Hottest Inks of 2022

We're back and here to cover the Hottest Inks of 2022! We first started doing this annual roundup back in 2018, so this is our 5th annual roundup and just like in years past, there are sure to be some surprises on this list. Like our Hottest Pens of 2022 Video, we wanted to have some fun and share with you what we thought made this year special in the world of fountain pen inks. However, unlike our pen video, the hottest inks of 2022 might be an entire brand…so read on to find out if your favorites made the list. Enjoy!

Hottest Inks of 2022

#7-Pelikan Edelstein Apatite SE– Ink Of The Year

It should go without mentioning that this ink pairs with the Pelikan M205 Apatite released this year. It's a beautiful teal color with the easy-to-maintain reputation of all other Edelstein inks. If teal inks are your jam, it's still available so you can add this hot new color to your collection. Not quite as dry writing as the Pelikan 4000 series, this ink fits the just write balance between wet flowing, and not taking forever to dry.

Pelikan Apatite bottle and swab

#6-Colorverse Witch by Starlight

We're so excited about the reception of our Goulet Pens Exclusive ink, Witch by Starlight. This is a deeply saturated color that goes down blue and dries purple with added rose gold shimmer. It fits with the space theming of Colorverse's inks and comes in a 65ml Coloverse bottle which is a unique shape for their brand. Colorverse inks are a bit more on the wet side, so this is a great ink for your flex nib pens!

Colorverse Witch by Starlight ink swab and writing sample

 

#5-Colorverse Butterfly Nebula

Another Colorverse Ink. This year Colorverse upped its ink game, and it's not hard to see why. Butterfly Nebula is a light Purple chromoshading ink that also has shimmer. Like other Colorverse Inks, it comes packaged with NGC 6302 which is a light green color. It debuted at the DC Pen Show in 2022, commemorating the honor of being the first-ever ink company to be put on the cover of Pen World Magazine. If you don't have it already, don't worry, we still have some available.

Coloverse Butterfly Nebula Ink swabs on white paper

 

#4-Sailor Dual-Shading Inks

Technically there are a lot of inks in this collection, so we had to combine it down to the property of the ink. The dual shading inks introduced this year do not disappoint. They are multi-tonal, with dual-shading properties. That has become a popular theme this year, as you'll see. However, they've been making inks with these properties for a few years. If you've not checked out Haha, and Nekoyanagi those popular standards are a good place to start, but with the launch of Fuji, Koke, Hinoke, and Ayame together this summer, they created some even more amazing colors that are soft and still exciting. We have a sample set available so you can try them all out!

Swatches of all the Sailor Chromoshading inks

 

#3-Sailor Yurameku collection

That's right, another Sailor ink collection. These are inks that were designed to look quite different from each other on different papers, and boy do they! Seki was the most popular color, looking like anything from a greenish gray to a pink with aqua shading, it's pretty wild. This is just another example of how multi-tonal inks are rising in popularity this year.

3 bottles of Yurameku inks with swatches in front of the bottles.

 

#2-Ferris Wheel Press

We were very excited to launch Ferris Wheel Press inks this year. While that brand has been around for a while, they were new for us as a whole brand. It because clear however that these inks were special. Roaring Patina Black was clear #1, but because it was a limited edition it's gone for good (at least, as far as we know)! However, the release of the new FerriTales collection will be sure to have something that catches your eye.

Small FWP ink bottle with swab card and writing sample on wooden desk background.

 

Before we reveal our hottest ink of the year, we wanted to share which were just regularly offered, non-new colors that were popular but that if we put them on this list, it'd be sort of the same colors we'd be talking about every single year…so think of it as some honorable mentions.

Honorable Mentions

OS Nitrogen

Herbin Emerald of Chivor

Diamine Oxblood

Pilot Kon-Peki

Noodler's Black

Diamine Writer's Blood

DA Document Black

Diamine Polar Glow

 

And the Hottest Ink of 2022 is…

 

#1-Diamine Inkvent Green Edition

Ok, so it's really 25 inks but they're small! The Diamine Inkvent Calendar – Green Edition is an entire ink experience. Following the popularity of the Blue Edition from 2019 and the Red Edition from 2021, it works like an Advent calendar so you can "unbox" each color; one for each of the first 25 days of December. Sadly, this Inkvent Calendar sold out very quickly, and they only do one release each year. It's possible they could bring some of the colors back into regularly offered bottles like they have with a couple of others from past Inkvents like the Blue Edition colors from 2019's Inkvent and the Red Edition Colors from 2021.

green Diamine Inkvent Calendar

 

Be sure to check out the Hottest Fountain Pens of 2022 video too!