Diamine Inkvent 2025 Day 6

Day 6’s ink is Diamine Fir & Fog, a chameleon ink. The base ink colour is an attractive dark grey grey, which is very evocative of fir trees in the fog. The chameleon effect is subtle but lovely – shimmers range from green, through blue and silver, to pink. What you see depends on the lighting conditions, the angle at which you view the paper, and the width of the nib. I used a generous Lamy Safari medium nib.

The base ink, without the chameleon effect, would have been excellent as an Inkvent ink in and of itself. It’s a muted and characterful green that offers a good amount of shading and interest and is dark enough to be used not just for holiday correspondence or for journaling. The chameleon effect isn’t in your face, over the top shimmer. It’s more like a little secret that only those in the know get to experience.

Today’s bear is a Canterbury Bear with no name. I like his “frosted tips” fur and his owl-like face (and the fact that he’s from a small maker), which is why I purchased him.

Diamine Fir & Fog is a wonderful ink, a great addition to the Inkvent calendar, and definitely an ink that I would consider purchasing a full bottle of in the future. I think it’s a great wintery ink, and it would look even better on cream coloured paper.

What do you think of Fir & Fog? Did you catch the chameleon effect?

Diamine Inkvent 2025 Day 5

Day 5’s ink is Diamine Marie Rose, a standard ink that looks like a thousand island dressing. Apparently Marie Rose is a British seafood or cocktail sauce. I never heard of it before, likely because I don’t eat seafood. In any case the ink colour is unique and beautiful, with plenty of interesting shading.

Although Marie Rose is a light ink, it’s dark enough to be readable, and would work particularly well in thin papered notebooks, as there’s bound to be no ghosting or bleed-through.

Today’s bear comes with very little information, beyond a price tag and an embroidered tag with the name “SHULTZ” on it. He’s tiny (about the size of a Col-o-ring) but full of character, and proper bear.

I like Diamine Marie Rose and I’d see myself using it in the future. It’s a light and optimistic ink that’s well behaved, interesting and unique. It makes up a bit for yesterday’s disaster ink.

What do you think? Do you see yourself buying a bottle of Marie Rose ink?

Diamine Inkvent 2025 Day 4

Day 4’s ink is Diamine Smoky Tobacco. It’s a scented sepia ink and I loathe it with every fiber of my being. I hate that it’s named after tobacco, I hate that it’s a scented ink, I hate that it stinks to high heaven, I don’t like the ink’s flow and I’m not a fan of the colour. I have no idea what Diamine were thinking naming an ink after Tobacco and then having it reek of stale Tobacco but it’s a terrible idea and a terrible ink. It went straight to the trash can after this review, and the pen is about to be thoroughly cleaned out.

The issue is that this ink stinks so much that it actually made my whole notebook smell like it had been in a smokers house for the past few years. I am considering ripping the page out and throwing it to the garbage. If it still smells this badly in a day or two that’s what I’ll do.

Today’s bear is one of the prettiest in my collection. Her name is Zelda and she’s a Charlie Bear. Her body is so, so heavy but her mohair fur is as soft as it looks. It’s like stroking clouds.

I am so angry at Diamine for naming an ink after Tobacco, and then going out of their way to give us the full Tobacco experience. Here’s hoping that tomorrow’s ink is better, and that this is the last of Diamine’s scented inks, at least for this year’s Inkvent. Otherwise we might be getting a “dead rat carcass in the chimney” ink, or a “rotting wreath” one.

Diamine Inkvent 2025 Day 3

Day 3’s ink is Diamine Carousel. It’s a red pigment ink – which should mean that it’s waterproof, something that I will test later on.

Carousel is an orangey/coral red ink that flowed well in my Lamy Safari medium nib. There’s a bit of shading with this ink, which surprised me. I wasn’t expecting any shading because it’s a pigmented ink, and from my experience they tend to be “flatter”. In any case Carousel is a bright and cheerful colour, perfect for the season.

I had to check if Diamine Carousel is waterproof, so I sketched one of the beaches near my apartment. I then waited for the ink to completely dry, and painted over it with watercolours. It worked perfectly, as you can see, and I actually like the effect of sketching with such a peculiar colour of ink.

