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It's starting to feel like Spring here so I have been writing with another bright Spring like colour. This one is Poppy Red. This is a really bright scarlet red. It jumps off the page. It's a saturated red ink that looks even better when it's used in a pen with a broader nib. It almost looked subdued when I wrote with it in my fine nibbed AL Star. I loved it in my Lamy red Safari and it was such a good match for it. I decided to try and draw a poppy, but I know I'm no good at drawing so I did it in steps. This ink was a joy to write with, neither too wet nor too dry. It flowed well in the pens I filled with it, and I experienced no problems with it at all. It gets a thumbs up from me. This isn't a waterproof ink, but it has reasonable water resistance. By mistake the pool of water was left on the test patch for 20 minutes while I made and drank a cup of tea, then was blotted off with kitchen roll.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny, smooth surface, and I used a Lamy 1.1mm nib, this ink only took 12-15 secs to dry. That's quick on this paper.It flows very well and lubricates the nib very well. I saw no skips or hard starts despite leaving the pen uncapped while I did all of the swab tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottlesDiamine Inks sells it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.

Hi All This is an international Giveaway and is open to only International Enthusiasts. Indian friends, please excuse yourself from this ink is easily available in India. For rest, in my opinion, this is the best-priced ink all over the world with good color and behavior. You can check the review of the ink here: LINK Image of one the ink handwritten is below: Let me know in the thread if anyone is interested. The Winner will be announced on 9 th December.

Today I'm reviewing Diamine Scarlet A bright pink ink from the standard range. ‘Scarlet’ might make you think of bright red berries, but this Scarlet ink is definitely pink. The colour band on the bottle label is pink. Imagine this Scarlet as a raspberry colour. Pink inks are notoriously difficult to reproduce online, and I’ve seen some online swabs and writing with Scarlet that look quite different to my sample. So, as usual, I have colour corrected my writing to resemble as closely as possible the shade that I can see on the paper. This messed up all of the comparison inks, so I corrected all of those separately as well as I could. Flow Rate: Good. Not too wet in the pen & paper combinations I used.Lubrication: Good with the M nib on several different papers, a bit more would have been nice with the Safari F nib.Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: Good.Shading Potential: Some shading seen.Sheen: None seen, although it might be a sheener if I splatted an ink spill.Show-Through:Rhodia BlocCiAK by InTempoField NotesCheaper generic 80 & 90gsm printer papers & lined pads.Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Only a little seen on Field Notes.Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over 1 week in the penStaining (pen): Not seen after several days - easy clean-upStaining (hands): Easy clean-up with bar soap. Two hand washes required with liquid soap.Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, but shows reasonable water resistance.Availability: Available from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

My latest ink is Diamine Gerbera from the Flowers Set. I decided I should try to complete reviewing the Flower set inks, as I have reviewed all of the Music set inks. I find the Flowers set consists of brightly coloured inks whereas the Music set are more muted. So maybe I'm not always in the mood to write with brightly coloured inks. I decided to use Diamine Pumpkin, Caran d'Ache Infra Red and Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-gaki as my comparison inks this time. Gerbera is a pinkish orangey shade, Pumpkin is bright orange, Caran d'Ache Infra Red is a pinkish scarlet red, and Pilot iroshizuku Fuyu-gakei is a salmon colour, unfortunately one that didn't come out as well on my scan as the others. I cleaned out and refilled my orange Lamy Nexx M with it's 1.1mm nib for Gerbera, but I immediately found the ink dryer than Pumpkin. It didn't glisten and flow along the line while I was writing as Pumpkin did, and I felt like I had to work a little harder to write than I had with that orange ink. I was quite surprised at the difference. Maybe it needs a wetter pen? It's a nice colour though. Not saturated. I know some like less saturated inks. It's certainly easier on the eye than Pumpkin. It also has some rather nice shading. Although this isn't a waterproof ink, it shows a little water resistance for a relatively unsaturated ink.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a 1.1 stub nib, this ink took 16-18 secs to dry.I found this ink a bit on the dry side in this particular pen. However, I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 30ml glass bottles within the Flowers gift set, or in 30ml plastic refill bottles from Diamine.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.