I received some new (to me) inks for Robert Oster recently. Some have been around for a few months now and some are relatively new and I felt that six of them made for a pretty nice palette of colours. They were all somewhat pastel-like and soft. From left to right there is Vitstyle Red Bear (an exclusive ink to Hong Kong based store Vitstyle), Tangerine, Hippo Purple (an ink made for squishy ink's Kickstarter for her Hippo Noto notebook), Plumb Nut, Australian Opal Mauve, and Cherry Blossom. I hope to do more palette's later down the road.

I have to say my favourite is the Vitstyle Red Bear followed by the Hippo Purple. Both of these are the more vibrant coloured inks of the six and I much prefer vibrant inks to pastel-like inks. In swatch form both Plumb Nut and Australian Opal Mauve look pretty similar but they do look pretty distinct in a pen. Hippo Purple, Plumb Nut and Opal Mauve all have some decent shading. The inks are decently wet but Red Bear and Hippo Purple are the more lubricated of the six (which is another reason why I prefer them).

All but Tangerine have a nice halo but none of any sheen, even on Tomoe River. Red Bear, Tangerine and Purple Hippo lose some of their vibrancy on Tomoe River.

Pastell-like inks seem to be pretty popular in Japan judging by newer inks being made there, and dusty colours with less vibrancy seem to be doing well in the US as well so I expect these to do well. They certainly work well together.

I've listed all my inks and all my pens in their respective pages. Please let me know which inks you'd like to review next via the comments, Twitter, Instagram, or contact me directly.

I received some of these inks free of charge for the purpose of giving an honest review. I was not otherwise compensated and everything here is my own honest opinion. There are no affiliate links. I do sell Robert Oster inks at my café but I am not allowed to sell the inks online, only in-shop.