Today’s bear is Lialu, and he’s a Dean’s bear, and another one of the few blue bears that I own. Look what a serious little fellow he is:

Today’s bear – very dignified and distinguished

Diamine Carousel is a fun ink that’s completely waterproof when dry, and a joy to sketch with. I will certainly enjoy sketching with it, and time will tell if I’ll be adding it to my waterproof ink collection later next year. For scenes with lots of greens I think it would work particularly well, as it makes greens pop.

Do you see yourself sketching with this ink?

Diamine Inkvent 2025 Day 2

Day 2’s ink is Diamine Energy, a purple ink with golden green sheen. I used a Lamy Safari with a medium nib to test this ink out. The ink is very saturated, as I’d expect from a sheening ink, but there’s so much green sheen on it that it makes the ink look dusty.

Energy can be mistaken for a black ink in certain angles and from a distance, which is a bit of a shame as the base purple colour is gorgeous.

The sheen is interesting – there’s a cooler, bluish undertone to it that makes it more dusky and more muted than the standard golden green sheen that usually appears in dark purple inks.

The ink has a generous flow, and it will likely sheen even on relatively absorbent paper. I didn’t test it on Tomoe River Paper but I’m guessing that you’d likely not even see the base purple colour there.

There is an issue with such a dark, saturated and wet ink: ghosting and bleed-through. Both occurred here, to the point where I’m likely to just dump this ink out rather than use it for writing. This is an ink that is either for those willing to use only one side of the page, or those using very thick paper.

Today’s bear is Jayson. He’s literally one-of-a-kind – an artist bear made by Cornfield Cubs. He’s got a bit of a goofy face, which is why I bought him.

Diamine Energy is an interesting ink. I like the original name, though I don’t think it really fits the Christmas/holiday/winter theme of the Inkvent calendar. I wouldn’t buy a bottle of this ink because the sheen is too much for my liking and the ghosting and bleed-through make it impractical. What do you think?

Diamine Inkvent 2025 Day 1

Day 1’s ink is Diamine Celestial Skies. It’s a dark, saturated teal shimmer ink with plenty of red sheen on the proper paper. It’s a festive start for the Teal Edition calendar, and I love how rich and regal this ink looks on the page.

Col-o-Ring swab. I used a Lamy Al Star with a broad nib to test this ink

The ink has a silvery green shimmer that looks golden under certain lighting conditions and in certain angles. It has a generous flow, and I do see myself contemplating purchasing a full bottle of it when Diamine starts selling Teal Edition inks sometime in the middle of next year. With the shimmer, the sheen and a good amount of shading, plus the wonderful base ink colour, this ink will never be boring.

I think I have only three blue bears, and Finn here is one of them. Once I saw the ink colour I decided he’d be a nice bear to start off this year’s Inkvent reviews with. He’s five years old, though he doesn’t look it, and I love his pensive face and outreaching “hug me” paws.

Diamine Inkvent 2025 Spoiler Free Introduction

As the year comes to a close, it’s time for this year’s Diamine Inkvent. This year’s calendar is the Teal Edition – one of my favourite colours. I am guessing that it will include some version of Diamine’s new Forever pigmented inks. It will likely also include shimmer, chameleon, sheening and super sheening inks, scented inks (alas) and likely also a few surprises. I have done as much as possible to not read about the inks in it in advance – the surprise is most of the fun.

My Diamine Teal Edition Inkvent calendar.

I have been reviewing the Diamine Inkvent calendar since it was first issued, and it’s been a huge undertaking, and a fun one. You can find my review of the 2019 Blue edition starting here, the 2021 Red edition starting here, the 2022 Green edition starting here, the 2023 Purple edition starting here, and the 2024 Black edition starting here.

This year I’ve decided to streamline things a bit. I’m very busy, and my calendar arrived very, very late due to shipping issues so I haven’t really had a head start creating the review posts, and they take a LOT of time and effort. To cut down on the overhead I will not be photographing the individual doors or bottles – they aren’t really interesting. I will be creating a writing sample and a teddy bear sketch for each ink – using teddy bears from my collection as models. This year, however, the sketch and the writing sample will be done in a single notebook – the Apica Premium C.D Notebook. It has very fountain pen friendly paper that does a good job of showing off individual ink properties.

