Caveat: this year’s Inkvent appears to have elusive ink colours. I suggest reading my description of the inks and not going by the photos alone, and comparing my results with those of other reviewers. 

The Diamine Inkvent calendar is an advent calendar with 24 tiny (12ml) bottles of fountain pen ink behind 24 doors, and a larger, 30ml, bottle of ink behind the 25th door. All the inks are limited edition, and, at the moment, only available through this calendar.

Day 24’s ink is Diamine Yuletide. It’s a teal coloured ink that is supposed to be standard ink but has a lot of shading and a good amount of red sheen. I have no idea why it wasn’t marked as a sheening ink.

A standard ink? No. Despite it being marked as such Diamine Yuletide sheens.

Here’s a Col-o-Ring swab of Diamine Yuletide. The base shade of this ink is lovely, with a ton of shading and some red sheen – it’s one of the more attractive Inkvent inks, and that’s saying a lot.

I used an original Visconti Van Gogh Ocean with a medium 14k gold nib to test Diamine Yuletide out. It took a while to prime the nib after filling it through the converted (the grip and nib section are too big to fill directly from the tiny sample bottle), which is why you can see evidence of hard starts on this Col-o-Ring card.

I drew a snowy scene with fir trees, which is about as much as I can draw with my hands being in the state that they are. The shading with Diamine Yuletide is wonderful, and the red sheen comes out as almost a halo.

Sorry about the blurry photo, but it does capture the red sheen.

This was drawn on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook (the notebooks I have were bought in 2016, and so they contain the old Tomoe River paper).

Finally, I wrote a page in my Midori Journal:

A close up on the shading. My camera is de-emphasizing the sheen for some reason, but it’s there, in almost every letter.

After the lackluster Diamine Wonderland it was nice to get an ink like Diamine Yuletide. The base teal shade is wonderful, the ink offers some lovely shading, and the red sheen is a nice added bonus. Diamine Yuletide is definitely a contender for the full bottle purchase later on.

Caveat: this year’s Inkvent appears to have elusive ink colours. I suggest reading my description of the inks and not going by the photos alone, and comparing my results with those of other reviewers. 

The Diamine Inkvent calendar is an advent calendar with 24 tiny (12ml) bottles of fountain pen ink behind 24 doors, and a larger, 30ml, bottle of ink behind the 25th door. All the inks are limited edition, and, at the moment, only available through this calendar.

Day 23’s ink is Diamine Wonderland. It’s a standard orange ink that is bright and cheerful, but doesn’t really evoke wonderland or anything particularly Christmas themed in my opinion.

It’s a standard ink, which is a bit peculiar. I was expecting it to be a shimmer ink.

Here’s a Col-o-Ring swab of Diamine Wonderland. It’s a classic orange, with a bit of shading. Nothing wild going on:

I used a Platinum 3776 with a fine nib to test Diamine Wonderland out. A wider nib would have shown a bit more shading, but even so, there is a bit of shading to be seen with this ink. Nothing like the shading in Diamine Candle Light or Diamine Peach Punch.

Even though Diamine Wonderland isn’t a yellow ink, I was in the mood to sketch daffodils, and so daffodils it is:

This was drawn on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook (the notebooks I have were bought in 2016, and so they contain the old Tomoe River paper).

Finally, I wrote a page in my Midori Journal:

I admit that I find Diamine Wonderland a bit of a let down. It’s such an uninspired ink colour – a standard orange with a bit of shading and nothing interesting or unique going on. There are much better orange ink shades in the market, even from Diamine itself, so I don’t really see room for an ink like Diamine Wonderland, especially not in a Christmas themed calendar and with a name like that.

Caveat: this year’s Inkvent appears to have elusive ink colours. I suggest reading my description of the inks and not going by the photos alone, and comparing my results with those of other reviewers. 

The Diamine Inkvent calendar is an advent calendar with 24 tiny (12ml) bottles of fountain pen ink behind 24 doors, and a larger, 30ml, bottle of ink behind the 25th door. All the inks are limited edition, and, at the moment, only available through this calendar.

Day 21’s ink is Diamine Brandy Snap, and it’s a rich caramel brown with plenty of shading.

