My favourite inks

After writing the post about my favourite pens I realised I couldn’t do that without also writing about my favourite inks, as this is another very common question in social media. This list will again be very subjective and purely down to my own personal opinions and feelings. I am bound to miss some good inks too because there are thousands out there and I have tried to avoid any limited edition inks that might not be available now.

So, here goes … 

Washable inks

• Diamine:
  • Ancient Copper: I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this ink because it is a stunning colour with beautiful sheen BUT it also tends to gum-up nibs and feeds if left in the pen for a long time. If you get a brownish crud around the nib & feed then don’t worry – it will all just wash off if you dip the pen or soak it in water. This is apparently true of a lot of inks with this red/brown colour.
  • Writer’s Blood & Oxblood: both really lovely deep reds that are very well liked by writers because they are very wet and reliable.
  • Blue Velvet: a very deep, intense blue that rivals even the infamous Noodler’s Baystate Blue, which I won’t personally own because it stains so deeply and I just don’t buy Noodler’s stuff.
  • x Art from the Heart: Ohh Betty’s: a tea-brown colour – while this is a special edition it is readily available and Diamine continue to make it 
  • Firefly: a bright, orange-red with a ton of shimmer – really safe to use though and great fun!
  • Bilberry: a beautiful sheening dark violet 
• Herbin:
  • Emeraux de Chivor: if you want to try a sheening & shimmering ink then you really must try EdC first – it’s about the safest shimmer ink and the colours it produces are gorgeous!
  • Poussiere de Lune (Moondust): this is a muted dark purple which was reportedly used as the standard colour for French school children to write with back in the day. I just love its simplicity and shading. 
  • Eclat de Safir: another very intense blue in a very safe and reliable ink. 
  • Violette Pensee: a classic bright violet 
  • Rouge Grenat: a classic mid red 
• KWZ: I have quite a lot of inks by this company and most of them have a lovely vanilla scent and write beautifully wet 
  • Honey: a lovely golden, shady yellow-brown, scented with vanilla
• Lamy:
  • Azurite: a beautiful “blurple” … a violetish dark blue with bright green sheen
  • Dark Lilac (2024): a dark purple with mega green sheen

• Majohn: this brand is known for making great pens but the inks are much less often tested so I bought a few of the nicer looking ones to try and was very pleasantly surprised.
  • Jinghua: a gorgeous tomato red with an intense, mega green sheen 
  • Sparse Rain: a dark blue with mega magenta sheen 
• Pilot:
  • Iroshizuku – Kon-Peki: a beautiful mid-blue
  • Iroshizuku – Yama-Budo: a classic magenta that everyone should try 
• Robert Oster:
  • Motor Oil: this is a really weird ink, which is why it appeals to me so much, I think. The colour is basically black to grey but with weird greeny-yellow shading. Some liken it to a dark brown but I’m not sure.
  • Summer Storm: a beautifully shady grey-blue
•  Sailor:
  • Manyo – Ume: utterly gorgeous dark plum red with green sheen 
  • Manyo – Kuzu: a deep Bordeaux red with green sheen
  • Manyo – Hime-Yuri: a golden yellow that’s dark enough to read easily 
• Taccia:
  • Hokusai – Benitsuchi: a lovely, shady mid red-brown
• Teranishi:
  • Guitar – Nostalgic Honey: a pale yellowish brown  
• Troublemaker:
  • Abalone: this is an odd pale blue/green shading ink
• Waterman:
  • Serenity Blue: my standard, go-to, most reliable ink ever – it writes wet and is safe on all vintage pens. This ink is a must-have for me – I’ll always have at least 1 bottle.
• Wearingeul:
  • Wayfarer: a lovely teal green with a very safe lilac shimmer 

Waterproof inks

• Parker:
  • Quink waterproof blue: the world’s standard waterproof mid blue 
• Platinum:
  • Carbon Black: this is a very reliable waterproof ink that always scores highly in tests. It tends to have a grey graphite sheen when dry though so can seem lighter than Sailor Kiwa-Guro. The ultimate dark black is Chou-Kuro but it is very expensive so I haven’t tried it. 
• Sailor:
  • Nano Kiwa-Guro: this is the darker of the blacks and very reliable and waterproof 

I have heard good things about the DeAtramentis Document inks but I haven’t personally tried them. They come in a wide variety of colours though which is unusual for waterproof inks so I’ll probably give them a try. 

Looking back at the list I don’t have many green inks and I’m not sure why really – it’s not that I dislike the colour but I tend to go for more reds, browns & purples or blues.