Like in previous years, I will be using my trusty Col-o-ring to swatch and sample each ink. I will also be actually filling fountain pens instead of just using dip pens to test the inks. I think that it’s provides more insight into how an ink behaves in a pen, particularly in terms of flow. Unlike in previous years I have a brand new ultrasonic cleaner, so hopefully the pen cleanup won’t be too bad…

Col-o-ring (no 2025 inks are swabbed here yet)

Have a great Inkvent to all who celebrate! I can’t wait to dig into this year’s calendar and see what Diamine came up with.

Diamine Inkvent 2024 Summary

For the introduction post to 2024’s Inkvent, see this post.

Diamine Inkvent 2024 Black Edition is the fifth edition of their Inkvent calendars, and I’m sorry to say that it’s by far the worst. Partly it’s 2023’s Inkvent Purple Edition’s fault, as it’s the strongest of the Inkvent calendars to date and so it created high expectations for the Black Edition. But there were several things that went wrong with this year’s calendar that made it an overall disappointing experience:

There are four previous Inkvent calendars, and there’s only so many ink shades in the world. The black edition featured a lot of inks that were pretty similar to ones seen in earlier Inkvent calendars.
This year’s “special effect” was “Extreme Sheen” and it just doesn’t have the same impact as effects like Chameleon and Star Bright that we saw in previous calendars.
The “Extreme Sheen” effect didn’t improve all the inks it was applied to.
Almost a third of the inks in this calendar were in the “dark and bland” range: grey, brown, black. There’s only so much joy a brown ink can spark.
There were very few bright inks and not all the bright were great (see Lemon & Lime and Fruit Cocktail discussed below).
A good number of the inks had very little festive appeal. This wouldn’t have been a big deal if Diamine hadn’t set the festive bar so high: they deliberately name their inks for festive or wintery things. Previous Inkvent calendars did much better in this regard (the first ones, the Blue Edition and Red Edition took this a bit too far), so it’s hard not to be disappointed in the Black Edition’s performance on this front.

Here’s all this year’s inks in order (read further on for a breakdown of each group and buying recommendations):

All the 2024 Inkvent Col-O-Ring ink swabs

Blues

There were six blue inks in this year’s Inkvent:

Two shimmer inks, Diamine Baltic Breeze and Diamine Icy Lilac. These are nice inks that are very similar to one another and similar to previous blue shimmer inks from past Inkvents. These go into the “nice but not exciting” category, and score decently on festive appeal.
Two “Extreme Sheen” inks, Diamine Vibe and Diamine Cosmic Glow. These feature the new effect for this year’s Inkvent and feature it well. Overall these are two of the strongest inks in this year’s calendar in terms of “wow” effect, even though they’re not exactly holiday themed.
One chameleon ink, Diamine Snow Globe. The chameleon effect is always nice and interesting, but the base blue ink is nothing new, and it also goes into the “nice by not exciting” category.
One Star Bright ink, one of only two Star Bright inks in the calendar, Diamine Chilly Nights. The fact that there are only two Star Bright inks in this calendar contributed to this year’s Inkvent being so underwhelming. There is no greater wow effect than a Star Bright ink on a dark ink, and Diamine Chilly Nights really delivers on that front. The base blue black is very nice, and if you enjoy using shimmer inks then Diamine Chilly Nights is definitely an ink to consider.

All in all the blues in this year’s Inkvent were the strongest overall group by far.

All the blue Inkvent Col-O-Ring ink swabs

Pinks and Reds

There were five pink and red inks in this year’s Inkvent:

Three standard inks, Diamine Wilted Rose, Diamine Cranberry and Diamine Lullaby. Diamine Wilted Rose is a nice and interesting “antique” rose colour, Cranberry is a decent but not overly unique ink, and Diamine Lullaby is on the “barely readable” spectrum. Of these three the standout ink is Diamine Wilted Rose, and it’s not a “star” ink by any measure.
One scented ink, Diamine Forest Gateau. I loath scented inks so I won’t elaborate on this one.
One chameleon ink, Diamine Winterberry. This is the standout ink in this group, one of the few bright and festive inks in this calendar, and a great ink to buy if you’re looking for a “Christmas greeting cards” ink. A breath of fresh air among the washed out and dark colours of this year’s calendar.