A standard ink, but with a lot of shading:

Here’s a Col-o-Ring swab of Diamine Brandy Snap. You can see the shading here.

I used a Platinum 3776 with a music nib to test out Diamine Brandy Snap, and the nib really allows the ink’s shading to show:

I wasn’t up to drawing today, so an uninspired bottle of brandy and pile of brandy snaps is all I could bring myself to draw. You can see the shading in the text below:

This was drawn on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook (the notebooks I have were bought in 2016, and so they contain the old Tomoe River paper).

Finally, I wrote a page in my Midori Journal:

I really like the shading in Diamine Brandy Snap, and its warm, relatively bright colour. Even if you’re not a fan of brown inks, I think that you might like Diamine Brandy Snap, and fans of shading ink will love it.

Caveat: this year’s Inkvent appears to have elusive ink colours. I suggest reading my description of the inks and not going by the photos alone, and comparing my results with those of other reviewers. 

The Diamine Inkvent calendar is an advent calendar with 24 tiny (12ml) bottles of fountain pen ink behind 24 doors, and a larger, 30ml, bottle of ink behind the 25th door. All the inks are limited edition, and, at the moment, only available through this calendar.

Day 20’s ink is Diamine Pink Ice, and it’s a bright pink ink with pink sparkles – as Elle Woods as an ink can get.

A shimmer ink, with a lot of pink glitter and very little shading:

Here’s a Col-o-Ring swab of Diamine Pink Ice. You can see just how much shimmer is going on:

I used a Lamy Studio Terracotta with a fine nib to test out Diamine Pink Ice. Even with a fine nib you can see the shimmer:

I decided to draw a quick icy landscape to test Diamine Pink Ice on Tomoe River paper. There’s very little shading with this ink, and a lot of glitter. A significant amount of glorious pink glitter:

This was drawn on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook (the notebooks I have were bought in 2016, and so they contain the old Tomoe River paper).

Finally, I wrote a page in my Midori Journal:

Would I buy a bottle of Diamine Pink Ice? No, it’s a bit much for me. It is, however, a bright and cheerful ink with a lot of glitter and a lot of potential to make you smile as you’re using it. I’m glad that it was included in a calendar that has had a bit of a tendency towards the dark and muted side of colour.

Caveat: this year’s Inkvent appears to have elusive ink colours. I suggest reading my description of the inks and not going by the photos alone, and comparing my results with those of other reviewers. 

The Diamine Inkvent calendar is an advent calendar with 24 tiny (12ml) bottles of fountain pen ink behind 24 doors, and a larger, 30ml, bottle of ink behind the 25th door. All the inks are limited edition, and, at the moment, only available through this calendar.

Day 19’s ink is Diamine Festive Joy, a saturated purple ink with a hint of sheen and some shading.

It’s a standard ink but there is a bit of a sheen to it, likely because the ink is so saturated.

Here’s a Col-o-Ring swab of Diamine Festive Joy. You can see a hint of the sheen and some of the shading possible with this ink:

I used a Sailor Pro Gear with a Naginata Togi Cross Emperor nib to test out Diamine Festive Joy. It’s an expressive nib that lays down a lot of ink.

I drew a Christmas tree with ornaments and a few presents to test out this ink on Tomoe River paper:

This was drawn on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook (the notebooks I have were bought in 2016, and so they contain the old Tomoe River paper).

Finally, I wrote a page in my Midori Journal:

Diamine Festive Joy is a joyful ink in a lovely, rich shade of purple. If you’re in the market for a standard purple ink, Diamine Festive Joy would be a good choice (once it’s available in a full bottle, like the Blue Edition bottles of the Inkvent 2019 inks). In any case, it’s nice to have a bright pop of colour in an Inkvent calendar that has so far leaned heavily on dark or muted inks.

Caveat: this year’s Inkvent appears to have elusive ink colours. I suggest reading my description of the inks and not going by the photos alone, and comparing my results with those of other reviewers. 

The Diamine Inkvent calendar is an advent calendar with 24 tiny (12ml) bottles of fountain pen ink behind 24 doors, and a larger, 30ml, bottle of ink behind the 25th door. All the inks are limited edition, and, at the moment, only available through this calendar.

