Disappointing inks
Disappointing inks
Do you have any inks that you wanted to buy after reading great reviews that turned out less exciting than expected?
My biggest disappointment is Diamine Skull & Roses. After seeing swatches online I expected a blue ink with a visible red sheen. Unfortunately the sheen is just not there at all, it looks like an average dark blue ink, not even blurple. I'm glad I've only bought the 30 ml bottle.
For me, that was Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses. It looked so cool and full of shading in the swatches I looked at - especially when it got dark, nearly black where it pooled.
Maybe I got another, worse batch of it or something, but for me it's just a really uniform magenta, even on TR and wet pens. I don't get what the hype is about, but maybe I was just unlucky.
Funnily, for me, skull and roses sheens red pretty heavily on nearly all papers. Maybe you got a bad batch, as well?
3Robert Oster Smoke Screen - the pictures look great but it's been boring in every test. It was frustrating because I usually stick with Diamine and felt like wasted money.
2I have had some issues with Robert Oster inks and hard starts. In particular, they don't work well in my Lamy 2000 fine nib and Pilot Prera medium nib pens, whereas a Pilot Iroshizuku ink I bought recently seems to flow a lot better. It's a shame, because I do like the colours; I might try them in my Kaweco sport pen (which has a wetter medium nib) and see if they flow better.
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Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-Ro - it is basically a teal. I received it as a gift sample when buying from a reputable seller (arlepo) and it looks and behaves totally average for me. i've never owned any Pilot Iroshizuku or other premium series like Pelikan Edelstein and was super hyped about it. But eventually my expectations were not met. Honestly.
... I mean, it looks good. But not 21€ good.
1I do not know the particular ink, but what paper have you tried it on? I see very big difference depending on paper :)
It's fun with inks - sometimes I'm really sure I'm gonna enjoy it - but I don't. But just as often it's the other way around.
1I just picked up a bottle of Pilot Iroshizuku Ajisai. It seemed so pretty in swatches, but in the pen it's just a flat, pale blue with no purple in it at all.
1Noodler’s 54th Massachusetts. I love the color and the permanence characteristics. But it is waaaay too much of a gusher. I’ve read that there is some inconsistency between batches, so I periodically order a sample just to see if it’s changed. It never has for me. I even get some bleed through on really nice papers like Tomoe River.
I’ve turned to Sailor Souboku as an alternative permanent dark gray-blue.
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