EFNIR: Colorverse Anti-Matter

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Colorverse Anti-Matter

This is review #139 in my series.  Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: I'm sure you'll be shocked (not): Cleaning was really quick and easy. This is a very pale grey. A "paper towel chroma" test shows a dark pinkish purplish grey in the center with a turquoise color at the edges.  The scan is a little too cool and pale.  The zoom image looks best for both color and darkness.  The screen shot looks pretty close.

And here is a screen of the final result, for those not interested in the video:

Scan of Completed Review:

Zoomed in photo:

Absorbent Paper Closeup (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper):

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap

Previous Review: Pelikan Edelstein Olivine.

Want to influence the inky sequence?  Take the "next ink" poll.

Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh?  Find the whole story here.

Hope you enjoy.  Comments appreciated!

[lapis]

Nice ink! My first thought as I saw the ink's name was N's Dark Matter. But then the close-up whipped out I's Old Man Winter. It's the bluishness!!

[Tas]

🙂

[LizEF]

21 minutes ago, lapis said:

Nice ink! My first thought as I saw the ink's name was N's Dark Matter. But then the close-up whipped out I's Old Man Winter. It's the bluishness!!

Iroshizuku is much more blue.  (My first thought was "warp drive". )

[LizEF]

17 minutes ago, Tas said:

🙂

[lapis]

30 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Iroshizuku is much more blue....

Right on! But your new ink is heading in the right direction, no?

[Sailor Kenshin]

Cool name, too pale for me.  And I like gray inks.  Thanks for the review as always!

 

Oooo, a Quest!  

[LizEF]

42 minutes ago, lapis said:

Right on! But your new ink is heading in the right direction, no?

Anti-Matter has a pinkish hue going on in the swatch.  The paler portion looks somewhat cool, but in the darker part, the pink warms things up a bit - it's kinda strange.  It looks pretty neutral in writing from this nib.  It also writes darker than Fuyu-Syogun from this nib.

[LizEF]

34 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Cool name, too pale for me.  And I like gray inks.

Ditto.

 

35 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Thanks for the review as always!

You're welcome!

 

35 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Oooo, a Quest!  

[mizgeorge]

Thank you @LizEF as always - thorough and with all the information needed!

 

I actually really like the colour, but I'm put off by the behaviour, and even more by the price. I think the majority of Colorverse Inks are horribly overpriced for their performance, and find their 'bundling' just incomprehensible. I looked at some today where they're now packaging three identical tiny 5ml bottles together as a set. Why not just put them in a single 15 or 20ml bottle or make sets of three sampler inks in different colours? It just doesn't make sense. 

 

I think I'll pass on this one, unless it were very deeply discounted!

[namrehsnoom]

Thanks for another great review. Looks pale, but it will probably look much nicer in a wet Pelikan with M or B nib - most pale inks look much more saturated in such a pen. I also like the colour (well … it’s grey), but I have to agree with @mizgeorge that these inks are expensive. Mostly because of the bizarre packaging choices - the set of 65+15ml  seems a strange choice to me - I’ve been put off by sets where I like the small bottle ink, but not so much the huge bottle colour. Would prefer that they would also package the inks separately in e.g. 30 ml bottles.

[LizEF]

3 hours ago, mizgeorge said:

Thank you @LizEF as always - thorough and with all the information needed!

You're welcome!  And thanks!

 

3 hours ago, mizgeorge said:

I actually really like the colour, but I'm put off by the behaviour, and even more by the price. I think the majority of Colorverse Inks are horribly overpriced for their performance, and find their 'bundling' just incomprehensible. I looked at some today where they're now packaging three identical tiny 5ml bottles together as a set. Why not just put them in a single 15 or 20ml bottle or make sets of three sampler inks in different colours? It just doesn't make sense. 

 

I think I'll pass on this one, unless it were very deeply discounted!

I really like the two sets I bought (Extra Dimension & Warped Passages; and Ham #65 + Ham#65 glistening), they flow well and are well lubricated, but this one (Anti-Matter) was disappointing to me - the color is probably interesting in a very fat, wet nib (with the pinkish / purplish hues in the background) and the lubrication wouldn't be a big deal (or not as much of one) with such a nib, but for an EF, this is a no-go.

 

The only thing that bothers me about their packaging is that it makes it hard to get samples, especially of the ink in the mini bottle, and that has definitely prevented me from considering some sets.  IMO, they should at least consider selling "pouches" (like Callifolio) to vendors explicitly for sampling.  Oh well.  (Note: The bottles themselves are lovely, and the mini bottles are cute and adorable, like puppies and kittens, but that's not enough of an excuse to buy the set unless I'm really sure about the ink.)

 

I wouldn't even get this one even if it was deeply discounted - there are other, better greys, IMO.

[LizEF]

55 minutes ago, namrehsnoom said:

Thanks for another great review.

You're very welcome!

 

55 minutes ago, namrehsnoom said:

Looks pale, but it will probably look much nicer in a wet Pelikan with M or B nib - most pale inks look much more saturated in such a pen.

Exactly.  This is a "fat-nib-ink".

 

56 minutes ago, namrehsnoom said:

I’ve been put off by sets where I like the small bottle ink, but not so much the huge bottle colour.

Same here, both for sets I haven't bought, and I wish the colors were reversed in my Extra Dimension / Warped Passages set - the big was small, the small big...

[A Smug Dill]

4 hours ago, LizEF said:

The only thing that bothers me about their packaging is that it makes it hard to get samples, especially of the ink in the mini bottle, and that has definitely prevented me from considering some sets.  IMO, they should at least consider selling "pouches" (like Callifolio) to vendors explicitly for sampling.

 

What's so hard about getting 5ml ‘samples’, though, in puppies-and-kittens-adorable mini glass bottles, no less?

 

Source: La Couronne du Comte

[LizEF]

5 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

What's so hard about getting 5ml ‘samples’, though, in puppies-and-kittens-adorable mini glass bottles, no less?

Only the range of stores that carry them.  This is one of those "not worth opening an account at a new store" things for me - there's already approximately a bazillion inks I can (more) easily get samples of, so, not worth the bother...  

 

From what I've seen in the stores I use, the larger bottles are often sampled, but not the smaller - e.g. you can sample Schrödinger, but not Cat.

 

It's not a huge annoyance for me - probably because I've never seen a Colorverse color I was just dying to sample.  I took the risk on a couple sets, and haven't regretted it, but with all the samples I've got, I don't seem to find "more" quite so tempting these days.

[yazeh]

Great job Liz for an ink which deserves a volley of photon torpedos

What I liked most was the geometrical wizard

 

[Detman101]

Awesome ink, Awesome review!
May have to look into one of their little cutie bottles of this one...

[LizEF]

2 hours ago, yazeh said:

Great job Liz for an ink which deserves a volley of photon torpedos

Thanks!

 

2 hours ago, yazeh said:

What I liked most was the geometrical wizard

"geometric" will recur through this sequence that takes place at the palace.  No idea if he'll be involved thereafter.

[LizEF]

48 minutes ago, Detman101 said:

Awesome ink, Awesome review!
May have to look into one of their little cutie bottles of this one...

Thanks!  Hope you like it more than I did!   (The ink, I mean.)

[PithyProlix]

Thanks for yet another very useful review for me! This is one that's been high on my interest list.

 

I really like the color - I see much more violet than grey - but I cannot justify the price, especially since PenBBS 346 Misty Mountain has been scratching my itch for a similar color (though it's probably significantly warmer?) incredibly well. I'm not attracted to Matter, the larger bottle in the set, and Colorverse's 5ml bottles are some of the most expensive inks per unit volume I can recall seeing - about USD $1.30/ml. Misty Mtn was about USD $0.11/ml when I bought it recently.