Noodler's Luxury Blue Eternal

[Inka]

Just finished this one, along with my usual wash-testing.

I'll let the written review and wash-test sheets speak for themselves...

 

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu56/InkaFX/Noodlers-Luxury-Blue-Etern-1.jpg

 

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu56/InkaFX/Luxury-Blue-WashTest.jpg

 

 

Took a macro of my nib after writing, to show there's not so much as a drop of "nib-creep" from using Luxury Blue Eternal...

 

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu56/InkaFX/NonibcreepLuxuryBlueEternal.jpg

 

EDIT: Changed review shot, had the wrong format on the first one I'd posted that made the Luxury Blue color too dark.

Edited July 22, 2009 by Inka

[Peter from Sherwood Park]

Hmmm - I'm going to have to try this ink. Thank you for posting this review.

[HDoug]

Perhaps a couple of years ago (?) Noodler's changed the formula for Luxury Blue which changed the color from a deeper blue to the current lighter, but more fluorescent blue. The new version flows with more enthusiasm too (which can be good or bad depending...). I myself like the older, darker, blue, but one can only choose from what is available. Just thought I'd add this note since it may conflict with older reviews.

 

Thanks much for the review, it does look very much like the new version to my eye.

 

Doug

[someonesdad]

Jeez, great review, good pictures, nice handwriting! My sister sent me a sample of this last year and I wasn't too enthusiastic about it. I'm gonna have to get it out, dust it off, and give it another try.

[pen2paper]

My very favorite blue!

[stevo]

I have Lux blue and Gulfstream blue. Lux tends to be "true blue" and and Gulfstream tends toward the turqoise side of things. There are also some very different properties. Gulstream has great lubrication and keeps your lines to your nib width. Lux blue isn't as smooth and definitely spreads the line some. A fine might become a medium and so on. Luxury Blue is also much more expensive. Both are a bit subdued in color, but still quite blue in their own right. A lot is made of saturated colors these days and I do like my blues saturated, but these are still nice colors. If you use either of them for mixing, the Gulfstream is very dominant and overwhelms a lot of colors. The Luxury blue is also somewhat dominant but does allow some movement.

 

Here is a nice post that shows how close Polar and Glacier blue are in color:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...c=26234&hl=

 

S

[amh210]

I have it but don't use it very often. I would have named it "old denim" as it always reminded me of faded bluejeans. Excellent for signing checks and documents, though.

 

Andy

[Inka]

... Lux blue ... definitely spreads the line some. A fine might become a medium and so on...

I've found the same to be true in my Pelikan M800, Luxury Blue tends to write more like a Medium nib in my Fine tip.

It's not as wet an ink as Coral Sea and some of my other inks, not as dry as my Caran d'Ache Colours of the Earth inks are, somewhere in between.

I've noticed that when I invert my M800 F nib and write with a wet ink the lines look @ the same as when written in normal mode.

If I do the same with a dry ink, invert the nib and write, the lines are thinner from the top than bottom, very noticably different widths.

Inverting my nib with Luxury Blue I do get finer lines, just not nearly as varied as when using a drier ink like C d'A or Pelikan Blue-Black.

 

...I would have named it "old denim" as it always reminded me of faded bluejeans...

That's a near perfect description of this color, something I had difficulty describing.

 

To other replies, thanks for the compliments and for the feedback.

I didn't realize this ink had been reformulated, never saw the darker version except in reviews, thinking it was the scanned details that differed and not the ink.

My first posted picture/scan was inadvertantly done in .gif format, gave it too much contrast and was heavily pixelated, changing to a .jpeg now it looks identical to what I see.

I actually bought Luxury Blue and some Hunter Green Eternal in an effort to re-create the color and properties of Coral Sea, was unable to reproduce Coral Sea with these 2 inks.

Coral Sea Blue-Black is a much brighter blue base, with hints of green and black, also Coral Sea reacts differently on different paper types, more blue on slicker paper and more green on fibrous stock.

I was totally unable to re-create the color of Coral Sea using Eternal inks, Luxury Blue was definitely not bright enough to make the grade, so I gave up trying and decided to use each in its' original pure form.

I haven't used Aircorp Blue-Black but I'd like to try it someday, as from scans and reviews it may be the closest thing to Coral Sea without paying the massive cost of getting Coral Sea Blue-Black from Australia to the U.S..

[stevo]

One thing to mention about Luxury Blue is that it tends to spread your lines a bit. The Gulfstream not so much.

 

Cheers,

Stevo

[Inka]

One thing to mention about Luxury Blue is that it tends to spread your lines a bit. The Gulfstream not so much.

 

Cheers,

Stevo

I've not yet tried Gulfstream yet this is good to know, need to research it now to find out how permanent or even "bulletproof" Gulfstream is, or if it is at all.

I do find that using my Pelikan M800 nibs are the only ones that have this property of writing wider, that some inks tend to spread more/write wider, than do drier inks in this pen/nib combo.

When using something like my Plumpster F or Dollar Demonstrator F/M nibs, even those same inks used in my M800 that run wet make lines that are by far much thinner than they are from my Pelikan nib/s.

Thanks for the info, I'll definitely look into Gulfstream now as I've not so much as read any reviews of it yet.

[stevo]

One thing to mention about Luxury Blue is that it tends to spread your lines a bit. The Gulfstream not so much.

 

Cheers,

Stevo

I've not yet tried Gulfstream yet this is good to know, need to research it now to find out how permanent or even "bulletproof" Gulfstream is, or if it is at all.

I do find that using my Pelikan M800 nibs are the only ones that have this property of writing wider, that some inks tend to spread more/write wider, than do drier inks in this pen/nib combo.

When using something like my Plumpster F or Dollar Demonstrator F/M nibs, even those same inks used in my M800 that run wet make lines that are by far much thinner than they are from my Pelikan nib/s.

Thanks for the info, I'll definitely look into Gulfstream now as I've not so much as read any reviews of it yet.

 

It's a waterproof Noodler's that's exclusive to Swisher pens. It's not marketed as bulletproof, but I think it is made of the same stuff:

 

http://store.nexternal.com/shared/StoreFro...ount2=916968941

 

I originally bought it as a blue base for mixing, but I've come to like it by itself as it behaves very well in many situations.

 

Stevo

[bluemagister]

This is a really excellent review! I am looking for an ink like this, but with just a deeper shade of blue.

 

Thanks!

[Yoda]

I have it but don't use it very often. I would have named it "old denim" as it always reminded me of faded bluejeans. Excellent for signing checks and documents, though.

 

Andy

 

This is the perfect description of this ink. :clap1: