Amethyste De L'oural - J. Herbin

[visvamitra]

Amethyste De L'Oural is the first ink in the new Jacques Herbin 1798 Inks Collection. 1798 commemorates a special year in the history of Herbin, and a turning point in the history of France.

 

At the moment, there's plenty of shimmering inks on the market. Generally, I don't like them. Glitter irritates me. Marketingwise, though, J. Herbin still reigns. The story behind the inks, packaging anc choice of colors are first class.

 

Neither Diamine nor De Atramentis are close.

 

The ink comes in nice and quite comfortable glass bottle.

What's not to like? A deep rich purple with quite good behavior. The ink shimmers. However I did my best to hide the glimmer. It was easy. I just let the ink sit for a day and it seems most of the particles went down. Some glitter can be seen but it's tolerable and allows me to enjoy ink color.

The flow is good and so far I haven't experienced any clogging or dry starts. The ink feels wet and in broader nibs it behaves like a gusher. The ink is well saturated and has some water resistance to it - text is still visible after spending fifteen minutes in water. It's feels well-lubricated. It's rather slow to dry on Rhodia paper. Very mild feathering (there might be more with a wider/wetter nib) can be observed on bad quality paper.

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

Color ID

Color range

Fabriano, Lamy Al-Star, broad nib

Tomoe River, Lamy Al-Star, broad nib

Rhodia, Lamy Al-Star, broad nib

Water resistance

[bobje]

Lovely shading and Looks great with the glitter de-emphasized. Is that a bit of coppery sheen?

[DrDebG]

Thank you Vis for the great review. I love the color, but like you I don’t care for glitter or shimmer or any of those. But if I did want a showy ink, I would probably opt for this.

[lgsoltek]

I've been hesitating between buying this ink or not for a long time. Quite a lovely colour, but not sure whether it's worth such a price.

[ENewton]

Very nice on all papers. Thank you.

[inkstainedruth]

I picked up a bottle of this last fall at the Commonwealth Pen Show. The first booth I got to was Bob Slate Stationers. I thought about going around the rest of the ballroom and then going back to their table, and then thought, "No, I better get it before they sell out...."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Connly33]

I got a bottle this Christmas and really enjoy it. I've been mostly using it in my Eco. I mainly like the color, and i don't mind the glitter when im writing in my journals or writing in a holiday card.

[namrehsnoom]

Nice colour, but I’m not a glitter fan, which makes it easy to let this one pass without temptation. I have one glitter ink (Diamine Moon Dust - grey with silver particles), which I got out of curiosity... and which confirmed that these are not my thing.

[jasonchickerson]

To be honest, I've been unimpressed with the Anniversary series Herbins. They are beautiful and come in gorgeous bottles, but they behave badly, smeer when dry, won't dip, and have glitter in them.

 

But I just bought a bottle sight unseen. They are great when used as watercolors and my kids love them. I'm sure they will be thrilled to add a purple. I guess next will be a true green.

[FPRebel]

Nice review of a beautiful ink. Mine has clogged a couple of pens, but i using the "shake first" method to suspend the glitter/shimmer particles.
Your review shows me I like it even better without them, and I'm sure it won't clog my pens :-)
THANK YOU!

[inkstainedruth]

To be honest, I've been unimpressed with the Anniversary series Herbins. They are beautiful and come in gorgeous bottles, but they behave badly, smeer when dry, won't dip, and have glitter in them.

 

But I just bought a bottle sight unseen. They are great when used as watercolors and my kids love them. I'm sure they will be thrilled to add a purple. I guess next will be a true green.

 

I blow hot and cold on them. I got a sample of Rouge Hematite, mostly just to see what the fuss was all about. Then discovered I really liked it (imagine -- ME liking something that was a brick red, almost an orangey red... ) but had a heck of a time finding it still in stock anyplace at the time (I have the original formula with the big flakes in it, not the later version with the dust).

The first version of Bleu Ocean was a disappointment. All that hoopla, and it was just, well, blue. Still making up my mind about the reformulated version with the dust, but haven't gotten a full bottle.

Stormy Grey? I didn't bother with a sample. I just went straight to a full bottle, after seeing an exemplar of handwriting at a booth at DCSS.

But Emeralds of Chivor and the whatever-name brown one? I didn't like the underlying color. So when I saw swabs EoC I knew it wasn't for me. Tried a sample of the brown one... meh; not a brown for me (too red).... (It made so little an impression I can't remember what it's called ).

I do like purples, and someone in my local pen club got an early sample of Amethyste De L'oural, so I got to see it. And again, bypassed the sample in favor of a full bottle.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[NicolausPiscator]

Delicious hue! And good idea to take out the glimmer-shimmer-glitzer-thing! The Herbin glimmer inks are much more beautiful without this stuff. Thank you for your thorough review.

[visvamitra]

Well - you can always use coffee filter

[NicolausPiscator]

Well - you can always use coffee filter

 

Really? Does it work good?

[farazqamar]

or you can let the bottle site for 10 mins and let the glitter settle at the bottom and then fill you pen from the top. I do this with JH EoC.

[ENewton]

I finally opened the bottle I bought when this ink first came out. I am not a great fan of glitter unless deliberately applied as a surface treatment, as in maki-e, but the base color, as shown in this review, appealed to me very much, being less red than Poussiere de Lune, and less bright than Violette Pensee. (I missed out on the original, dusty purple shade of Poussiere de Lune and wonder how close this is.)

 

I am using it in a Kaweco Sport fine and so far do not see any silver. I hope this means I will not have any problems with clogging.

[lapis]

If you hate (or just dislike) glitter as much as I do, get the new LE R&K Aubergine instead. Sure, that's somewhat darker but in the same ballpark.

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

Not as glittery as Rouge Hematite, good to know. If the flow is as smooth as Hematite I would like to buy this as soon as I have the opportunity. It's super pricey but the color is lovely.

[Anne-Sophie]

I finally opened the bottle I bought when this ink first came out. I am not a great fan of glitter unless deliberately applied as a surface treatment, as in maki-e, but the base color, as shown in this review, appealed to me very much, being less red than Poussiere de Lune, and less bright than Violette Pensee. (I missed out on the original, dusty purple shade of Poussiere de Lune and wonder how close this is.)

 

I am using it in a Kaweco Sport fine and so far do not see any silver. I hope this means I will not have any problems with clogging.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/275295-poussiere-de-lune-j-herbin/

 

The review above is full of beautiful picture of the true hue of Poussiere de Lune.

A nice burgundy wine color.

 

Amethyste de l'Oural is a true purple, just like the stone of the same name.

 

Amberlea, I hope it is ok to use a post from 2014, I used it to compare the two colors in two different widows.

Edited December 20, 2018 by Anne-Sophie

[ENewton]

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/275295-poussiere-de-lune-j-herbin/

 

The review above is full of beautiful picture of the true hue of Poussiere de Lune.

A nice burgundy wine color.

 

Amethyste de l'Oural is a true purple, just like the stone of the same name.

 

 

 

Yes, I have both these inks. What I don't have is the previous, less red version of Poussiere de Lune--what I thought I was getting when I bought my bottle. A few years ago, there were some comparisons of the two formulations online, but I'm not able to locate one now.