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This is my review of Diamine Monaco Red. I decided to try a sample of this ink because I happened to be browsing on Goulets Pens web-site and noticed that it is one of their selections for their group of red inks. It's the type of 'blood' red I like, not too far along the orange scale and not too far along the blue scale. It has a hint of brownness to it, but is less brown than Oxblood. I have almost finished regrinding my Mb Boheme nib from a B to something less broad, although I'm not absolutely sure what it is yet. However, I wanted to try writing with it so I filled a cartridge with this rather nice red ink. As usual for a Diamine ink, it's a well behaved ink. It's saturated and shows some shading. I found it flowed smoothly across the page, and had no problems with lubrication in the Boheme or the Plumix stub nib that I used. This ink exhibits a little showthrough and a few dots of bleedthrough on my thick Xerox ColorPrint paper. This colour was specially formulated for his Serene Highness Prince Rainier 111 of Monaco and the Grimaldi family in conjunction with a presentation of a limited edition fountain pen. On the whole I prefer Diamine Red Dragon and would rather buy that than Monaco Red. However, if I couldn't get Red Dragon, Monaco Red would be a good substitute. Red Dragon is a little more along the blue scale giving it a shade or so more pinkness. For me at least, that makes Red Dragon perfect. Monaco Red looks a shade or so more brown.The water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink, but the fact that there was some water on the surface underneath it, that soaked into the paper, shows there is some water resistance.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a M (?) nib, this ink only took 18-20 secs to dry.It flows through the pen well and lubricates the nib well. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles, 30ml plastic refill bottles or cartridges.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price

I have been looking to develop my "Warm Earth" tones in general and my red earths in particular. Diamine seemed to have some good options (I have my "Cold Stone" colors from De Atramentis). I couldn't really find a good comparison so I narrowed it down to the few that I was most interested in and plumped for 30ml bottles rather than samples. It's neither scientific nor thorough, but I thought I would post my initial impressions as I couldn't find anything similar. . . . . which is a scan but the colors for Ochre and Rustic Brown are not true at all. I tried taking a photo, which is a much more fiddly process, but the colors seem truer: Two more bricks that I didn't like on the first page - I thought the Copper was rather strong! The Monaco Red might be a bit too pink in that one? Anyway it seems I have added the following to my "Sub-Tertiary Color Circle": Yellow Earths: Sepia and Ochre Orange Earths: Burnt Sienna and Ancient Copper Red Earths: Oxblood & Monaco Red (both still tending to orange - which is what I was looking for!) I don't have any "True Reds"! Rustic Brown I would count as a Rose - it's really on the purple end (where my sample of Morinda seemed to fit too). On the Orange front I also have Autumn Oak, a decent Coral (house blend!) and an Orange with a cute elephant on the label, but as these aren't anywhere near "brick" they did not seem relevant here. Hmmm, the only thing I might add is that this is my "cheap scribbling" paper (Daiso - great cheap paper for ink work!) rather than anything fancy, so the colors are a bit flatter than they might be elsewhere.

So here is my new creation and my new go to red. I wanted something with a little more vibrancy them my Monaco Red for this years Christmas cards, and this was perfect. It is what I have always wanted a red to look like. By the way, the paper is HP 32# Premium. Hope you enjoy it.