All the red and pink Inkvent Col-O-Ring ink swabs

Greens

There were only four greens in this year’s Inkvent:

Three chameleon inks, Diamine Lemon & Lime, Diamine Mint Twist and Diamine Pine Needle. Lemon & Lime is unusable even in a wide and generous nib as it’s way too bright and light to be readable. Diamine Mint Twist is the standout ink in this group, the one with the most unique base ink colour. Pine Needle is nice enough, but there have been plenty of inks in this colour before.
One “Star Bright” ink, the only other one in the calendar, Diamine Noble Fir. It’s not as impressive as Diamine Chilly Nights because the base ink colour isn’t dark enough for the Star Bright effect to have the most impact. It’s a good, bright green ink though.

All the green Inkvent Col-O-Ring ink swabs

Oranges

There are three oranges in this year’s Inkvent:

Two “Extreme Sheen” inks, Diamine Grotto and Diamine Sleigh Ride. Of the two Diamine Grotto is a great ink, and Sleigh Ride is poorly named and features a rather unattractive combination of an orange base and green-brown sheen. If you like rust effects you might enjoy it, otherwise, Diamine Grotto is the better choice.
One scented ink, Diamine Fruit Cocktail. I think that this is the worst ink in this year’s calendar for having a combination of scent and zero shading.

All the orange Inkvent Col-O-Ring ink swabs

Darks – Greys, Browns, Blacks

There were seven (!) inks in this category in this year’s Inkvent:

Three standard inks, Diamine Marley, Diamine Tundra, and Diamine Potpourri. Of the three Diamine Marley is by far the best, with Diamine Potpourri being too light to be readable (I could have placed this ink in the pinks category, but it’s so greyish and washed out that it felt more in place in this category), and Diamine Tundra being greyish brown, if you’re into that shade.
Two shimmer inks, Diamine Nutmeg and Diamine Salted Caramel. Of the two I prefer Diamine Salted Caramel, though there have been similar enough inks in previous Inkvents for you to feel free to skip this one.
One chameleon ink, Diamine Wishing Tree. The strongest ink in this group and one of the best inks of this year’s Inkvent, Wishing Tree has a great combination of a fantastic base ink colour and a lot of added interest from the chameleon effect.
One “Extreme Sheen” ink that was supposed to be the highlight of this calendar, Diamine Good Tidings. I found it far from “extreme sheening” and the sheen effect was a very unattractive dirty yellow.

All the dark Inkvent Col-O-Ring ink swabs

Summary

So these are the inks that I would consider buying from this year’s calendar (with the addition of Diamine Winterberry if you see yourself needing a festive red ink): Diamine Marley (interesting duo-chrome ink), Diamine Wishing Tree (duo-chrome interesting base shade ink with great chameleon effect), Diamine Grotto (great base orange ink with attractive extreme sheen), Diamine Mint Twist (unique green with a chameleon effect), Diamine Vibe (attractive dark turquoise ink with great extreme sheen), and Diamine Cosmic Glow (great royal blue base ink and wild extreme sheen).

All the inks that I would consider buying Inkvent Col-O-Ring ink swabs

As a reminder, this year’s Inkvent wasn’t sold out, which means that if you’re interested in these inks and haven’t yet gotten the calendar you can expect it to be on sale in various places soon enough. It’s a great way to get a good amount of varied ink samples, and each little bottle is good for at least 2-3 fillings (plus there’s a big 30ml bottle in day 25).

Midyear, at around June or July, Diamine will come out with the “Black Edition” of these inks. These are 50ml editions of the Inkvent 2024 Black Edition inks, in gorgeous glass bottles. They make for great gifts, and are worth getting as they’re very well priced for the “premium ink” experience.

I have 20 fountain pens filled with Inkvent inks in rotation at the moment, and it will take me a while to work my way through them. Will I do Inkvent again next year? I don’t know. The price plus shipping has gotten steeper every year, and this year’s calendar was a pretty big disappointment in my opinion. When pre-orders start for next year’s Inkvent (if there will be one), I’ll have to really consider it.

What are your favourite inks from this year’s Inkvent? What did you think of the Inkvent Black Edition?

Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 25

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 25 door:

Day 25’s ink is a full 30ml bottle of Diamine Good Tidings, a black ink with what is meant to be gold Extreme Sheen. I used an Esterbrook Estie with a Journal nib to test this ink out.

