This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 17 door:

Day 17’s ink is Diamine Lavender Frost. It’s a shimmer ink.

Diamine Lavender Frost is a greyish-lavender ink with silver shimmer to it. The base ink shows a good amount of shading, and the shimmer helps the ink pop. Without the shimmer effect Diamine Lavender Frost would be rather anaemic, but the shimmer adds character and punch to it.

I used a Fude nib to write this review, and Diamine Lavender Frost definitely needs a medium or wider nib to show its full properties. As it is it’s very reminiscent of last year’s Diamine Memory Lane, but with a more toned down, greyer base purple.

Here are swabs of both Diamine Memory Lane and Diamine Lavender Frost:

And here’s Diamine Harmony (which is significantly redder and a standard ink) compared to Diamine Lavender Frost.

Here’s a sketch of the totally mis-named Spooky bear. He’s anything but spooky. You can see just how much shading Diamine Lavender Frost has, and the shimmer effect in action especially on the bear’s nose:

Here’s the original bear:

Diamine Lavender Frost is very aptly named (unlike my little Spooky bear), and while it may not be very different from last year’s Memory Lane, it’s still a nice addition to this year’s Inkvent calendar. I’m not actually sure which of the two I prefer, Memory Lane or Lavender Frost. What do you think?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 16 door:

Day 16’s ink is Diamine Merry & Bright. It’s a shimmer ink.

This is Diamine Merry and Bright, and it’s the exact opposite of yesterday’s Diamine Walnut. It’s a bright green shimmer ink with some shading to it and a lot of pizzazz.

The base ink is a vibrant apple green which is indeed merry, and the green shimmer really brightens it up, so Diamine Merry & Bright is well named. It’s a perfect holiday colour, and a great colour to cheer you up on a dark winter’s day. There’s something about this ink that makes me smile.

This is Little George, and he is indeed a very small bear. I got him at the same time as I got Billy, from the same maker and the same store in York. The shimmer didn’t photograph well here but you can see the shading quite nicely:

Here’s the original bear, Little George with his full set of accessories: bag, hat and scarf.

Diamine Merry & Bright is a perfect ink for an Inkvent calendar, and a fun winter’s ink in general. It would be perfect for journaling, letters and greeting cards. Do you see yourself using an ink like Merry & Bright or do you find it a bit too much?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 15 door:

Day 15’s ink is Diamine Walnut. It’s a standard ink.

Compared to previous Inkvents, there’s been a dearth of brown inks in this year’s calendar. Diamine Walnut is the first brown ink of the calendar, and it’s a nice solid walnut colour with a good amount of shading.

This year’s Inkvent started out strong, with a large collection of interesting and vibrant inks, so Diamine Walnut kind of falls flat amongst this bunch. There’s nothing really to set it apart from Diamine’s solid standard lineup of brown inks, but I guess that amongst the pinks, purples and oranges there needs to be room for an ink like this.

As with most brown inks, Diamine Walnut is a good ink for sketching. It was fun sketching Orson with this ink, and seeing just how widely varied its shading is.

This is Orson. He tends to lean back a little, and I think that just adds to his charm:

I don’t see myself investing in a full bottle of Diamine Walnut, as I have more than enough brown inks in my collection already. I understand the place of inks of this kind in the Inkvent calendar, yet somehow they still give off a feeling of being a “filler” ink, a “what more can we add to make it to 25” sort of choice. Do you agree?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 14 door:

Day 14’s ink is Diamine Rainbows End. It’s a chameleon ink.

Diamine Rainbow’s End is the most party appropriate ink in this Inkvent so far. It’s purple, it’s got the sparkle, and it has a whole rainbow of colour in it. What’s not to like?

The purple ink underlying Rainbow’s End is vibrant and shades well, and the glitter moves from gold to pink to orange to silver. The result is a very difficult to photograph ink that’s a lot of fun to use.

This is Billy. He’s a small limited edition bear that I got as a gift from a York bear shop after buying a whole host of other limited edition bears. I love his scarf and I love his face.

Here’s Billy:

I think that Diamine Rainbow’s End makes for a great pick-me-up ink for a gloomy winter’s day. It’s festive and fun and would make for an excellent journaling ink. What do you think about it?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 13 door:

Day 13’s ink is Diamine Weeping Willow. It’s a standard ink.

To call Diamine Weeping Willow a standard ink is to not do it justice. Weeping Willow is one of the shade changing inks that have been made so popular by Japanese ink makers. In this case it’s a combination of a greenish ochre and pink undertones. You can see it clearly in the swab below, but even in a fine nib the effect is pronounced.

I love this colour and I love the effect the ink has on the page. I will give it some more time, but I suspect that I will be purchasing an entire bottle of this ink:

Because of the muted, unsaturated shade, Diamine Weeping Willow adds a lot of interest to sketches. Its shifting colours also add to the effect, and you get a somewhat nostalgic, vintage look to your sketches:

And here’s the original bear:

What do you think about the colour changing properties of Diamine Weeping Willow? Would you use it or is it too light a shade for your use?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 12 door:

Day 12’s ink is Diamine Bah Humbug. It’s a chameleon ink.

