Ink Review: Diamine Beau Blue

[Chrissy]

My latest ink samples from Diamine include a couple of lighter blue inks that I wanted to test. So here is the first one: Beau Blue

I would describe it as a pale blue, a light cerulean blue or a light sky blue. It leans slightly towards the green edge of the blue colour spectrum like Waterman Inspired Blue and J. Herbin Blue Pervenche but it's less saturated.

It's not a deeply saturated ink but I saw some shading. No noticeable sheen.

It felt quite wet in my Lamy Al-Star with B nib, and because the B nib lays down more ink, the colour looks darker than when I used the Lamy NexxM with M nib. Both pens I used wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. The flow was very good, not dry, with pens and the lubrication felt good along a line. The dry time on all of the papers I used was 15-16 secs, which some may consider is quite a long dry time. Once dry there was no smearing.

Diamine Beau Blue isn't at all water resistant.

• This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, and shows no noticeable water resistance.

• Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used Lamy M and B nibs this ink took 15-16 secs to dry using the M nib. No smear after dry.

• It exhibited good flow and lubrication and I found it smooth to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.

• It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles

• Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.

• It's a reasonable price.

 

Ink blot of kitchen paper roll

 

[theoddcopy]

Oddly enough, this blue matches the rain jacket I'm wearing today. Seems a bit light, though. Good line variation.

[visvamitra]

Not my color but good to have it reviewed.

[chromantic]

Thanks for the review, Chrissy. The color just seems bland, no 'oomph'.

[MKeith]

Thanks for another great review Chrissy. To my eyes it looks strikingly like vintage Sheaffer Peacock Blue.

[Chrissy]

Thanks for another great review Chrissy. To my eyes it looks strikingly like vintage Sheaffer Peacock Blue.

 

You're welcome. I never thought of looking at vintage Sheaffer Peacock Blue to compare it with. I will see if I still have some.

[Chrissy]

Thanks for the review, Chrissy. The color just seems bland, no 'oomph'.

You're welcome. I don't always pick inks with 'oomph.'

 

In fact I want to try to reproduce an ink that is unobtanium to me, (SankoDo Tsurumai Blue) and I wondered if this one might help me to reproduce it.

[chromantic]

How does this fare against the Tsunamai - close, in the ballpark, nada?

 

I generally need at least a smidge of oomph. I use Skrip Turquoise and Inspired Blue; the oomph in Inspired is pretty in-your-face, Skrip's is much more subtle ... which maybe gives it a slight edge? Argh!

[Chrissy]

How does this fare against the Tsunamai - close, in the ballpark, nada?

 

I generally need at least a smidge of oomph. I use Skrip Turquoise and Inspired Blue; the oomph in Inspired is pretty in-your-face, Skrip's is much more subtle ... which maybe gives it a slight edge? Argh!

 

Tsurumai has a greyer tone to it, so I think that by adding some sort of grey to a slightly turquoise leaning paler blue might make it. I used to have a small sample of PR Grey Flannel, and I remember that being a little green leaning, but sadly I don't have any left.

 

I also have Diamine Aqua Blue to review, and that's slightly more saturated. That may have the 'oomph' you like.

[bluebellrose]

Seems bright enough to be used as a blue highlighter ink. That being said I have a bottle noodler's hellfire to run though.

[JulieParadise]

#50shadesofbluechallenge (link to the hashtag on Instagram) is the hashtag for the ongoing challenge over at the German PenExchange forum for July & August 2020. Since I inked up all my pens for this challenge with all the 50+ blue inks I have I also want to share my snapshots here.

 

 

Diamine Beau Blue is, as the other reviewers above also noted, a very light blue. In my vintage Kaweco Dia 785 with an Italic Broad nib it got a darker outline at the edges of the lines, which was less noticeable in the FA nib of a Pilot Custom Heritage 912.

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by JulieParadise