Nemosine Alpha Centauri

July 19, 2017

Being a huge sci-fi and space buff, when Nemosine launched a line of ten inks all with space themes, I couldn't help but buy them all. Unfortunately, Goulet sold out of this particular ink (they have at the time of this writing, restocked it today) so I was forced to buy from Nemosine directly. They billed me immediately but never shipped. I sent two emails, both going unresponded, but two full weeks later they shipped (I presume they were simply out of stock, but a simple email letting me know would have been great when I had contacted them twice) and I was pleased to see that they tossed in a free M nib singularity! So delay and poor communication aside, I am happy with my order.

I'm even more happy with this ink. It's GORGEOUS. A lovely, dusky purple with some moderate, yet very present gold sheen, good manners on awful paper, moderate shading, good flow, and some water resistance. I have yet to get to the rest of the inks beyond the Aeolis Palus Red and Blue Snowball Nebula twinkle, but thusfar, they're all winners, and this in particular is just fantastic. Dry times seem a little long for rhodia, but on anything more absorbant, dry times are near-instant.

The boxes are simple, with a small sticker mentioning the name of the ink, which is made in Slovenia.

The nemosine name is present in raised letters. Not the most interesting box, but for $8/bottle and a really lovely bottle itself, I'm not complaining.

The geographical coordinates of Nemosine's bottling location is indicated on the bottle (a street in Pittsburgh, PA), along with a nice, clean bottle with a wide mouth and a great, simple label. I give the bottle design high marks, it's thin enough to be quite usable until it gets low, and I enjoy the shape, giving the ink the appearance of floating. It's no mont blanc or iroshizuku bottle, but it's quite high up on my list of favorite bottle designs. The lid screws securely and doesn't get the inner seal stuck like a sailor or pilot bottle.

35ml of ink is a somewhat small amount, but I do appreciate the low price of $8 per bottle, and I'll probably pick up a second bottle of the colors I like most.

Now on to the ink - all of my Nemosine reviews will have some sort of space or sci-fi theme. First I thought of was Apollo 13 and Tom Hanks's propensity for calamity while traveling.

This is a great everyday ink, saturated enough to be clearly visible, well behaved in all the nibs of my CP-1.

I was quite surprised at the water resistance. the water sat there for a good 20-30 seconds and the lines are very legible.

I like how the sheen kind of permeates all of the letter in a very subtle manner. it's absolutely lovely, without being over the top.

The color honestly reminds me of a duskier version of Lamy Dark Lilac. I love vivid, bright colors, but this slightly muted lavender is just perfect for me.

When you're printing with a wet nib, the sheen is much more pronounced.

Another shot of that lovely, pervasive and mild gold sheen showing up all through the ink, not just the edges.

And a sample of the absolute worst paper I've ever been able to find. It's a few steps above toilet paper, and yet the feathering is quite controlled in the very wet EF nib. Showthrough was minimal and slight bleedthrough. Bear in mind this paper is INSANELY thin and very, very bad.