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?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 7 door:

Day 7’s ink is Diamine Sweet Dreams. It’s a scented ink.

Oh no, it’s a scented ink! I loath scented inks, and this one is particularly bad. Diamine Sweet Dreams is day 7’s ink, and it’s a bubblegum pink ink that smells of bathroom potpourri. It also has flow issues like all the scented inks I tried so far – you can see it in the writing on the col-o-ring swab below:

There’s relatively little shading in this ink, which is surprising as it’s not a super saturated ink. There is way too much scent. No idea why anyone would want this in their lives.

This tiny bear is called Mervin (not Marvin) and he’s a very unusual bear: short dual tone “fur”, donkey ears, strangely shaped eyes and nose. He adds interest to my collection, and he’s adorable.

Here’s Mervin:

I don’t like this ink, and I don’t like scented inks. If you do, you might like its sickly sweet smell. I personally am going to dump it out and thoroughly clean out the pen now.

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 6 door:

Day 6’s ink is Diamine Buck’s Fizz. It’s a chameleon ink.

Wow is today’s ink eye searing! Diamine Buck’s Fizz is a light orange with a lot of chameleon shimmer that shades from green to silver to orange and salmon and gold. There’s some shading to it, and so far it’s one of the lightest inks in this year’s Inkvent.

The chameleon effect from another angle:

I had to look up what Buck’s Fizz is as I don’t (and have never) drunk alcohol. This ink likely evokes the drink and so is aptly named, but it’s impractical for writing, as it’s much too light. With a broad or wider nib your writing would be more legible, but Diamine could have gone with a darker orange to make this more practical. Then again, I don’t think that this ink is meant to be practical.

Today’s bear is from the same maker as yesterday’s bear, so it’s also tiny, clothed and has a domed head. I bought the pair of them together in a bear shop in York.

Here’s the actual bear:

I won’t be buying a bottle of Buck’s Fizz and I’ll likely be dumping out this ink and cleaning out the pen because I don’t see myself finding use for it. If you use fountain pen inks as highlighters or a fan of fun orange inks then this ink is for you. What do you think? Is there room for Buck’s Fizz in your ink collection?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 5 door:

Day 5’s ink is Diamine Nightfall. It’s a chameleon ink.

It’s day 5 of Inkvent 2023 and we get our first dark ink, Diamine Nightfall. This is chameleon ink, and the effect works wonderfully well with dark inks, adding light, depth and zing to them. Diamine Nightfall looks like a night sky full of colour shifting stars, and it’s gorgeous.

The chameleon effect from another angle:

The base ink is a saturated indigo, so there’s not much shading but there is some red sheen to it. The chameleon shimmer shades from blue to silver and green and it makes for a very striking effect.

This tiny bear is one of the few clothed bears in my collection (not counting bears with accessories like scarves and hats). I love his domed head and the contrast between his face and his body mohair colours.

And here is Flippy in all his tiny glory:

I think that Diamine Nightfall is a striking and beautiful ink, and suitable for the Inkvent holiday theme. Do you see yourself writing greeting cards with it? Sneaking it into meetings?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 4 door:

Day 4’s ink is Diamine Masquerade. It’s a shimmer ink.

Diamine’s Masquerade is a duskier, browner leaning pink than day 2’s Diamine Cashemere Rose. You can imagine a papier-mâché carnival mask made in this colour. The copper shimmer in it is pronounced, and adds to its somewhat kitschy appeal.

I think Masquerade would work well on cream coloured paper, and I’m pretty sure that there will be many fans of this ink. It would work well as a journaling ink, as the colour is calming, and it has both shading and shimmer, and so plenty of interest.

I think I have two, maybe three pink teddy bears in my collection, and Candy is the smallest of the bunch. I like her kind of forlorn look.

Here’s the original bear:

Between Diamine Cashmere Rose and Diamine Masquerade, I prefer Cashmere Rose and not only because it’s much lower maintenance than Masquerade, as it’s a standard ink. Masquerade is just a bit too much for me, but I’m sure many people would prefer it to Cashmere Rose. Which one would you see yourself using more?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 3 door:

Day 3’s ink is Diamine Early Dusk. It’s a standard ink.

I expected Diamine Early Dusk to be darker, a more blue-black type of in from its name, but it’s actually a pretty cheerful cobalt blue. There’s a periwinkle shade to it that makes it very attractive, and it offers some shading.

I was worried that this would be a boring sky blue, one of the many, many inks in that shade already in the market, but Diamine Early Dusk has enough shading and enough of a violet leaning to make it interesting. It’s not like there aren’t other inks in this shade to be found, it’s that it’s nice to have a relaxing yet somewhat interesting blue in this Inkvent set. Between the shimmers, the chameleons and the sheens its good to have an office suitable ink that has a little character.

I don’t have many blue bears, but Nestor is one of them, and he’s a delight. His greyish blue mohair makes me think of him as an aging bear, and that just makes him even better.

Here’s Nestor in all his blue mohair glory:

Do I see myself buying a full bottle of Diamine Early Dusk? Maybe. I like the colour very much, and it is very practical but with a little bit of fun to it. Would Diamine Early Dusk become an office staple for you?