Diamine Golden Sands: Ink Review

Diamine Golden Sands shimmering fountain pen ink is from Diamine's Shimmertastic collection. Golden Sands is not opaque like calligraphy gold ink, but it is certainly above and beyond anything else out there. Check out the full review below!

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):

• Slow – This ink dried very slowly. Diamine ink tends to run a bit wet, but this one seemed particularly wet. Additionally, to really see the shimmer, you'll want to use a lot of ink which will extend the dry time further. If you are writing in a notebook, you'll want to set it aside for a minute or two before turning the page.

Drip Test (Water Resistance):

• Low – Since the underlying ink is a yellow tone, the ink very quickly dissipates when water is applied. You can see that it virtually disappears in the drip test!

Saturation:

• Low – You can see a difference between the first and third swipe of the swab. That probably has to do with the suspended particles of sparkle in the ink as much as with the ink itself. You see a lot more color and shimmer when more ink is applied.

Ease of Cleaning:

• Medium – Because the base color is a pale yellow, it's pretty easy to clean, however, because the ink has that additional shimmer, you may want to take a little bit of time cleaning the feed and your converter so you don't get left over shimmering particles in your next fill. To clean the feed, just use a Goulet Pens Feed Brush for a nice deep cleaning experience.

Shading:

• High -This ink has lovely shading, even with a medium LAMY nib! It 'shines' most where the ink is the darkest and most saturated.

Flow:

• Medium– This ink flows well and you should have no issues in any pen, from a LAMY to an Ahab, it'll be a steady writer with minimal issues.

 Packaging and Aesthetics:

• 50ml glass bottle with a special box and label that are fun looking.
• The bottle has a similarly sized opening to that of the normal Diamine bottles. It would work well to fill from, even if the ink were low.

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

Summary:

This is one of the best golden ink we've seen and with the added shimmer it's even more fun! It's a bright, sparkly yellow, and it's such a great shader.  This ink would serve well for letters or fun art projects, or your own journals. It's not a work-appropriate choice mostly due to the light color and the shimmer, but it'd be perfect for writing cards! We think everyone should try this ink out!

This color is available in 50ml bottles as well as our 2ml sample size.