EFNIR: Sailor Miruai

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Sailor Miruai

This is review #356 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: This ink was gifted to me by a generous FPGeek. This is a very dark, blue-leaning green. From this nib, shading and sheen are technically there, but almost impossible to see. The microscope slide had nothing new or terribly interesting. Dry time was a little faster in test - probably my feed was saturated for the review.

Cleaning was easy with plain water, but needed extra flushes due to high dye concentration.

Erratum: Somewhere, there's an "in" that should be an "ink".

Zoomed in photo (Color is too dark - I see more green in real life.)

Screenshot (Color is too desaturated.)

Scan of Completed Review (I think this is closest.)

Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (A little too dark, but I see almost no color in real life.)

Line width (The "I" in "Ink:". Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 360µm, with twelve divisions of 30µm each. The line width for this ink is roughly 346µm. With 356 inks measured, the average line width is 298µm.)

Swatch card comparison

Previous Review: Robert Oster Grün-Schwarz.

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.

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

View a list of my inks, complete with review results in a google sheet.

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

Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

[Sailor Kenshin]

@LizEF, I like this dark green color, and may once have had a sample.  Sort of reminds me of Lamy Petrol, which I nearly cast into the Outer Darkness until I decided it belongs in a Lamy 2000.

 

As for the story, I'm shivering along with Vika!  

 

You make Tuesdays magically fun... I always look forward to the review and story… many thanks.

[LizEF]

37 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

@LizEF, I like this dark green color, and may once have had a sample.  

 So many inks, such short memories.   (I sometimes have to resort to my database to figure out whether I have or have had an ink.)

 

38 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Sort of reminds me of Lamy Petrol, which I nearly cast into the Outer Darkness until I decided it belongs in a Lamy 2000.

This is definitely darker and less teal than Lamy Petrol.  Online images make Miruai look more forest / pine green than it seems to me in person... But it's still not as teal as Petrol.

 

40 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

As for the story, I'm shivering along with Vika!

 

 

41 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

You make Tuesdays magically fun... I always look forward to the review and story…

 Thanks!

 

41 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

many thanks.

You're most welcome!  

[yazeh]

Great review @LizEF.

I've come to admire these darkish inks for art work. With dilutions one can create dramatic contrast, which is harder to achieve with lighter inks.

As writing inks, I find them meh. Unless one uses a nice juicy fude, or BB nib. 

The line thickness seems to be quite wide with this ink. Is it one of the widest?

Once again thanks for the swatches, its really helpful to understand, appreciate the ink colour.

I'm assuming our heroes are marching on an Arctic/ Antarctic landscape, or is it just frozen land?

I keep imaging. Essie bundled in one of Quin's "thmelly" thocks, (Otto Correct is having a fit with Sneak ) nestled I somewhere in Makhabesh's feathers, i.e, if Makhabesh has feathers and not scales.

Question, do Sphinx have feathers or leathers?

Thanks for bringing magic and silliness to this grey Tuesday morning in a world where people have forgotten the joy of being. 🙏🙏🙏

[LizEF]

1 minute ago, yazeh said:

Great review @LizEF.

Thanks!

 

1 minute ago, yazeh said:

I've come to admire these darkish inks for art work. With dilutions one can create dramatic contrast, which is harder to achieve with lighter inks.

Yes, more possible shades from one ink.

 

2 minutes ago, yazeh said:

As writing inks, I find them meh. Unless one uses a nice juicy fude, or BB nib. 

Hmm.  A juicy nib would make this near black.

 

2 minutes ago, yazeh said:

The line thickness seems to be quite wide with this ink. Is it one of the widest?

Yes.  There are only 13 inks (of 359) with wider line widths.

 

5 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Once again thanks for the swatches, its really helpful to understand, appreciate the ink colour.

You're very welcome!

 

6 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I'm assuming our heroes are marching on an Arctic/ Antarctic landscape, or is it just frozen land?

