Sailor (Kingdom Note) Stropharia aeruginosa

[lgsoltek]

Some of us have wanted a slightly more saturated Seitz Kreuznach Tundra Green. And here it is, Stropharia aeruginosa from Kingdom Note's fungi series. Stropharia aeruginosa is a verdigris-coloured mushroom.

 

However, if you look up images of this ink online, you'll see two different colours. One is a a greyish blue-green colour, like @white_lotus has shown in their review, which is quite close to the actual colour of the mushroom. The other colour you'll find is a much more yellow-leaning murky green colour that you'll see in my images below. After searching on social networks, it seems that this ink has the tendency to turn yellow and lose the blue tone in the bottle. If you have a new and fresh bottle, you'll get the colour in @white_lotus' review. But over time, the ink will turn yellower. @white_lotus has kindly checked their bottle and confirmed that their bottle has indeed lost the blue tint. It is the first time I see that a Sailor ink isn't shelf-stable. 

 

Here I'm showing samples from my bottle that dates from 2019. The ink no longer has the blue tint and is now a murky greyish yellow green. The saturation is medium, the flow is okay but not as smooth as other more saturated Sailor inks. It is surprisingly very water resistant. 

 

All images below are scans and colour-corrected with a grey card, except close-up photos with camera.

 

Bottle

(image from Kingdom Note)

 

 

Splash

 

 

Writing sample

(Pens: Pelikan M1005 Broad, Pilot Capless Medium)

 

(Rhodia: the ink looks darker on this absorbant paper)

 

 

 

(Tomoe River)

 

 

 

(Maruman looseleaf)

 

 

 

Comparison

(vs Seitz Kreuznach Tundra Green [left ring], which is paler and yellower)

 

 

 

 

(with other inks)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dione]

Thanks it's a great color but I class KN inks as unobtanium so never look for them.

[mizgeorge]

*sigh*

Another one I can't have. Even if it's unstable, it's beautiful. but I don't even consider them as anything other than pretty pictures to look at. 

 

Great review though - thank you

[yazeh]

 It's enjoyable to read/watch ink reviews without being tempted. Great job, thanks!

[LizEF]

6 hours ago, lgsoltek said:

Some of us have wanted a slightly more saturated Seitz Kreuznach Tundra Green.

  Say no more!  Where do I buy this?

 

6 hours ago, lgsoltek said:

But over time, the ink will turn yellower.

Good things come to those who wait?

 

Thanks for a great review!  Such lovely murk.

[white_lotus]

Thanks to @lgsoltek for another review of this ink. We discussed this ink somewhat and it's clear that at least the bottle we have seem to change over time. I'll post pics of the writing and paper towel chromatography comparing what I did originally with what the ink is now, five years later.

 

The images at Kingdom Note for this ink show a very definite blue-green color, even more so than my original. Perhaps the formulation has been changed?

 

I'll have more time tomorrow to post. And @LizEF maybe we should talk? I'd sell my bottle for a fair and honest price. I have so many other Sailor inks that I use, and this one hasn't been touched much since I bought it. PM me if interested.

 

Cheers.

[LizEF]

19 minutes ago, white_lotus said:

And @LizEF maybe we should talk? I'd sell my bottle for a fair and honest price. I have so many other Sailor inks that I use, and this one hasn't been touched much since I bought it. PM me if interested.

Thank you!  Let me ponder that for a day or so - I seriously do not need more ink!   (Though that's not always enough to stop me...)

[namrehsnoom]

Oh my … that’s a beautiful ink!  And really nicely presented. Thanks for showing it next to the Tundra Green - also nice, but the Sailor one definitely looks much better. 

[PithyProlix]

Thanks for another wonderful look at a really beautiful color. It looks like it might closely match L'AP Classique Olive, which I totally love. And, looking at the comparison inks in the review of Olive on the FountainPenPharmacist site, maybe a couple Kala inks - Blue Lagoon Vapor and Winter Dawn. (I have no experience with Kala but many of their inks are very intriguing to me.) 

[Tas]

Oh my, this has me all over it.

I wouldn't worry about the shelf life as I'd most likely use it up before the ink changed colour. This, and your review, looks gorgeous.

