EFNIR: Sailor STORiA Night Blue

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Sailor STORiA Night Blue

This is review #378 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: This ink was gifted to me by a generous FPGeek. I can't find this anywhere in stock, but also can't find anything clearly saying it's discontinued. It doesn't look very night-like to me, more a muted royal blue.

The video makes the ink much too bright and saturated while also muting the shading. Check out the scan for a more accurate representation.

I had flow problems on Thursday morning (ink suddenly stopped). Priming the feed fixed it. Flow was fine the rest of the time. The flow rating is based off An Ink Guy's review (on YouTube). In use, the ink doesn't seem that wet to me, making me wonder if this is an occasion where viscosity and surface tension and other variables conflict...

The microscope smear was boring, but showed the same cloud / silt pattern as other pigmented inks, just less of it. That, along with the fact that there didn't seem to be pigment settled at the bottom of the vial suggests that there's not as much pigment in this ink as is found in many others.

Cleaning wasn't too bad for a permanent ink. I did have to scrub inside the converter and on the back of the nib shoulders, where ink had dried. Oddly, tap water at full blast into the back of the section was enough to remove dried ink behind that tab the converter/cartridge attaches to.

Erratum: There's an "r" missing.

Zoomed in photo (Color is pretty close.)

Screenshot (Too bright / oversaturated and doesn't show the shading. (Makes the ink look like Baystate Blue, which it isn't. Killing the shading makes it look too dark, even though it's over-saturated.))

Scan of Completed Review (This is very close to what I see, and the best color representation.)

Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (Contrast is a little too high. The pale bits shouldn't be as pale. Color seems to lean too green/turquoise.)

Line width (Roughly 338µm. The "I" in "Ink:". Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 361µm, with twelve divisions of 30.08µm each. With 378 inks measured, the average line width is 299µm.) (Wider than I expected. Perhaps it's also wetter than it seemed. (Must have accidentally nudged the scroll wheel or something to get the 361 microns. Not gonna redo it. It's close enough - I did adjust my math accordingly.))

Swatch card comparison (This is a scan (usually I do a photo or screenshot). Lamy Blue is too pale. The others aren't too far off, but might be a little under-saturated. The color didn't want to cooperate.)

Water Test Results

Previous Review: MoJi 07 Lavender Blue.

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.

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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. Or read Part 8: The Ice Fields Adventure.

Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

[yazeh]

What a wonderful review @LizEF once again. 👍

I love this color on the screen, but I won't like it if I write with it, I'm sure. I waver between subtle and murk-dom these days.

Loved the disclaimer at the beginning and the sort of Star Wars scrolling at the end of the video. Kind of cool especially with the usual sound effects. 

The storyline was powerful, playing with impossible lies, idealism and values  🙏

 

The ink is available in some international markets, btw.

I reviewed a red Storia sometime ago. The dye stained the vial like most pink inks. Is your vial stained? I'm guessing no.

 

Thanks for bringing us magic and truth on this very cold Tuesday morning.  🙏🙏🙏

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

Nice shading!  But, y'know, pigmented inks and me…. 😉

 

I do have all the comparison inks. Which are not pigmented!  And pretty much similar in color to each other.  Lamy Blue is in my blue Lamy Al Star now.

 

Getting tight for our heroes. And I sympathize with Quin and everyone.  We are snowed in, state of emergency declared, my new eyeglasses delayed. Waah waah, waah, etc.  😅
 

@LizEF, thanks so much for brightening this Ice World Tuesday.  😸

[LizEF]

11 minutes ago, yazeh said:

What a wonderful review @LizEF once again. 👍

 Thanks!

 

11 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I love this color on the screen, but I won't like it if I write with it, I'm sure. I waver between subtle and murk-dom these days.

  It's too blue-blue for me.  Might make a nice sky, though it doesn't look like "night" to me...

 

12 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Loved the disclaimer at the beginning and the sort of Star Wars scrolling at the end of the video. Kind of cool especially with the usual sound effects. 

 Had to do the warning since the color was so off in the video (sometimes it does that).  The scrolling at the end is always there - did that because people who watch on phones complained that they couldn't read the text. (I'm thinking they keep their phones in portrait mode - even I can read it when I rotate my phone-shaped Android device to landscape.)

 

14 minutes ago, yazeh said:

The storyline was powerful, playing with impossible lies, idealism and values  🙏

 Thanks!

 

14 minutes ago, yazeh said:

The ink is available in some international markets, btw.

I reviewed a red Storia sometime ago. The dye stained the vial like most pink inks. Is your vial stained? I'm guessing no.

Yes, STORiA inks shouldn't be too hard to get, at least in the US and Canada.  The vial is the sort of stained that happens with ink vials where the ink sits in them for years.  I suspect it will wash clean when the time comes, but maybe not - hard to say.

 

16 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Thanks for bringing us magic and truth on this very cold Tuesday morning.  🙏🙏🙏

You're most welcome!  

[LizEF]

10 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Nice shading!  But, y'know, pigmented inks and me…. 😉

Yes - it does shade well.    Totally understand the pigment thing - not worth it for a lot of us.

 

14 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

I do have all the comparison inks. Which are not pigmented!  And pretty much similar in color to each other.  Lamy Blue is in my blue Lamy Al Star now.

 

14 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Getting tight for our heroes. And I sympathize with Quin and everyone.  We are snowed in, state of emergency declared, my new eyeglasses delayed. Waah waah, waah, etc.  😅

 Sorry you're snowed in so bad. We're headed into a pretty serious drought here - weird weather this year. Hope your glasses arrive anyway and the heat and electric stay on!

 

15 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

@LizEF, thanks so much for brightening this Ice World Tuesday.  😸

You're very welcome!

[inkstainedruth]

This looks to be a nice shade of blue.  And don't mind pigmented inks.  But of course if it's hard to get (or discontinued) I'd probably have to pass.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LizEF]

33 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

This looks to be a nice shade of blue.  And don't mind pigmented inks.  But of course if it's hard to get (or discontinued) I'd probably have to pass.

I have no idea how hard it is to get, but since it's a fairly common color, you probably already have something similar and I hear your wallet shouting, "Yeah! Use what you have!"   

[inkstainedruth]

Oh you must have hidden microphones in my house!  Because that's EXACTLY what my wallet would be shouting....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LizEF]

50 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Oh you must have hidden microphones in my house!  Because that's EXACTLY what my wallet would be shouting....

[A Smug Dill]

3 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

But of course if it's hard to get (or discontinued) I'd probably have to pass.

 

This ink, along with other Sailor STORiA inks with circus-themed names, was discontinued some years ago, and replaced by STORiA MiX. I have no idea how close the STORiA MiX Blue is to this one.

 

I see somewhere that has it in stock and is available for online ordering, but yes, it is hard to get.

[LizEF]

Thanks for clarifying, @A Smug Dill!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Saw photos of Storia inks online.  I thought they looked like poster paints.