I think this is one of the darkest chameleon inks we’ve seen from Diamine. Bah Humbug’s base ink colour is a deep, dark wine red, very saturated. The chameleon shimmer brings light and interest into it — pink, gold, red glitter flash in its depths, making this a very attractive red ink.

This is the perfect ink for use on cream or off-white paper, and an excellent choice for greeting cards or present labels. It’s very saturated so there’s very little shading.

The bear I sketched this time is a replica of a 1907 bear. I decided to give it a more caricature like treatment. You can see some of the chameleon shimmer on the page here, particularly in his bow:

From a different angle you can see more of the chameleon shimmer, particularly in the eyes and the bow:

And here’s Bully Bear Minor himself:

I love the name Diamine chose for this ink. Do you have any favourite holiday themed inks with clever names in your collection?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 11 door:

Day 11’s ink is Diamine Glacier. It’s a “Star Bright” ink.

What is a “Star Bright” ink? If I had to venture a guess it’s shimmer ink with a lot of extra shimmering. A lot. A whole sack full of glitter was poured into this tiny bottle and the result is a little astounding.

You can see the intensity of the shimmer in this writing sample — if the Diamine Glacier didn’t shade as much as it does I couldn’t have told you from this sample whether it was a gel glitter pen or a super shimmering fountain pen ink.

The shading in Diamine Glacier works well with the choice of light blue shimmer. I love the muted base colour, and the “star bright” effect makes it special and festive.

This is a sketch of today’s bear, Skye, from my now defunct favourite bear store in Greenwich, London:

I took a closeup of the sketch in the hopes of showing just how much glitter is in this ink:

And the original bear:

This is a wonderful seasonal greeting card ink, and you might find it generally useful for other greeting cards and for journaling. As for me, I’m slightly dreading cleaning out the TWSBI GO fountain pen I used for this review.

Do you see yourself buying a bottle of Diamine Glacier? What would you use it for?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 10 door:

Day 10’s ink is Diamine Velvet Emerald. It’s a standard ink.

Diamine Velvet Emerald is a standard ink with a good amount of shading and some red sheen. That’s a good amount of interest for a “standard” ink.

Velvet Emerald is a nice enough ink, but of all the inks so far it’s a bit lacking in terms of novelty. There are other artificial greens in the market, and even Diamine has a large selection of greens in this sort of colour.

Another tiny bear sketch today, this time of a hand-made one-of-a-kind British bear called Gerald. He looks a bit grumpy/worried, and I love him for it.

Here’s Gerald:

What do you think of Diamine Velvet Emerald? Is it a boring ink in a calendar full of chameleon shimmer and dual tone effects?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 9 door:

Day 9’s ink is Diamine Moon Beam. It’s a chameleon ink.

Once again Diamine proves that darker inks work best with the chameleon effect. Diamine Moon Beam is a medium-dark cool grey inlk with plenty of shading and dazzling chameleon shimmer.

I started writing this review with a medium Lamy Safari nib and it dried out after a few lines. No idea what happened but it didn’t affect the Lamy left handed AL Star nib I replaced it with, so I blame the nib and not the ink. The chameleon shimmer wasn’t properly captured here so I’ll say that it ranges from gold, pink, purple, green, silver and turquoise and it’s glorious.

This tiny bear is the first one I sketched from a “big” manufacturer: Clemens. I have a few Clemens bears as I like their look, and this one charmed me with his face and his irresistible paper hat.

Here’s the original bear:

Diamine Moon Beam has the best chameleon effect so far this year, as you can see so much variety of colour and the dark base ink makes it really pop. What do you think? Is Diamine Moon Beam festive enough for greeting cards? Do you see yourself using it regularly?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 8 door:

Day 8’s ink is Diamine Jacaranda. It’s a standard ink.

Today’s ink is a standard ink in a lovely bluish-violet, very aptly named Diamine Jacaranda.

Jacaranda shades beautiful and I love the subtlety of its colour – this is an ink that can be used both for journaling and for work, and you could definitely use it for greeting cards. Like all purple inks it’s very difficult to photograph so the photo of the best sketch made it look much bluer than it is. The other photos are more true to life.

This bear is called Sammy and he has an unusual head shape and a cardigan, so he’s an outlier in my collection. He’s got a polar bear thing going on, instead of the more traditional brown bear influences.

Here’s Sammy with his perfect cardigan and his perfect toes:

Diamine Jacaranda is one of the inks that I’m more likely to buy a full bottle of once this Inkvent is over. I like the colour, the shading and the name, plus it’s a standard ink so it’s more generally useful to me. Do you see yourself using Diamine Jacaranda in the future?