It’s me, Kelsi, bringing you another ink review! This time I had the opportunity to take a closer look at one of our J. Herbin shimmer inks, Amethyste de l’Oural. I’ll be honest, I don’t frequently use shimmer inks because I don’t like having to clean them out of my pens afterwards. However, I was reminded while doing this review just how fun they are to write with, and why so many people love them! Here’s what I found about this one in particular:
Supplies Used:
- Lamy Al-Star with medium steel nib (also EF and B nib)
- Rhodia No. 16 dotpad, 80g white paper
- Tomoé River white paper
- Moleskine notebook
Smear Test (Dry Time):
- About 35 seconds – The ink still smeared a little bit at the 30 second mark of the smear test, so it would have been totally dry around 35 seconds.
Drip Test (Water Resistance):
- Medium – While the ink did smear, there was still visible ink left behind on the drip test.
Saturation:
- High – I couldn’t see much difference between swabs 1,2, & 3 .
Ease of Cleaning:
- Medium – The shimmer was a bit hard to clean out of my feed, and I ended up removing the feed and using a toothbrush to get all the shimmer out. It’s also a pretty dark and saturated ink, so it took a couple times to flush it all out.
Shading:
- Low – The color was pretty consistent throughout and didn’t provide much variation.
Flow:
- Wet – I was actually surprised at how well the ink flowed as I was writing. It put down a pretty wet line.
Packaging and Aesthetics:
- The bottles that the J. Herbin shimmer inks come in are so lovely! They have wax seal on the front and are a really attractive square shape. If you are looking for a bottle to display or give as a gift, this is a great option.
Inks Similar in Color:
Summary:
Like I said before, I was reminded while doing this review just how great shimmer inks can be. The shimmer in this ink adds such a fun flair to my writing and it’s mesmerizing! I really like how dark the base ink is, and the silver shimmer shows up really well against it.
You can find a 50ml bottle of J. Herbin Amethyste de l’Oural at GouletPens.com, or a 2ml sample is also available if you want to just try it out!
Do you have a favorite shimmering ink?
Write On,
Kelsi
