Sailor Bungubox Nostalgia doesnβt get that much love around the the ink review world and as far as I can see it has fallen a bit by the wayside. Itβs a nice brown but I mainly bought the ink 2 years ago because of the evocative name and label. The sepia colour is also a very nice fit for the feeling.
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Ink Review: Ink Institute Cut Jade
There are a few super sheeners out there now. The first was Organics Studio Nitrogen Royal Blue and Organics Studio have come out with a teal and a darker blue super sheener, Krishna has come out with a blue super sheener similar to Nitrogen and now Ink Institute in Taiwan has come out with two more. One is again similar to Nitrogen; rich moderately bright blue ink that's practically all sheen. But excitingly they also came out with a green ink that's a super sheener. All the rest have been either blue or a blue-green (such as Walden Pond Blue) and this is a lovely rich true green.
Read MoreInk Review: Kobe #07 Kaikyo Blue
Kobe's ever increasing list of inks were for a while only available from Japan. These were more easily available than some other Japanese exclusive inks because they shipped internationally from Nagasawa's - the store that sells Kobe inks - Global Rakuten store. More recently they began being sold by some US stores such as Vanness and Pen Chalet and this year they came to Australia which I'm, personally, pretty happy about. Kobe #07 "Kaikyo Blue" is named after the water under the Akashi KaikyΕ Bridge, a suspension bridge, and the longest in the world, in Kobe, Japan.
A new store called Desk Bandit has opened in my city (that does international and national deliveries with free-shipping thresholds and a 15% discount code if you subscribe to their Newsletter) and I emailed them asking whether I could write something small about them. After ordering a few Kobe inks, some Colorverse inks, and an Opus 88 Koloro from themthey added an extra bottle of Kobe Kaikyo Blue to my order. This isn't a sponsored review in a traditional way, but it is in another sense in that I think the people behind the store are doing a great job getting new and interesting stock and at good prices plus these are local to my so I have my own selfish interest in their success! I'll talk a little about them later in the review but there will be no affiliate links and I'd like stress that I was the one who reached out to them.
Read MoreSheen vs Shimmer (and some good sheeners)
Back in 2015 Brian Goulet made a video and accompanying article about sheening inks. I love sheen, in fact it's a major deciding point on whether I grab an ink or not, so this should be something right up my alley, but it wasn't. The article conflated markedly differing ink characteristics, and made quite curious decisions of which inks were chosen to exemplify the topic. He also left a number of very sheening inks off the list that Goulet Pens carry - ignoring the many sheening inks that they don't carry - such as Diamine Bilberry).
The main issue with the article (I'll just talk about the article) is that in it Brian conflated sheen resulting from the ink and shimmer/glitter resulting from particles or pigments in the ink. Now I concede that there isn't a well established term for these 'shimmering' inks. There is and was, however, an established term for the shine resulting from the ink itself: sheen!
(Moving forward I will call them sheen and shimmer)
Read MoreInk Comparison: Parker Penman Emerald
In November last year I did a comparison of Parker Penman Sapphire an ink that a few other ink makers had either tried to copy or drew inspiration from. Parker Penman Emerald only has Bungubox Norwegian Wood (or Bungubox Emerald) that drew inspiration from it. Penman Emerald is the perfect green for me. I'm not a huge fan of greens in general (and generally avoid greens that lean blue) and this is the perfect, for me, balance of yellow and blue; it's slightly on the yellow side. It's got some sheen and shading which are other characteristics I am drawn to. Like the rest of the Parker Penman ink series, it was discontinued in 2000 which is around 17 years ago as of this comparison.
To avoid confusion, although Bungubox Emerald is probably the inks most well-known name I will be using its alternate name 'Norwegian Wood' to distinguish it from Parker Penman Emerald
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