There is land under the ice, so more like the Antarctic than the Arctic, even though we are in the far north of the Wizardlands.

 

10 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I keep imaging. Essie bundled in one of Quin's "thmelly" thocks, (Otto Correct is having a fit with Sneak ) nestled I somewhere in Makhabesh's feathers, i.e, if Makhabesh has feathers and not scales.

Keep reading.  You'll learn about Essri's accommodations so he can tolerate the cold.

 

11 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Question, do Sphinx have feathers or leathers?

 Feathers.

 

11 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Thanks for bringing magic and silliness to this grey Tuesday morning in a world where people have forgotten the joy of being. 🙏🙏🙏

You're most welcome!

[yazeh]

22 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Hmm.  A juicy nib would make this near black.

Well, fude tends to spread the ink. But yes, I know what you mean with a wet flex nib, there'll be no colour.  

22 minutes ago, LizEF said:

 

Keep reading.  You'll learn about Essri's accommodations so he can tolerate the cold.

That's not fair.  

22 minutes ago, LizEF said:

 

 Feathers.

So he's not from a dragon line.  

 

[InkyProf]

Thank you, @LizEF! I have this ink but have not used it yet. I once tried to buy some; it was out of stock; I bought some cartridges of Sailor Suberakashi as a substitute -- and then found the Miruai and bought that too. Anyway, I have the Suberakashi in a pen now (from cartridge) and would say that it leans yellow about as much as Miruai leans blue, which is nice, because it means they're not redundant, even if they're both sort of stealth.

 

[LizEF]

9 minutes ago, yazeh said:

That's not fair.  

 I have been considering Patreon (or something similar) and offering subscribers early access and perhaps additional scenes.

 

11 minutes ago, yazeh said:

So he's not from a dragon line.  

To my knowledge, there are no dragon-sphinxes, but heaven only knows what's south of the desert...  

[LizEF]

5 minutes ago, InkyProf said:

Thank you, @LizEF!

You're most welcome!

 

6 minutes ago, InkyProf said:

I have this ink but have not used it yet. I once tried to buy some; it was out of stock; I bought some cartridges of Sailor Suberakashi as a substitute -- and then found the Miruai and bought that too.

 Why stop at one?  

 

7 minutes ago, InkyProf said:

Anyway, I have the Suberakashi in a pen now (from cartridge) and would say that it leans yellow about as much as Miruai leans blue, which is nice, because it means they're not redundant, even if they're both sort of stealth.

Yes!  You'll have both options for whichever mood hits you.  

[lamarax]

Oh Miruai, Miruai... you're such a pretty ink, but I forgot all about you since I laid my hands on Taccia's Sabimidori! 😘 

 

 

yeah, I know Sabimidori leans more teal

[LizEF]

5 minutes ago, lamarax said:

Oh Miruai, Miruai... you're such a pretty ink, but I forgot all about you once I laid my hands on Taccia's Sabimidori! 😘

  Sabimidori looks very nice.

 

But for some very bizarre reason which I cannot decipher, when I do a google search on it (by selecting the text, right clicking, and choosing to search), the AI summary comes up in Italian!  I double checked that my system is all set to use English, yet it's still Italian.  Bizarre.  (Google says I should change all the stuffs to English and the US and not use VPNs that route through Italy and other such nonsense that doesn't apply.  It's only when I search for this ink and only the AI response that's in Italian - the rest of the search results are in English.  I'm telling you, we don't have to worry about AI taking over the world.  We do have to worry about it shutting down the world because it doesn't know up from down... 

[lamarax]

1 minute ago, LizEF said:

  Sabimidori looks very nice.

