Shimmering Seas - Diamine Shimmertastic

[visvamitra]

Some time ago Diamine felt the urge to follow example of J. Herbin - they've decided to hit the market of glittering inks. The line of Shimmertastic inks premiered in 2015. Personally I dislike shimmering inks / inks with particles. I didn't expect to like this line. A friend of mine bought full line and sent me the whole bottles to review. I've tried them all. I don't like them but I'll review them. Maybe you'll like them more than me?

After strong punch from Diamine that offered ten colors I wonder with what 1670 ink J. Herbin will come this year?

Anyway there's ten inks in the line:

1. Blue Lightning
   
2. Blue Pearl
   
3. Brandy Dazzle
   
4. Golden Sands
   
5. Magical Forest
   
6. Night Sky
   
7. Purple Pazzazz
   
8. Red Luster
   
9. Shimmering Seas
   
10. Sparkling Shadows
    

Six with golden particles

And four with silver particles

SHIMMERING SEAS

Shimmering Seas woukld be quite intriguing color without these golden particles.

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

Software ID

Tomoe River, Kaweco Sport Classic, B

Leuchtturm 1917, Kaweco Sport Classic, B

[ehemem]

I like this blue with or without the particles... But I think I can do without...

[tritrek]

I cannot spot a single gold particle on the Tomoe paper... is it me or is it the ink's varying performance on different papers?

[The Good Captain]

This is my favourite of the range, mainly because of the colour. In the pen I use for this ink - Sailor Sapporo B nib - I've had no problems whatsoever. And it cleans out perfectly. Blue Pearl is my other contender in this range.

Another great review as always - even if you aren't particularly (forgive the pun!) fond of the range.

Edited February 26, 2016 by The Good Captain

[inkstainedruth]

I cannot spot a single gold particle on the Tomoe paper... is it me or is it the ink's varying performance on different papers?

 

The particles will come out of suspension quickly (I've only tried one of the Shimmertastic inks, but I have tried a couple of the Herbin inks with the particles (Bleu Ocean and Stormy Grey) and have a bottle of the old versions of Herbin Rouge Hematite (with the big flakes, rather than the dust).

You have to agitate the bottles quite vigorously before filling your pen. And then agitate the pen every little while to get the particles in the ink fill back into suspension.

Additionally, you don't say what pen and nib you're using. I've had better luck with broader nibs (stubs and italics): Herbin's Stormy Grey coming out of the 1 mm stub on a older Pelikan M100 just made me sort of week at the knees, it's so gorgeous, and I've got Diamine Purple Pizazz in a Parker Vector with an F italic (from a calligraphy set with 4 nib units) at the moment.

Hope this helps.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[tritrek]

 

The particles will come out of suspension quickly (I've only tried one of the Shimmertastic inks, but I have tried a couple of the Herbin inks with the particles (Bleu Ocean and Stormy Grey) and have a bottle of the old versions of Herbin Rouge Hematite (with the big flakes, rather than the dust).

You have to agitate the bottles quite vigorously before filling your pen. And then agitate the pen every little while to get the particles in the ink fill back into suspension.

Additionally, you don't say what pen and nib you're using. I've had better luck with broader nibs (stubs and italics): Herbin's Stormy Grey coming out of the 1 mm stub on a older Pelikan M100 just made me sort of week at the knees, it's so gorgeous, and I've got Diamine Purple Pizazz in a Parker Vector with an F italic (from a calligraphy set with 4 nib units) at the moment.

Hope this helps.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Thanks Ruth, I was this is just what I thought. BTW I don't have this or any other ink of similar properties I was just observing the author's pictures.

[oshizemi]

Oh I like this color. May have to pick it up. Thanks for the review!

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

Does anyone else has clogging issues with Shimmering Seas?

It clogged a Jinhao 992 in a couple of minutes of writing, same with a Pelikano P481 and a Caliarts Ego with a Pilot Pluminix B nib. The line just dries up until it disappears. Mid-writing.