[white_lotus]

1 hour ago, Tas said:

Oh my, this has me all over it.

I wouldn't worry about the shelf life as I'd most likely use it up before the ink changed colour. This, and your review, looks gorgeous.

For all who love the ink as presented, this is the ink after it has changed. It was originally a blue-green. Below is how the ink is shown at the Kingdom Note site.

[white_lotus]

Here are some images. The first something of a comparison with my original text used in the review with new writing with the the same pen used in the original review, on the same kind of paper.

 

You hopefully can see the difference. I also have a comparison between the two wet paper towel chromatography tests. The new one is on the left/first, the old one follows. When doing the new test, there was a distinct turquoise but that got overtaken by the yellow. It appears that the turquoise dye used in these formulations was unstable/fugitive. That's why the color changes/changed. Will that happen with the latest release of this ink? Quite unknown. 

[lgsoltek]

52 minutes ago, white_lotus said:

Here are some images. The first something of a comparison with my original text used in the review with new writing with the the same pen used in the original review, on the same kind of paper.

 

You hopefully can see the difference. I also have a comparison between the two wet paper towel chromatography tests. The new one is on the left/first, the old one follows. When doing the new test, there was a distinct turquoise but that got overtaken by the yellow. It appears that the turquoise dye used in these formulations was unstable/fugitive. That's why the color changes/changed. Will that happen with the latest release of this ink? Quite unknown. 

 

[snip]

 

 

 

Thank you so much for the additional comparison photos! They are very helpful! I can see clearly that the ink does indeed lose the blue colour in it, and the chroma shows that perfectly.

[LizEF]

21 hours ago, LizEF said:

21 hours ago, white_lotus said:

And @LizEF maybe we should talk? I'd sell my bottle for a fair and honest price. I have so many other Sailor inks that I use, and this one hasn't been touched much since I bought it. PM me if interested.

Thank you!  Let me ponder that for a day or so - I seriously do not need more ink!   (Though that's not always enough to stop me...)

 

@white_lotus, Thank you for the offer, but I think I'm going to pass.  With another 103 inks (largely samples) yet to review, and more inks than I'll ever use up, nice as this one's mutation is, it'll end up sitting mostly unused.  Hopefully someone else will take you up on the offer - there's no shortage of murky-green lovers in our community.

[Licue]

Thanks for the review 🙂

 

 

After scrolling through some pics of Stropharia aeruginosa, I think the new changed color is actually a better fit - despite being (even) less blue.

I also think it's not a bad color for an ink.

 

That being said, I still consider ink color changing in the bottle a bug, not a feature..

 

 

And now for some quick OT: looking up this ink reminded me of the vase-shaped ink bottles Kingdom Note/Sailor used to(?) have.

Does anybody know if these are a thing of the past? Imo that shape makes for a much better ink bottle than the flat round or cube ones.

[white_lotus]

Yes @Licue, the vase bottles are long gone. Only Pen and Message seems to still use them, and their inks cost 550¥ more than other Sailor shop-exclusive inks.

[inkstainedruth]

interesting color, but not one for me, I think.  A little TOO yellow-leaning an ink.

But thanks for the review, and the discussion about how the ink "changes".

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Licue]

26 minutes ago, white_lotus said:

Yes @Licue, the vase bottles are long gone. Only Pen and Message seems to still use them, and their inks cost 550¥ more than other Sailor shop-exclusive inks.

😭

😔

[Uncial]

4 hours ago, white_lotus said:

Yes @Licue, the vase bottles are long gone. Only Pen and Message seems to still use them, and their inks cost 550¥ more than other Sailor shop-exclusive inks.

 

Wait...didn't Hippo Noto recently (as in this month) advertise Sailor inks for sale in bud vases.....or is lockdown really getting to me?

 

Can't recall where I saw this. May have been Facebook.

[LizEF]

34 minutes ago, Uncial said:

Wait...didn't Hippo Noto recently (as in this month) advertise Sailor inks for sale in bud vases.....or is lockdown really getting to me?

 

Can't recall where I saw this. May have been Facebook.

https://hipponoto.com/collections/ink-corner

 

...at least one of the graphics has these bottles.  Whether they still use them, who knows.