This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 25 door:

Day 25’s ink is Diamine Raise a Glass.

It’s the final ink of Inkvent, and as usual it’s a 30ml bottle of ink in the colour of the calendar: purple.

Diamine Raise a Glass is a dark royal purple with green sheen and what I think is chameleon shimmer (the bottle isn’t marked so it could just be regular shimmer, but it looks like a chameleon shimmer to me).

This ink is Diamine throwing everything it has on this ink: a super saturated, rich, dark purple base with a lot of green sheening and then the chameleon shimmer on top. The base ink is so dark it often appears to be black, and the chameleon shimmer works well with it. This is an ink for wide nibs and patient people as it takes a looong time to dry.

I smudged this sketch because I forgot how long this ink takes to dry and wasn’t careful enough. This is Arthus and he’s my favourite bear. I bought him 20 years ago at Hamley’s Toy Store in Regent street, London. They have a rather hidden display for collector’s bears and once I saw him I knew I had to have him despite his high price tag. The seller at the till was so taken with him she held him in her arms and had trouble letting him go. The sketch was done from an above angle that doesn’t do him justice, but look at his photo later on and you’ll see why the lady reacted as she did: Arthus is a bear that begs to be picked up and cuddled.

Here’s Arthus, my absolute favourite, in all his cute glory:

This brings this year’s Inkvent to a close. I will post a summary post with all the inks side by side as well as in colour groups tomorrow. In the meanwhile: Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 24 door:

Day 24’s ink is Diamine Sugar Snap. It’s a shimmer ink.

Diamine Sugar Snap is a sap green ink with silver shimmer. One of the few green inks in this year’s Inkvent, it’s an elegant take on a natural hued shading green ink with a bit of pizzaz.

Diamine Sugar Snap shows a good amount of shimmer but something about the combination of the silver shimmer with the mid green ink reminds me of the silver hair found on certain plant leaves (it’s unattractively called pubescence, but the effect itself is both attractive and useful). This is a shimmer ink with class.

This Dean’s Bear (English, of course) is called Truffles, and there’s something about him that makes me think of him as an elder bear. He’s from Mary Shortle‘s of York, and was made on Dean’s Bear’s Centenary. Dean’s Bears is now part of Clemens Bears, which is sad, but at least they’re still manufacturing bears. Truffles has the classic Dean’s Bears look with the elongated snout and the oversized nose.

Here’s the original bear, Truffles:

Diamine Sugar Snap was a surprise to me – I was expecting a brighter green ink with a flashier shimmer effect. The choices Diamine made here elevate this ink and make it more interesting than some of their previous green-inks-with-shimmer inks, and Diamine Sugar Snap also has a name that isn’t really holiday themed. This makes this ink a solid new addition to their regular shimmer ink lineup, unlike inks like Merry and Bright. What do you think? Would you buy a bottle of Diamine Sugar Snap to use not in a holiday setting?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 21 door:

Day 21’s ink is Diamine Tranquility. It’s a chameleon ink.

Diamine Tranquility is a magenta ink with chameleon shimmer in silver, gold, green and blue. It’s a very party ink with a very un-party name.

There’s a bit of shading in Diamine Tranquility, despite it being on the saturated side. It’s the kind of ink that I envision Barbie using in her correspondence, and I have no idea why it was named “Tranquility”.

This isn’t an artist bear, but it was unusual enough for me to purchase it. It’s a German bear, which I think I purchased six or seven years ago in Berlin.

Here’s the original bear:

What do you think about Diamine Tranquility’s name? I’d name it something like Diamine Festive Cheer or Holiday Fun or something along those lines. A “Tranquility” ink for me evokes a blue or lavender ink, maybe even without chameleon shimmer at all.

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 20 door:

Day 20’s ink is Diamine Astral. It’s a chameleon ink.

Diamine Astral is a chameleon ink with a brown-black base. As the base ink is dark, the chameleon effect is more pronounced. The result is a very readable ink with blue, green and silver glimmers in it when viewed in certain angles.

Diamine Astral is a dark, saturated ink, so there’s little to no shading with it. What interest it provides is all down to the chameleon effect.

In certain angles the writing glows with chameleon shimmer:

And in others it all but disappears:

I was sick when I sketched this, so it’s not my best work. I thought about sketching in the fur, but Diamine Astral is so dark it would have turned the whole sketch into a black glob of ink.

Here’s the bear, one of the more unusually shaped ones in my collection:

Diamine Astral is a bit of an outlier in this year’s Inkvent. The base ink colour isn’t what I’d call festive, and the chameleon effects were seen better in other Inkvent inks. Would you see yourself using it?

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 19 door:

Day 19’s ink is Diamine Cinnabun. It’s a scented ink.

Oh no, another scented ink. Did I mention I don’t like scented ink?

Diamine Cinnabun at least has a more subtle and less artificial smell than Diamine Sweet Dreams. The ink smells of cinnamon and is a cinnamon coloured ink. Like Diamine Sweet Dreams it’s very, very wet, so choose your nib wisely.

If Diamine Cinnabun wasn’t scented then it would be a useful sketching ink. As it is scented, it has the same flow issues that I’ve experienced with other scented inks in the past. On the other hand, without being scented it would be just another brown filler ink in the calendar, so I guess I understand Diamine’s choice here.

This ink feathers and spreads even on fountain friendly paper with a Lamy Fine nib. If you’re planning on using it, choose your nib and paper wisely.

Today’s bear is from my favourite teddy bear makers, Dean’s Bears. It’s a British company, and this is their Centenary Bear. You can see the shading in Diamine Cinnabun, even if you can’t smell the ink.

Here’s the original bear:

I don’t like scented inks, and Diamine Cinnabun, despite not being as offensive as Diamine Sweet Dreams, still will get cleaned out of the pen immediately. The flow issues alone make this ink not worth it, but if you like scented inks, and like cinnamon, this ink may be for you.

This is the Diamine Inkvent 2023 day 18 door:

Day 18’s ink is Diamine Blizzard. It’s a shimmer ink.

Diamine Blizzard is a teal-blue shimmer ink, with a great base colour that provides some shading and silver blue shimmer. It’s much more toned down than Diamine Glacier in terms of the amount of shimmer present.

Diamine Blizzard’s base ink colour is also a shade darker than Diamine Glacier, making it a bit more easily readable than Diamine Glacier. If you’re not interested in the insane amounts of shimmer in Diamine Glacier, than this ink would be a better fit for you.

You can see the shimmer effect here: it’s present, but it’s not aggressive:

This is Waldemar, a Steiner bear from Germany, one of several Steiner bears that I own. I think he’s the only bear that I have that has his tongue sticking out. In any case, you can see the shading in Diamine Blizzard in the sketch below:

And here’s the original bear:

While I love that Diamine has gone all in with the shimmer with Diamine Glacier, I think Diamine Blizzard would be the more “practical” of the two because of the darker base ink shade and because it has less glitter and so less potential clogging and cleaning issues. Which of these inks would you prefer?

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?