Diamine Cocoa Shimmer: Ink Review

Part of Diamine’s Shimmertastic collection, this Cocoa Shimmer brown fountain pen ink features gold shimmer. This ink is the perfect ink for anyone looking for a bright brown ink with depth from the golden shimmer. It's warm and delicious, just like the name makes it sound! Read on to find out more.

Ink Review 

Supplies Used:

• LAMY AL-star with medium steel nib
• Rhodia No. 16 dot pad, 80g white paper
• Tomoé River 52 gsm white paper
• Leuchtturm1917 80g notebook

Smear Test (Dry Time):

• 20+ seconds – This dried fairly quickly despite how wet it writes. The ink was dry by 30 seconds and showcased a lot of shimmer.

Drip Test (Water Resistance):

• Low – We found this ink did not hold up to water well, though it would still be perfect for desk top journaling.

Saturation:

• High – The rich dark browns come through as the Swabs from 1 to 3 and the shimmer is quite robust.

Ease of Cleaning:

• Low – As with any shimmer ink the particulate is difficult to rinse away, we recommend our Goulet Feed Brush to help scrub down any stubborn deposits of shimmer.

Shading:

• Medium-Low – The ink its self does not have much shading but paired with the gold shimmer you will see some color variation especially when the light hits just right.

Flow:

• High – This is a pretty wet writing ink and it flows readily without causing an issue on some less fountain pen friendly papers.

 Packaging and Aesthetics:

• The Shimmertastic series comes in a tall glass bottle with a cute gold cap and well-designed labels. Diamine has sturdy glass bottles for all their inks, which look great on a desk!

If you're interested in similar colors, check out our Swab Shop where you can compare colors side by side.

Summary:

At first glance, this ink may seem like just a warm brown, but once it's on the page, it shines! The brown paired with the warm gold shimmer creates a dynamic writing experience. Brown is a somewhat overlooked color, especially for ink, but this is a must try. 

This color is available in 50ml bottles as well as our ink samples.