Jump to content

Ink Review: Diamine Soft Mint

Chrissy

By Chrissy
in Ink Reviews

 Share

Recommended Posts

Chrissy Museum Piece

Chrissy

Posted
Posted

I have decided to review some of my inks. These aren't necessarily in any particular order.

This one is Diamine Soft Mint from the standard range. I decided to give this one a try because I wanted to see how close a match it is to Caran d'Ache Caribbean Sea.

It's an unusual mint green colour, that matches it's name very well. I found it's a much closer match to Caran d'Ache Caribbean Sea than Diamine Steel Blue is, as Steel Blue is both darker and more saturated. I was surprised when using my comparison sample of C d'A CS how blue it was and how unsaturated it looked.

As an alternative to Caran d'Ache Caribbean Sea, this ink might be worth a try. It's about the same brightness, but only very slightly more green.

I had Soft Mint in both of my Lamy Nexx M pens for several days while writing parts of the review, and I didn't experience any flow or lubrication problems. I found the ink flowed very freely on the smooth Xerox 100 g/sm ColorPrint paper that I frequently use for my ink reviews. It was a pleasure to write with this ink.

As usual for a Diamine ink, it's a well behaved, fairly saturated ink. It shows some shading.

This ink exhibited some showthrough and a few odd dots of bleedthrough on my Xerox ColorPrint paper.

  • The water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink, although it was reasonably resistant.
  • Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and the nibs used were a M and a stub, this ink was fairly quick drying. It dried in less than 10 secs. That's a very unusual result on this paper.
  • 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 and changed over uncapped pens.
  • 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

 

fpn_1500395294__diamine_soft_minta.jpgfpn_1500395323__diamine_soft_mintb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 9
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Misfit

    3

  • Chrissy

    2

  • alexander_k

    1

  • FatherFP

    1

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

alexander_k Vintage

alexander_k

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the review. It seems a nice ink but I wish it were darker. Such pale colours can't fill a whole page for me, they're just for a few lines - headings, notes, illustrations. I guess I need more contrast between paper and ink.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Feathers Rare

Feathers

Posted
Posted

Great review and thank you so much for the comparison to Caribbean Sea! I LOVED Caribbean Sea and was so sad that they discontinued it. I just purchased a bottle of Soft Mint the other day, and haven't had a chance to play with it yet. Now, I'm really looking forward to i! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Chrissy Museum Piece

Chrissy

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks for the review. It seems a nice ink but I wish it were darker. Such pale colours can't fill a whole page for me, they're just for a few lines - headings, notes, illustrations. I guess I need more contrast between paper and ink.

 

 

Great review and thank you so much for the comparison to Caribbean Sea! I LOVED Caribbean Sea and was so sad that they discontinued it. I just purchased a bottle of Soft Mint the other day, and haven't had a chance to play with it yet. Now, I'm really looking forward to i! :)

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

My main reason for selecting this ink for a review was to directly compare it with C d'A Caribbean Sea.

 

I was advised that Diamine Steel Blue was a good replacement, but my findings are that it's darker and more saturated. In fact I love the way that D. Steel Blue behaves, and it has some shading.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...
Misfit Museum Piece

Misfit

Posted
Posted

I was just trying to fill a short cartridge with this ink from a sample bottle. I had the sample in the sink and it tipped over. Drat. At least I got the cartridge filled. Some ink remains.

Posted Image
Link to comment
Share on other sites
senzen Antique

senzen

Posted
Posted

They should sell this at Tiffany's... Not my cup of tea but plenty of people could start their journey that way...

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

 

B. Russell

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 year later...
Misfit Museum Piece

Misfit

Posted
Posted

Came back to this review. I've been using Soft Mint in a Michael's Recollections mint colored planner calendar. The Mint planner is a different sort of mint, more light green. But the ink looks good coming from my Regal Alice 117 fountain pen in what they call turquoise.

 

The pen has a medium nib, and the ink does not show through. If I had it to do over again, I'd get the Midori Travelers weekly planner inserts. The 6 rings in the Recollection planner get in the way of writing. I really like the ink on that paper.

 

Inks can look different coming from different pens/nib sizes. If you are on the fence I'd recommend getting a sample or 30ml bottle.

Posted Image
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33583
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26771
    5. jar
      jar
      26105

  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      Links to web pages or articles about Chinese typesetting, signwriting, etc.

      By Shanghai Knife Dude · Posted

      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

      By A Smug Dill · Posted

      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

      By adamselene · Posted

      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

      By A Smug Dill · Posted

      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

      By adamselene · Posted

      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o

  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More

  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...