Day 18’s ink is Diamine Subzero, a light blue ink with lots of light blue shimmer. It’s bright and festive and VERY shimmery.

No false advertising here:

Here’s a Col-o-Ring swab of Diamine Subzero. There’s a bit of shading going on, and a lot shimmer.

I used a Charged Green Lamy AL Star with an extra fine nib to test out Diamine Subzero. I would have used a wider nib to show off the ink’s properties, but I didn’t have one at hand that I felt that I could clean out well enough once I was done with this ink. In the end it didn’t matter much, as there’s so much shimmer going on with this ink you can see it even with a fine nib.

It’s time for the season’s first snowman:

This was drawn on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook (the notebooks I have were bought in 2016, and so they contain the old Tomoe River paper).

Finally, I wrote a page in my Midori Journal:

If you’re looking for a festive ink that will cheer you up, Diamine Subzero would make a good choice. I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to purchase a full bottle of this ink once it comes out, but I did have fun using it. Whether I’ll have fun cleaning it out of my pen remains to be seen, as it’s such a heavily shimmering ink. Also, another blue ink for a blue dominant Inkvent calendar so far.

Caveat: this year’s Inkvent appears to have elusive ink colours. I suggest reading my description of the inks and not going by the photos alone, and comparing my results with those of other reviewers. 

The Diamine Inkvent calendar is an advent calendar with 24 tiny (12ml) bottles of fountain pen ink behind 24 doors, and a larger, 30ml, bottle of ink behind the 25th door. All the inks are limited edition, and, at the moment, only available through this calendar.

Day 17’s ink is Diamine Thunderbolt. It’s a periwinkle blue ink that is very bright, saturated and beautiful.

It’s a standard ink with a relatively small amount of shading because it is so saturated.

Here’s a Col-o-Ring swab of Diamine Thunderbolt. Yes, it’s that bright in real life.

I used a Sailor 1911 with a Naginata Togi medium nib to test out Diamine Thunderbolt.

I decided to do a quick sketch of Disneyland Paris’s Big Thunder Mountain rollercoaster, just for fun.

This was drawn on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook (the notebooks I have were bought in 2016, and so they contain the old Tomoe River paper).

Finally, I wrote a page in my Midori Journal:

Another blue ink for a very blue skewed Inkvent. I love the colour so much that I will consider buying a bottle of this once Diamine start selling them. As it is, it was fun writing with this ink, and getting to play with such a fantastic nib again. Is it a festive ink? I guess that it’s winter appropriate, and I’m glad that it was included in the calendar, but there are more thematically appropriate inks out there.

Caveat: this year’s Inkvent appears to have elusive ink colours. I suggest reading my description of the inks and not going by the photos alone, and comparing my results with those of other reviewers. 

The Diamine Inkvent calendar is an advent calendar with 24 tiny (12ml) bottles of fountain pen ink behind 24 doors, and a larger, 30ml, bottle of ink behind the 25th door. All the inks are limited edition, and, at the moment, only available through this calendar.

Day 16’s ink is Diamine Vintage Copper, a decidedly festive copper ink with shimmer (of course).

It’s a shimmer ink that also has plenty of shading.

Here’s a Col-o-Ring swab of Diamine Vintage Copper. There’s a lot of shading going on and a good amount of shimmer, although the shimmer effect is quite subtle.

I used a Monteverde Giant Sequoia with a 1.1 stub nib to test out Diamine Vintage Copper and the nib size really allows the ink to shine.

Here’s a closer look at the shimmer effect:

I decided to draw a copper kettle to test out Diamine Vintage Copper, and you can see just how much this ink shades on Tomoe River paper:

This was drawn on a Kanso Sasshi 3.5” x 5.5” Tomoe River Paper notebook (the notebooks I have were bought in 2016, and so they contain the old Tomoe River paper).

Finally, I wrote a page in my Midori Journal:

This is an excellent ink for writing seasonal greeting cards and letters. The shading and shimmer give it a lot of character, while the shimmer isn’t “metallic pen” level shimmer, so there’s some sophistication and subtlety to it. While I personally don’t see a need to buy a full bottle of this ink, I can still see its holiday utility and appeal.