas of low and high saturation. As a result, any shading you’ll get will be subtle, and with wet pens – that live on the right side of the spectrum – shading will not be present. The water test shown at the end of this review reveals an ink that hates water. It smudges easily, and cannot survive watery accidents. With care, you might be able to reconstruct your writing – but that will need some detective work. When reading the chromatography, this is to be expected. Some ink remains attached to the paper, but the dyes spread out easily, creating a coloured mess that drowns out the original text. Too bad. It makes this ink unsuitable for the workplace. Being a saturated and highly lubricated wet-flowing ink, I was surprised by the really fast drying times of Iris Sagesse. Om most papers, the ink dries in the 5-10 second range with my Lamy Safari M-nib pen, which is quite short. And dry times remain consistent across paper types, even on the very smooth Japanese papers. And Iris Sagesse has another surprise up its sleeve. When writing with the ink, it looks more of a violet-purple, that dries quickly to a violet-blue. It makes writing with this ink all the more interesting. I’ve tested the ink on a wide variety of paper – from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. On each scrap of paper I show you: An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip 1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturation An ink scribble made with a Lamy Safari M-nib fountain pen The name of the paper used, written with a Lamy Safari B-nib A small text sample, written with Lamy Safari M-nib Source of the quote, written with Pelikan M120 M-nib Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Safari) Iris Sagesse looks great on both white and cream paper. It also handles lower quality paper well, with only the tiniest amount of feathering on Moleskine. But expect a lot of show-through and bleed-through on the cheaper paper. The Pelikan M120 pen I used for the quote sources is a wet writer. It clearly shows that with such a pen, the shading doesn’t get the opportunity to surface. It’s just blown away by the ink’s saturation. The writing samples above are shown as photos. They are close to reality, but still a bit too blue-looking on my laptop screen. Below I also present a scan of some writing samples – this one looks too purple on my screen. Reality lives somewhere in between. Below you can find some enlarged details of writing samples. These illustrate the soft and subtle shading you can expect from Iris Sagesse. Writing with different nib sizes The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing. All samples were written with a Lamy Safari, which is typically a dry pen and as such brings out the best out of this ink. The Gazing Far and Pelikan visiting pens are wet writers – they lose much of the shading, and show more blue that violet tones. The M-stub Sailor pen looks great and definitely suits this ink best: nice shading, and it really shows off that violet-blue character of Iris Sagesse. Related inks To compare J. Herbin Iris Sagesse with related inks, I use my nine-grid format with the currently reviewed ink at the center. This format shows the name of related inks, a saturation sample, a 1-2-3 swab and a water resistance test – all in a very compact format. I’ve also put Iris Sagesse between it’s cousins Éclat de Saphir and Violette Pensée. The resemblance with Éclat de Saphir is striking. But it also clearly shows that violet undertone shimmering through with Iris Sagesse. Inkxperiment – Science Matters : Newton As a personal challenge, I try to create interesting drawings using only the ink I’m reviewing. I find this to be a fun extension of the hobby, and these single-ink drawings often present a real challenge. It also gives you an idea of what the ink is capable of in a more artistic setting. While browsing on Wikipedia, I came across an article on cross-writing. This is a writing technique where you write on the page both horizontally and vertically. This was done in the early days of the postal system in the 19th century to save on expensive postage charges, as well as to save paper. Unexpectedly, it’s still fairly easy to read the lines. And it is extremely cool to look at! This drawing is the second one in a series inspired by this technique. The violet-blue nature of Iris Sagesse made me think of the sky and by extension the cosmos, with its stars and planets drawing their orbits, governed by the laws of gravity. It should come as no surprise that I selected Sir Isaac Newton’s “Principia Mathematica” for the text in the background of the drawing. I started with an A4 piece of HP photo paper, and used a dishwashing sponge to draw the blue backdrop. I then used a plastic card dipped in ink to paint the horizontal lines, and a triangular stamp with pure ink to create the triangle shapes. I then used a fine-nibbed pen and copied the text from Newton’s work, employing the cross-writing technique. To finish the drawing I added some splatters of ink, and stamped in some square motifs. The final drawing illustrates what can be achieved with this