Private Reserve "blue Suede"

[PrestoTenebroso]

I don't usually put an ink's name in quotation marks, but honestly, straight out of the bottle, I have no idea how Private Reserve could call this ink a blue and not blue-green at best. I suppose "Blue-Green Suede" lacks a certain…something, but not accuracy.

 

 

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

I think my first words/thoughts were, "Blue suede my ass."

 

 

Maybe if you're color blind. It's shading very nicely for you there at the end.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

[Pentulant]

One of my inky pet peeves - when the name is nothing like the color.

[PrestoTenebroso]

Exactly. When I bought a bottle of Noodler's Polar Blue it was the same issue. Yeah, it's blue and eternal and freeze-proof, but it's the palest, most pathetic looking blue ever. It definitely did not look that way in the ink swatches. At least it didn't feather itself into non-entity like Polar Green did.

[K. Cakes]

Blue Suede is named after traditional blue suede shoes, which albeit, were not all that blue. But it is true to color.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3572/3379722787_a36335c510.jpg

ETA - Blue Suede happens to be one of my favorite inks, but if you find it missing that special something, perhaps try Diamine's Steel Blue. It's quite similar, but just different enough to warrant a separate purchase and may be more up your alley.

Edited June 25, 2013 by K. Cakes

[PrestoTenebroso]

Wow. We stand informed. I knew of the song about the shoes, but since I had never seen any in real life, that's not the shade I had imagined.

[papen]

I was really surprised the first time I opened a bottle of PR Blue Suede. After seeing the shoes, it makes more sense. I like the color, but use it now in a blend with blue for a deeper marine green shade.

 

Thanks for the review!

[MyDarnSnakeLegs]

I'm pretty sure that this was the second or third bottle of ink that I ever bought. It's a really interesting shade.

[PrestoTenebroso]

I completely take back my bitchiness about this ink! Look at it in my Waterman frankenpen!

[Ceilidh]

One of my favorites. However, I agree that it's not blue. I consider it a green and the color, to my eye, is indistinguishable from Levenger gemstone green.

[PrestoTenebroso]

Yeah. They really need to rename this. Blue suede is too misleading.

[Ghost Plane]

I completely take back my bitchiness about this ink! Look at it in my Waterman frankenpen!IMG_0155.jpg

This is more the Blue Suede I see in my pens. Your other pics were MUCH greener than the bottles I have.

[PrestoTenebroso]

This is more the Blue Suede I see in my pens. Your other pics were MUCH greener than the bottles I have.

It could be that this time I photographed things instead of scanning.

[dcwaites]

Many, many years ago, in another century, I used to have a pair of Blue Suede shoes. They were blue, like Swisher's Aquamarine.

So I, too, thought the name of the ink was misleading. However, it seems that somewhere, someone is making greenish blue suede shoes, and the ink matches those.

 

Hmm, definitely something to ponder...

[PrestoTenebroso]

Many, many years ago, in another century, I used to have a pair of Blue Suede shoes. They were blue, like Swisher's Aquamarine.

So I, too, thought the name of the ink was misleading. However, it seems that somewhere, someone is making greenish blue suede shoes, and the ink matches those.

 

Hmm, definitely something to ponder...

Ah, the beauties of the relentless passage of time.

[Moose22]

I don't have a writing sample handy, but I ran a 3ml sample of Blue Suede through some pens and it was teal highlights with some heavy shading in the right pen. Like your second sample, not the green highlights in your first sample.

 

There's definitely a green edge to it, but it's a teal on the green side of the blue spectrum. Maybe having diluted it took some of the punch away from the shaded sections.

 

All that said, it's an OK ink. I like the color but not enough to buy a bottle. I liked the shading, but it is inconsistent. Sometimes shading well in one pen and being a bland light blue in another pen. Sometimes it feathers and takes a long time to dry. Not worse than most PR inks, so if I really liked the color I would put up with it and be just fine.

[Jdm dc2]

Bit confusing, is it blue or green?

[amberleadavis]

Bit confusing, is it blue or green?

 

Yes.

[ScifiTentacles]

I had the pleasure of being able to text this ink on Saturday (and the pleasure of making a new pen friend at the same time ). I have to admit, for me it was love at first stroke, before use she told me that it was named Blue Suede after Elvis' famous shoes so I never expected a blue-blue which is fine by me as I'm not a massive fan of blues which I tend to find dull and uninteresting. However I love teals, turquoises and greens and for me this was just a perfect colour. It was far more like Presto's second example with those wonderful teal highlights both on shoddy notebook paper and in an Oxford notebook. I only wrote about two sentences with it but I'm utterly enamoured. Like my Diamine Oxblood, it's one of those colours that just speaks to me and as soon as I got home I ordered myself a bottle, I can't wait for it to arrive!

[lgsoltek]

I can say the same about Ebony Blue. IMO it's not blue at all, it's green...