 

But for some very bizarre reason which I cannot decipher, when I do a google search on it (by selecting the text, right clicking, and choosing to search), the AI summary comes up in Italian!  I double checked that my system is all set to use English, yet it's still Italian.  Bizarre.  (Google says I should change all the stuffs to English and the US and not use VPNs that route through Italy and other such nonsense that doesn't apply.  It's only when I search for this ink and only the AI response that's in Italian - the rest of the search results are in English.  I'm telling you, we don't have to worry about AI taking over the world.  We do have to worry about it shutting down the world because it doesn't know up from down... 

 

...it sounds Italian, that's why 😄

[InkyProf]

Just now, prompted by another thread, I tried to figure out using Google why it would be hard to source ammonia in Greece, and it just kept telling me how to get to Omonoia. I could not be less “of one mind” with this artificial intellect…

[lamarax]

31 minutes ago, InkyProf said:

Just now, prompted by another thread, I tried to figure out using Google why it would be hard to source ammonia in Greece, and it just kept telling me how to get to Omonoia. I could not be less “of one mind” with this artificial intellect…

 

[Edit] Clear ammonia -NH3- is hard (not impossible though) to find on shelves in Greece, because it's categorized by law as a 'controlled' ingredient that can be used to make explosives. Omonoia is quite an explosive place too 😉

[InkyProf]

I figured it must be something like that, thanks!

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, lamarax said:

 

...it sounds Italian, that's why 😄

[InesF]

Wait for a bit - and we will not need fireballs to melt mountains of ice.   

 

Thank you, @LizEF, for reviewing such a chameleon ink ^{(see below)}, for the story part that prepares us for the coming winter time and for:

On 9/24/2025 at 12:00 AM, LizEF said:

I'm telling you, we don't have to worry about AI taking over the world.  We do have to worry about it shutting down the world because it doesn't know up from down... 

  

... but, what if all AI source code was originally written by Italians ... ?  

 

Back to the ink (stay honest, InesF!)

I love the hue of this ink and how it looks more blue from magnifications. As mentioned by @lamarax, same for me about Taccia Sabimidori plus R&K Verdigris.

However, as soon as I empty one of my green-black, green-grey, petrol-black or petrol-grey inks, I will put Miruai on my shopping list. Promised! Preferably from an Italian vendor, I guess! 🤫   

[LizEF]

6 hours ago, InesF said:

Wait for a bit - and we will not need fireballs to melt mountains of ice.   

Wait a bit longer and we will have nothing but mountains of ice.  

 

6 hours ago, InesF said:

Thank you, @LizEF, for reviewing such a chameleon ink ^{(see below)}, for the story part that prepares us for the coming winter time and for:

On 9/23/2025 at 4:00 PM, LizEF said:

I'm telling you, we don't have to worry about AI taking over the world.  We do have to worry about it shutting down the world because it doesn't know up from down... 

  

... but, what if all AI source code was originally written by Italians ... ?  

 You're most welcome!  (I think @lamarax was right - the ink name alone sounds Italian. I selected the ink name, including the 's, right clicked and chose "Search google for..." - so I gave the search engine no context or question at all...)

 

6 hours ago, InesF said:

Back to the ink (stay honest, InesF!)

I love the hue of this ink and how it looks more blue from magnifications. As mentioned by @lamarax, same for me about Taccia Sabimidori plus R&K Verdigris.

However, as soon as I empty one of my green-black, green-grey, petrol-black or petrol-grey inks, I will put Miruai on my shopping list. Promised! Preferably from an Italian vendor, I guess! 🤫   

  I recommend a broader nib, one that spreads it out enough to see some of the color!  But if it were me, I'd be going for Verdigris, followed by Sabimidori before Miruai...

[InesF]

On 9/25/2025 at 4:42 PM, LizEF said:

But if it were me, I'd be going for Verdigris, followed by Sabimidori before Miruai...

Thank you! 👍

Note to myself: ink drawer is big enough!  

[LizEF]

5 hours ago, InesF said:

Thank you! 👍

 You're welcome!

 

5 hours ago, InesF said:

Note to myself: ink drawer is big enough!