J. Herbin ink in a more artistic setting. Inkxpired – computational art I love experimenting with pen/ink/paper, and have added another layer as part of the hobby. I’m exploring computational art, inspired by the ink drawings I do during ink reviews. Another fun offshoot of the hobby… and all that starting with a few drops of dye-coloured water on paper. I started by applying a sketch-art filter that abstracted the drawing, and followed up with a tiny-world filter. I then rotated the picture a bit and did a cut-out. The resulting drawing shows an abstracted view of our solar system, with the planets locked in their orbits, obeying the laws of physics written down in Newton’s seminal work. Conclusion J. Herbin Iris Sagesse is an intriguing ink with a hard-to-define colour that fluctuates between violet and blue. This ink thrives in dry writers, and opens up in broad stubs – in these circumstances, the violet undertones surface easily, and the ink’s subtle and soft shading enhances its aesthetics. Another fine ink from the Perle des Encres series, and one that I greatly enjoy. Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib Backside of writing samples on different paper types A few extras Iris Sagesse’s colour is difficult to capture. Below you’ll find a photo of a photo. On the computer screen: left side shows a scanned image, right side a photo image. And in front of them the same subject. My impression: the images on the computer screen are either too purple or too blue, with the truth in between. While creating the inkxperiment drawing, I used a small piece of photo paper to test saturation of water/ink combinations. I liked the resulting pattern, so instead of throwing it away, I did a quick doodle that turned out just fine. Saved from oblivion 😉

J Herbin Rouge Grenat (Garnet Red) I made a mistake between the words Grenade and Grenat (Pomegranate vs Garnet). You'll see a lot of pomegranates in my sketches,.Typical me. Sorry for the confusion. I corrected it, thanks to @Lithium466. I decided to put back the photo: It's kind of cool and the garnets resemble the pomegranate seeds As much as I love the colour in real life, it does not sing to me. Maybe I don’t like red inks and that is it. Let's start with the chroma: Writing samples: As you can see there's a bit of ghost & blood with Hammermill Photo (Tomoe River Paper) Comparison: Water test (After 24 hours) And finally an artwork, not my best, but it's to showcase the range of the ink. and a more humorous one for Inktober 2023 (Dodge) Octopus Fox Grey / Noodler's Bad Green Gator · Pens used: Pilot Kakuno Ef, Stub, Kaweco Sport (EF/F/M/B), Osmiroid Copperplate nib · What I liked: Really nice with wider nibs, a pleasure to write with. · What I did not like: I thought this would be my colour but alas it isn’t. I'm looking forward to emptying my pens. · Shading: Yes · Ghosting: Yes, on thin copy paper · Bleed through: Same as above. · Flow Rate: Nice. · Lubrication: Good, but finer the nib, scratchy it’ll be. · Nib Dry-out: Not noticed. · Start-up: Not noticed. · Saturation: Yes. · Shading Potential: With wider nibs. · Sheen: No. · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: No · Nib Creep / “Crud”: No. · Staining (pen): It can stain your transparent section. · Clogging: No. · Cleaning: Not bad for a red ink. · Water resistance: Not bad after 10 seconds under running water. · Availability: 30ml/ 10ml Bottle/6-Pack Cartridges Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier

J Herbin Diabolo Menthe Ink Review # 193 --- 🧾 Description Diabolo Menthe is one of the Herbin summery inks. The colour captures the nostalgia of a bygone French era of bistro life. It's a bright turquoise on the green spectrum to my eyes. You can check what you really see here: https://isyourcolormycolor.com/ This ink is drier than Bleu Calanque; the colour is too fluorescent for my taste. One needs a wet pen to saturate the colour. Fun note on the etymology of diabolo: "The word diabolo was first used in 1906 to describe a juggling toy with a spinning hourglass shape, its name derived from Latin diabolus (“one who throws across”). This playful term was later adopted in the 1920s to name non-alcoholic café drinks made with flavored syrup and lemonade, such as diabolo menthe — often bright green and especially popular among schoolchildren. The drink later gave its name to the 1977 coming-of-age film Diabolo Menthe by Diane Kurys, a nostalgic portrait of girlhood in 1960s France. The film’s title song, also called Diabolo Menthe (performed by Yves Simon), became a cult classic in its own right. (Source: CNRTL, entrée “diabolo”)" Ink will dissolve like mint syrup in water, and like most Herbin inks, doesn’t like copy paper. However, one can darken it with a few drops of darker ink. --- 🧪 Chroma --- ✍️ Writing Samples (scan) Rhodia / Iroful Scan captures too much green and eyesearing 😎 Photos are closer. Midori /Tomoe River 68gsm Midori colour is off. Hammermill 20lb --- 📸 Photo Rhodia/ Iroful Midori / Tomoe River 68 gsm Hammermill 20lb copy paper 🔍 Comparison --- 💧 Water Test --- 🎨 Artwork Diabolo Menthe Inks used: Tintenlabor Gold black iron gall ink, J Herbin Diabolo Menthe, Background; J Herbin Bleu Calanque, Paper Talens Mixed Media Note how Diabolo Menthe and Bleu Calanque are similar in washes. The umbrella has both colours. Another take on the ink and its namesake, featuring my cat and mouse theme to capture the nostalgia of a bygone era. I also used Tintenlabor Gold Black, an iron gall ink that oxidizes to a dark brown or black color, depending on the pen's wetness, and J Herbin Diabolo Menthe in either diluted or multiple layers. The colour seems to capture the idea of vacation behind the drink, rather than the drink itself. --- - Pens Used: Pilot F3A Ef, Lamy (EF/F/M/B/ Stub 1.1) - What I Liked: ·Nostalgia - What I Did Not Like: Colour. - What Some Might Not Like: Light colour. - Writing Experience: The colour is too bright for me. - Pros: If you like bright colours. Price, small 10 ml bottles. - Cons: Colour 🧷 Ink Characteristics - Shading: The ink is too bright for me to see. - Ghosting: Yes on copy paper. - Bleed Through: Same as above. - Flow Rate: Ok. - Lubrication: From below to slightly below average. - Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. - Start-up: Good. - Saturation: Not saturated. - Sheen: Did not notice. - Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Did not notice. - Nib Creep / Crud: Did not notice. - Staining (Pen): No. - Clogging: No. - Cleaning: Easy. - Water Resistance: Nope. --- 🛒 Availability - [ ] Available in 10/30 ml bottles and cartridges. --- 💬 Closing It was hard for me to review this ink, mostly because the colour was too bright and the writing experience unpleasant. No fountain pens were hurt in preparing this review. ;) Please don’t hesitate to share your experience, writing samples, or any other comments — the more the merrier. :)

J Herbin Bleu Calanque Ink Review # 194 --- 🧾 Description Ink is a happy turquoise, great for summertime, when one’s soul yearns for the sea. It is wet, well lubricated, and a pleasure to use. There’s some shading and a faint sheen on Iroful. It’s not suitable for copy paper. It ghosts and bleeds through like a bad horror movie. 😱 This ink, along with Bleu des Profondeurs, is one of the more recent additions to J. Herbin’s classic fountain pen ink lineup. It’s a gorgeous, well-behaved turquoise with excellent flow and generous lubrication — wetter and smoother than most Herbin inks. The ink is named after the Calanques, a series of steep-walled, limestone inlets along the southern coast of France, between Marseille and Cassis. This protected seascape is known for its dazzling turquoise waters and rugged cliffs. Fun fact: the wreckage of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s plane — the author of The Little Prince — was discovered off the coast of Marseille in the Calanques region in 2000, solving one of France’s most famous literary mysteries. --- 🧪 Chroma --- ✍️ Writing Samples (scan) Rhodia / Iroful Midori /Tomoe River 68gsm Hammermill 20lb s--- 📸 Photo Rhodia, Iroful, Hammermill Midori / Tomoe River 68 gsm Close-up (Iroful – Rhodia) 🔍 Comparison --- 💧 Water Test --- 🎨 Artwork A Dragon is Born I used a Kara's Customs Vertex with FPNibs full flex nib with an extra wet ebonite feed. Fountain inks used: Kala Nostalgia Abstraction Moonlight Tide, KWZ Orange, J Herbin Bleu Calanque. If I were a sardine.... Inktober yearlong challenge: 2025 Sardine J Herbin Bleu Calanque, Bouton d'or, Kaweco Stormy Grey, Tintenlabor Gold Black for outlines, and Silver marker. Strathmore paper. Note a bit of stormy grey was mixed in the deeper part of the blue. I imagined a story about a sardine and a tuna, influenced by a lost fiddle in the sea, imagining different storylines (think 'If I Were a Rich Man...'), before being caught by a trawler and transformed into cans of fish. A bit dark, but such is life. 😛 Mask De Atramentis Document Brown and J Herbin Bleu Calanque. --- - Pens Used: Pilot F3A EF, Lamy (EF/F/M/B/ Stub 1.1) , Osmiroid Copperplate - What I Liked: Fresh, happy turquoise, which takes me on a trip to Southern France. - What I Did Not Like: Lack of water resistance. - What Some Might Not Like: Longish dry times on Japanese paper. - Writing Experience: Gorgeous. - Pros: Lovely vacation ink, easy to clean. - Cons: Not waterproof. Doesn’t like copy paper. 🧷 Ink Characteristics - Shading: Yes - Ghosting: Yes on copy paper. - Bleed Through: Same as above. - Flow Rate: Wet - Lubrication: Excellent. - Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. - Start-up: Great. - Saturation: Nope. - Sheen: Very faint. - Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Yes, on copy paper. - Nib Creep / Crud: Did not notice. - Staining (Pen): No - Clogging: No. - Cleaning: Easy - Water Resistance: None --- 🛒 Availability - [ ] Available in 10/30 ml bottles and cartridges in most stationary stores and online. --- 💬 Closing There are too many turquoises. This is a good bet for journaling on good paper. However, its lack of water resistance could be problematic. No fountain pens were hurt in preparing this review. Please don’t hesitate to share your experience, writing samples, or any other comments — the more the merrier.