I don’t think that I could be more disappointed in a “grand finale” Inkvent ink. Diamine Good Tidings would obviously need to be black because this is the Black Edition of the Inkvent calendar, but the choice to make it an “Extreme Sheen” ink was a poor one. I understand the logic behind this choice (“Extreme Sheen” is a new ink property for this year’s calendar, so of course the ultimate ink of the year needs to have this property), but the result is very underwhelming. The sheen is barely observable, and the result is just a deep black ink.

Even on original Tomoe River Paper you can barely see the sheen, and when it appears it makes Good Tidings a less attractive ink to behold, not a more attractive one. The choice of silver shimmer or a chameleon effect would have been better for this ink. When the sheen does appear it’s a sickly yellow colour, not the gold that Diamine were likely going for.

Writing sample on original Tomoe River paper

On Rhodia paper Good Tidings simply looks like a very saturated black ink, with no visible sheen. The drying times aren’t great, but if you’re looking for a solid black fountain pen ink Diamine Good Tidings is pretty good.

On Midori MD Cotton paper the sheen becomes more visible, but it’s far from what I would term “extreme sheen” and it mostly fades to the background. You can barely see hints of it in the writing in today’s bear sketch:

Only at a sharp angle and close up you can see the yellowish gold where the ink pooled, such as in the eyes. The nib I used lays down a generous amount of ink, so I would have expected to see more of the sheen than actually appeared here:

Close up of the sketch on Midori MD Cotton paper

The final bear for this year is Tossi, designed by Margarete Nedballa, numbered 115 out of 399 and made by Clemens Bear (so he’s a German bear). I don’t normally like clothed bears, but I liked this fellow’s hat and the way that it matched his unusual nose, which is why I got him. He’s from a store in York called “Christmas Angels” which was wonderful and is now closed (it didn’t survive the pandemic). It was dedicated to Christmas toys and decorations all year round, and had a collectors’ teddy bear room on the top floor.

Diamine Good Tidings is a nice black ink that I will likely use quite a bit, but for the crowning glory of this year’s Inkvent it’s a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting something with more pizzazz, more of a wow effect.

That’s it for this year’s Inkvent. I will be posting a summary post with buying recommendations and an overview of all the inks over the weekend. In the meanwhile have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukah, and peaceful holidays.

Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 24

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2024 Day 24 door:

Day 24’s ink is Diamine Salted Caramel, a caramel brown ink with bronze shimmer. I used a Diplomat Elox fountain pen with an extra fine nib to test out this ink.

Diamine Salted Caramel is a raw sienna brown ink with a good amount of shading and a good amount of shimmer that shows through even with an extra fine nib. The bronze shimmer gives it a festive, golden sparkle.

Here’s a closer look at the shimmer effect in this ink:

On original Tomoe River paper you can see both the shading and the shimmer quite significantly:

However, even on more absorbent Rhodia paper and with an extra fine nib the shimmer and shading are evident. As only the day before yesterday featured a brown ink with shimmer (Diamine Nutmeg), it was a bit surprising to see another brown ink with shimmer make its appearance. I like Salted Caramel more than Nutmeg, though, because it’s a warmer shade of brown.

Here’s another look at the Rhodia paper writing sample, where both shading and shimmering are apparent:

Different angle of writing sample on Rhodia paper

And here’s a comparison of Diamine Nutmeg to Diamine Salted Caramel:

Col-O-Ring swab comparison of Diamine Nutmeg to Diamine Salted Caramel

I enjoy sketching with brown inks, and Diamine Salted Caramel was no different. I did have some weird flow issues at start, but they passed so maybe it was a one time thing. Salted Caramel shades beautifully, and so it’s nice to loosely sketch with it.

You can see where I had flow issues on the top right corner of Pumpkin’s head (the faded brown lines beneath the more prominent ones):

Close up of bear sketch on Midori MD Cotton paper

This tiny, tiny bear is called Pumpkin and she’s 3 of 4, made by Maddy Aldis, and is very, very heavy as she’s filled with lead shot. I love her wild look and her pastel rainbow colours, which is why I got her.

I would have liked to have seen a different shade of ink, one that isn’t brown, but having Salted Caramel make its appearance on day 24 isn’t the end of the world. It’s a nice, warm brown with lovely shading and shimmer, and it’s not its fault that Diamine Nutmeg was there two days before it. It’s a great festive ink to write greeting cards with, and I had fun sketching with it.

What do you think of Diamine Salted Caramel? Do you prefer it to Diamine Nutmeg?

Writing at Large

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