J Herbin Rose tendresse (Tenderness pink) According to the J Herbn website : “Rose tendresse (Tenderness pink): this is the rose of love and the flowers of the same name and symbol of love. The color represents the feeling of love and also tenderness shared by 2 lovers.” What a load of Disclaimer: It's hard to be impartial when I viscerally dislike this ink, both the colour and its behaviour. I have tried to be as factual as possible. I love roses, especially pink ones. But this ink reminds me of Pepto-Bismal. It is low on lubrication, has no water resistance, and the writing experience will Lamy Safari (it was decent with M/B nibs) and Pilot F3A was dismal. However, the Hongdian M2 liked it, I didn't. However, I couldn't touch the pens filled with this ink and was relieved to empty them I think I have to mix it with some of my darker Herbins to give it more lubrication and change the colour as fast as possible If you like this shade of pink, you would need a wet pen and smooth buttery nib. Ink is legible despite the scans. Chroma: Writing Samples: I’m glad I used a wet/smooth Hongdian M2 and not the usual Kakuno nib. The UEF is a reverse Hongdian Ef nib. The First Ef is Hongdian, and then Lamy. You can see the stark difference between the two EF nibs and their dry times. It’s pleasant in the first and unpleasant in the Lamy. Ink is legible despite the scan. Photo: Photos are taken at a northern light window. It's interesting how the photo doesn't capture Midori's cream paper. I'm not sure if I took this photo on a sunny day or under the artificial light. Comparison: Water test: Left side (10 seconds under running water. After 24 hours). Kitty's heart was washed away with all this tender love 😛 Art Work: The colour was a creative killer for me. I tried my best, but well you can't win them all. Rapture Paper is a Talens pocket book. inks: Colorverse Methuselah Grove used with a fude nib. J Herbin Rose Tendresse. The green I believe is Octopus Write and Draw Green Tiger. Zoo Part of yearlong Inktober challenge. It's a bit obscure, but I put the cage on the glasses, you can interpret it however you want Paper is an A4 Strathmore for sketching, so not for ink use. To give you an idea of size it is 10 times the size of the paper above. Inks used: Diamine Master of Puppets Kala Nostalgia Gemstone Onyx (Brown grey ink) and J Herbin Rose tendresse and finally the Tiger cub and rose The green ink is Octopus Write & Draw Green Tiger. Paper is Talens pocket book. · Pens used: Hongdian M2 EF (reverse and normal), Lamy (EF/F/M/B/ Stub 1.1), Pilot F3A · What I liked: I’m still thinking about this one, emptying the pens. · What I did not like: Everything.... · What some might not like: Lack of lubrication, colour? · Shading: A bit with M/B/ 1.1 nib · Ghosting: Yes, on cheap paper. · Bleed through: Yes, on cheap paper. · Flow Rate: Wet · Lubrication: Dismal with Lamy. M/B nibs were OK. Hongdian Ok. · Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. · Start-up: Ok with Hongdian M2 Don’t bring pink roses for Lamy Safari, match made in hell. · Saturation: Ugh! · Shading Potential: It depends on the paper. · Sheen: No. · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: A bit with semi-flex. · Nib Creep / “Crud”: Did not notice. · Staining (pen): No. · Clogging: Did not notice. · Cleaning: Very easy. · Water resistance: Non-existent. · Availability: 10ml, 30 ml bottles, cartridges. Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier