Tag Archives: Truphae

Fountain Pens

February Palette Review!

Hullo folks, this one is being posted suuuuper late because February was a ROUGH month in our house. Lotsa meltdowns, broke my favorite fountain pen (Magic Green), lotsa possible exposure to covid, all kinds of fun stressful things. But never mind! Let’s talk pens. And inks. Fun stuff for real real.

Pen/Ink Palette:
My theme for February was our wedding colors, purple and green because I do not like reds and pinks so when I think of love, I think of those colors! I did include one pink but it was more of a peach so, cheated a little bit.

Two pens on a palette journal page. One is a slightly translucent warm purple with gold trim, and the other is a swirly cool purple mixed with white.
Sailor Pro Gear Slim and a London Pen Co. Christopher 13 Jr., loved for different reasons haha.

Favorite:
I had a tie in favorites this month. Both of these pens worked so well with the inks in them – and NEITHER ink was a shimmer! Yeah, surprised me too. I had Akkerman 13 Simplisties in the London Pen Co. pen, and PenBBS #506 Grain Rain in the Sailor. They were very soothing to write with which I definitely needed the latter half of the month. Very reluctant to put these away when the ink ran out!

Least Favorite:
I am going to write about the Magic Green drama in another post, so I’ll put a different pen in this spot.
There were actually a couple of pen combos I was having trouble with this month, I really need to stop buying vacuum pens for example. But the least favorite I settled on was a Mad Science Pen Company pen with a 1.1 stub nib and Diamine Inkvent 2022 Alpine. Pen worked great, fine performance flow wise. But the ink was basically black on most of the papers I used it with. Very very faint green in the right light. Silver sheen was pretty visible, but I found the whole thing kind of unappealing. So I think I found one of the few shimmers that looks WORSE in a broad nib! I will do a comparison. Some day.

Learned:
Uhm. I think the biggest thing I learned was really WHY the Magic Green pen was magic for me. Oh and that I really do not like vacuum pens. I have 3. I think I am done at this point haha. Oh and the Osprey nib was annoying – I don’t think flexible nibs are for me. Two years in a row I had a very disappointing February pen/ink experience. Ah well. Third years the charm right?

Daily Samples:
I forget exactly why I picked up so many PenBBS samples but. I did. So another month of PenBBS samples! I do like how these inks behave overall, so this was a nice, chill, reliable start to my day!

“PenBBS” and “February” are at the top of the page. There are 30 different colored thick lines of ink. Each line is numbered 1-30.
I have started using this part of the notebook to find colors I want to use for my palette – and it is brilliant.

Favorite:
Honestly, I was mostly just enjoying how the ink performed. But wasn’t too excited about the colors this month. I did enjoy the weird of #408 Xiamen on the 11th. You can kind of see it in the photo how the ink sort of shades, it’s mostly a pastel blue but there are brief and very faint hints of pink. It’s too light to write with but I bet the chromatography of it is going to be SUPER fun. Whenever I get into that.

Least Favorite:
No real strong feelings for the daily samples this month so I guess I’ll go with #387 Mark Twain because it ended up being a pretty basic black. I don’t think I have ever used a black ink. Nor will I!

Learned:
I should probably stop just buying sets of ink to get all of the numbers. Maybe. But it is easier. I am not sure how much longer I’ll end up doing daily samples, which I realized this month. I still find it soothing, and I still appreciate including it in my daily routine. And I DID just start a year long planner for this haha. I probably won’t abandon this until I find something else to replace it, but I will be building some fairly odd palettes in future, often augmented by the Subscriptions samples.

Subscription Samples:
Nope! I got Truphae and Ink Flight but I did NOT sample them in February because for my March Daily Samples, I only had 20 inks. And 12 samples fills in the last 11 needed nicely.

So that’s it. I was incredibly focused on March starting for a couple of reasons – I am trying out planner specific stickers in March from HubmanChubgirl for one, which could be fun – and for another thing, it would be a brand new month to hopefully not go horribly. Also, one month closer to my birthday, yay!
Thank you for your patience my delightful readers!

Fountain Pens

December 2022: Palette, Daily Samples, and Subscription Samples, All together now…

Trying something different! Instead of multiple posts, I’m going to just share a couple things from each.

Let’s start with the Pen/Ink Palette.
December’s pen/ink palette theme was more of an intention to use only inks from Diamine Inkvent 2021 than a proper theme. My favorite over all ended up being one I added from the 2022 Inkvent however haha – so the favorite here will be my second favorite. I really liked this palette, I found it very comfortable over all.

A sample card with a color swatch at the top, and the text says “Inkvent (15) Nightshade xxxooosss, standard, 2021” all of this is in an ink that looks like a light blue in this photo.
One of my sample cards from the beginning times! I do them very differently these days. And the ink ends up looking more purple in the notebooks I am using, hard to catch in a photo.

Favorite: (second favorite…) Diamine Inkvent 2021, Nightshade and the London Pen Company Christopher 13 Jr. pens.
This ink was not in this pen this month – but they were my favorites respectively. I have actually used this ink in a couple of palette’s this year, but! The thing that makes it my favorite is that it’s one of those blue-purples. It operates really well, no skipping, good level of wetness, doesn’t smudge.

A crab pen stand holding a shimmery pen.
My crab stand is adorable, ahem. But this pen! Look at this gorgeous pen! It’s the perfect size and weight for me. And those colors!

I really enjoyed the shape and weight of this pen model. And the two I have are gorgeous colors.

Text reads: “December Pen Test” in a green ink. And the pangram “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” The pangram is repeated 7 times, each line is a different color.
Candlelight is the fifth pangram line down, it is mostly a golden yellow, there is significant shading from an almost unreadable pale yellow to a darker golden brown color. (Nightshade is the third pangram line down for the record.)

Least Favorite: Diamine Inkvent 2021, Candlelight
There is nothing really wrong with this ink, but I found it a little annoying to read as I was writing it and after it dried. It shades pretty significantly, I am hoping that is visible in that picture of my writing sample.

Learned: A balanced palette is really important for my mental health. This is more of a year long thing I learned, but it really solidified for me this month. So if there is a pen and ink combo I don’t like, as soon as I’ve realized that, swapping it is a good idea.

Now, Daily Samples!
This month I went through Diamine Inkvent 2022 Advent Calendar. A complete mystery set of samples is a double edged sword. There were more browns than I like, but at least there was a healthy dose of shimmer inks!

Close up of a sample card. All that can be seen is a piece of the swatch across the top of the card, a stamp of a nib, and a pool of the same ink that is seen in the swatch appearing to drip off of the nib.
Look at that pretty color! You can see the dark warm purple color with several different light colors of shimmer.

Favorite: Diamine Inkvent 2022, Solar Storm
Hands down my favorite. I liked it so much and so instantly that I added it into my palette right away. After using it all month I have decided it is a little dark for my tastes over all, and more of a warm purple, when I prefer cool purples. But the shimmer, is so fantastic. So really my favorite thing is the way the shimmer works in this ink!

Sample card with a long swatch of color at the top, and a stamp of a nib on the right side. There is text reading “ Diamine, Inkvent 2022, Pick Me Up, xxxooosssss, 22DecVent-15, scent/sheen”
Icky green/brown color. Where it looks sort of golden in this photo is actually a lot browner.

Least Favorite: Diamine Inkvent 2022, Pick Me Up
I do NOT like scented inks. And heck this one was scented. AND it’s brown, my least favorite ink color. And to top it all off, the scent was one of those things that I recognized but couldn’t place, and I still haven’t figured it out so it continues to bug me. Triple threat.
There were other scented inks, and since they were behind sealed Advent Calendar style doors, they were always unexpected. I hated it. Fortunately a friend of mine opened her calendar ahead of time and was able to give me warnings for the days they would show up. Very helpful! I’m not sure I would have been able to finish the set of samples otherwise.

Learned: There were a couple of inks in this set that look a lot like inks from the 2021 Inkvent. I saw some folks be upset about this on Instagram. But it made me think, what if they look really similar, but they are different somehow? How are they different? Why would they release the same shade of ink with a different name (beyond the obvious consumer marketing nonsense)? I want to look into this some more.

Last but not least – the Subscription Samples.
This month I received Kaweco Inks from Truphae (and a Lamy pen? Seems off that is isn’t a Kaweco pen??) and I received Ferris Wheel Press inks from Ink Flight. Unfortunately I got a lot of duplicates from Ferris Wheel Press, since I sampled all of the inks they had at the time in April for that months Daily Sample set. Also unfortunately overall, none of the inks really stood out either way.

A container of Wearingeul Smile Cat Ink Swatch Cards, 200g’m, 5 sheets and a single swatch card above it with a blue ink with purple sheen and silver shimmer.
I REALLY like these cards but I’m not sure what I should use them for…

Favorite: So instead of a favorite ink sample, my favorite thing from these subscriptions this month were the Wearingeul Sample Cards. They have a kind of hydrophobic impression in the shape of the Cheshire Cat smile from Alice in Wonderland and when ink is applied over it, over about a minute the ink will move off of the hydrophobic spots and reveal the smile. It is SUPER cool looking. I took a video, I’ll try to put it on my twitter when this post goes up.

7 sample vials with ink in them. They all have white lids, but only the front 2 have labeled dots on top.
I was able to sample 2 of them, and at least one of those was shimmer, so yay.

Least Favorite: Again, none of the inks stood out as my least favorite since none of them stood out in any way really. Maybe I am just indecisive this month. And while the Lamy pen I got from Truphae is purple…Lamy’s are not my favorite pens. I do really like the tear-off notepad from Endless. So! I guess my least favorite thing from the Subscription Samples was the duplicate inks I got.

Learned: My reaction to the duplicates was a high level of disappointment. This was not Ink Flight’s fault, for the record – I really enjoy the subscription boxes both companies send out. I just have a ton of ink samples at this point, so it’s my own fault! But the thing I learned is that I really need to figure out how to handle this better so I am not so disappointed.

Overall I most enjoyed the Palette I used this month. The Daily Samples and the Subscription Samples ended up being a little frustrating. Fortunately nothing super terrible and some new favorites mixed in, which I really appreciate.

Next month (next YEAR) I’ll be using a mix of brands for the Daily Samples, a bunch of Kaweco pens and shimmer inks in my Pen/Ink Palette (theme: Ice), and looking forward to whatever I get in my subscriptions! I expect to run into the usual problems with shimmer inks and fine nibbed pens – sigh – and I am guessing the mix of sample inks is going to be frustrating somehow due to the random grab bag effect. But, as usual, looking forward to finding some joy in all of this!

Fountain Pens

November Subscription Samples, Review: Maiora & Octopus Fluids

November begins! This month I got Maiora inks from Truphae and Octopus Fluids from Ink Flight! Interestingly named inks, I must say. 

A purple tray with 5 ink vials lined up side by side and a plastic bag with the inks listed in handwriting that is difficult to read, each name written in the color of the ink.
Maiora Inks

Maiora inks are made in Italy and are most often described as vibrant when googled. I have been super tired lately so I didn’t get to look into this brand as much as I’d like. I know I’ve seen other reviews of it and they have a good reputation.

3 notebook pages overlapping each other, able to see just a portion of the bottom 2 pages, and more of the top page. There is a red, a blue, and a black ink sampled with shapes, swirls, straight lines, smudges and writing.
Maiora: Rossa Pompeiano, Blu Caprese, Nero Vesuvio
  • Rossa Pompeiano, looks red in the photo but in person it looks like a nice pink to me.
  • Blu Caprese, a purply blue, or a blue with faint purple tones, my favorite!
  • Nero Vesuvio, tough to find a true black ink. Looks black when wet, but dries to a very dark grey, hints of brown undertone.
2 notebook pages overlapping each other, able to see just a portion of the bottom page, and more of the top page. There is a yellow and a blue ink sampled with shapes, swirls, straight lines, smudges and writing.
Maiora: Giallo Tufo, Viola Amalfitano
  • Giallo Tufo, a lovely bright orange, yum!
  • Viola Amalfitano, nice medium purple, feels slightly multi chromatic, I really like it’s tone. Slightly worried about staining my metal nib – but ended up fine.
A notebook page with the following text in a silver ink: “Nov Truphae, Maiora” and then the name of the ink written in that inks color, and then a line of that ink color below it. “Rossa pompeiano” is a reddish color. “Giallo Tofu” is a yellowish orange. “Blu Caprese” is a blue color. “Viola Amalfitano” is a sort of cobalt blue. “Nero Vesuvio” is a dark grey/black color.
Maiora, Rossa Pompeiano, Giallo Tufo, Blu Caprese, Viola Amalfitano, Nero Vesuvio
A black pen with small bands of around the bottom of the cap in green, white, and red.
Monteverde, Aldo Domani Italia, F
  • I haven’t tried this pen yet, and I’m not sure when I will. The Monteverde pens I have tried I liked, but the coloring of this one isn’t something I usually use.
A purple tray with 5 inks lined up side by side and 1 more on either side. There is a long piece of paper with a lot of printed text and a dot of ink color next to each paragraph describing the ink. Those descriptions will be included in the listed inks under the following photos.

Octopus Fluids – these inks are pigmented, water proof and smudge proof – I think. Because of that I was super careful with them when I did the samples, and I expected to have some trouble keeping my metal nib clean. I only had an issue with one ink which I’ll describe below. I will include the text on the piece of paper that describes the inks below my own thoughts and in quotations.

3 notebook pages overlapping each other, able to see just a portion of the bottom 2 pages, and more of the top page. There is a purple, a red, and a teal ink sampled with shapes, swirls, straight lines, smudges and writing.
Octopus Fluids: Aubergine, Brilliant Rot, Karibik
  • Aubergine, purple! It’s pretty! Concerned about how sticky it is though. I had some trouble getting it cleaned off the holder for my metal nib. And I did not see the halo or the sheen, but that might be the paper I am using.
    “This charming purple ink has a blue halo with some light sheen.”
  • Brilliant Rot, weird name but okay! Very bright red.
    “This bold red stands out on the page like fire.”
  • Karibik, nice turquoise, although I did get it all over me! I shake the vials gently before sampling and when I opened the lid it burst out all over me and my desk! I think it was me though and not due to the ink haha.
    ”Sail the refreshing waves of this aqua blue-green ink.”
4 notebook pages overlapping each other, able to see just a portion of the bottom 3 pages, and more of the top page. There is a sepia brown, a yellow,a gray, and a maroon ink sampled with shapes, swirls, straight lines, smudges and writing.
Octopus Fluids, Sepia Schwarz, Orange, Pebble Stone, Weinrot
  • Sepia Schwarz, kind of a smoky brown. I drew a tree. Which I will not be showing the internet haha.
    “Write with vintage style using this dark, woody, neutral brown ink.”
  • Orange, pretty orange! Bright, yellow tones. Did not see any shading but again, could be my paper.
    “Bright and cheery, this juicy golden-orange color has smoky shading.”
  • Pebble Stone, very light grey, and I thought I saw some purple hints in it.
    “Part of the ‘pastel,’ this light grey ink has a soft appearance that shades well.”
  • Weinrot, dark maroon or burgundy I think, with very faint sheen.
    “This saturated, deep burgundy red has a dark sheen.”
A notebook page with the following text in silver: “Nov Ink Flight, Ocotopus Fluids” and then the name of each ink written in that inks color and then a line of the same color underneath. “Sepia Schwartz” is a brownish color, “Aubergine” is a gorgeous purple, “Orange” is a yellowish orange. “Brilliant Rot” is a super bright red, “Pebble Stone” is a light grey, “Karibik” is a teal, and “Weinrot” is a maroon.
22 November Ink Flight: Octopus Fluids, Sepia Schwarz, Aubergine, Orange, Brilliant Rot, Pebble Stone, Karibik, Weinrot
7 inks lined up in a straight line on a brown desk. Underneath them is a long piece of paper with a lot of text, an A5 size pack of loose leaf paper from Iroful, and a sticker of a Science Octopus, in a lab coat, and each arm holding different beakers and one has a pen. It’s a shiny sticker.
Octopus Fluids Ink Flight, 100 sheets of loose leaf A5 paper from Iroful, and a shiny Science Octopus sticker!

The inks turned out really cool, I liked all of the colors. I worry about pigmented inks in my pens and have even had warnings accompany some of them about not using them in that particular pen. Here is where I show my inexperience! Actually, the entire pack highlighted how much I still have to learn. For example, I thought this paper would be awesome to use, it’s a fancier grade and everything. But some of my pens end up sort of going dry and skipping when I write on it. Not sure why. Discovered a hard surface under the page instead of another page or a softer surface does help, but! Must still investigate. And I continue to love these stickers.

I enjoy how these subscriptions keep exposing me to new inks, pens, and accessories. I don’t know how long I’ll keep doing them but as of next month I’ll have been subscribed to Truphae for an entire year! They are certainly still fun.

Fountain Pens

October Subscription Box Review! Stipula + Krishna

Subscription Ink Samples! Truphae and Ink Flight, eh? Let’s take a look at those lovely inks. I’ve only tried one each of Stipula and Krishna before now, and I really enjoyed getting a look at more of them.

A lime green ink sample tray, 5 inks with the labeled plastic bag they arrived in. “Stipula, Fading Grey, Dark Red, Bright Green, Bright Blue, Dark Blue.
Truphae Stipula ink samples

Truphae sent me 5 Stipula inks, what do we know about them? Oooo Italian inks. Neat. They also ship 70ml bottles, which includes the best number, so obviously, I am a fan. The two dark inks are the ones that stood out to me, may use them in the future. 

The edges of three pages in a journal. Each page has samples of a single ink, a grey, a bright green, and a dark blue. Only the edges of the ink bottle mark and the lines drawn are visible on two of the pages. The top page you can see the geometric shapes, ink pool, ink bottle color in, straight lines, the end of the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the last dog” then a page separator of a straight line followed by a dot repeated, and then thoughts on the ink.
Stipula Inks, Fading Grey, Bright Green, Dark Blue.

Stipula:

Fading Grey, solid medium grey, nothing jumps out at me about it. Looks like that brownish grey color a black shirt fades to over time. 

Bright Green, cool green? Sort of a teal color? But too green…like spearmint maybe?

Dark Blue, velvety dark blue, nice, work appropriate.

The edges of two pages in a journal. Each page has samples of a single ink, a dark red, and a bright blue. Only the edge of the ink bottle mark and the lines drawn are visible on one of the pages. The top page, Bright Blue, you can see the geometric shapes, ink pool, ink bottle color in, straight lines, the end of the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the last dog” then a page separator of a straight line followed by a dot repeated, and then thoughts on the ink.
Stipula Inks, Dark Red, Bright Blue

Dark Red, wine red, touch of grape purple!

Bright Blue, pool vibes. 

A single page of a journal. The text reads “Oct 2022 Truphae, Stipula” in a shiny grey. Each ink name is written with that ink color, and has a smudged line underneath of the same color. “Fading Grey, Dark Red, Bright Green, Bright Blue, Dark Blue.”
All of the Stipula inks together!
Kaweco Sport pen, sitting on a dark wooden desk top. The pen is an iridescent white.
Kaweco Sport, Iridescent.

Kaweco Sport Iridescent – I am not a huge fan of the material the Kaweco Sports come in, but this one is heckin pretty. I like how the light plays on it. Will definitely need to use a shading ink with this pen. 

A lime green sample tray with 7 ink vials arranged in an upside down u around the edges of the Ink Flight note that comes with the pack. Text read “Ink Flight October 2022, Welcome Ink Travelers, Medical professional by day, ink connoisseur by night - Dr. Sreekumar is the mind behind Krishna Inks, a small ink manufacturing workshop based in Kerala, India. What started out as a hobby in 2010 has now become a passion appreciated by a worldwide audience.”
Krishna Inks, Ink Flight note!

Now, Ink Flight! 

They sent me Krishna inks, which I have read about, and I was very looking forward to sampling more of these. What do we know about these? Well, they’ve got some wild bottle shapes, which I always enjoy. The less stackable and easily storable the better, I say! Made in India, by a doctor, huh. This is his hobby apparently! Interesting.

Look at these COLORS.

The edges of four pages in a journal. Each page has samples of a single ink, a tan gold, a bright purple, grass green, dark blue. Only the edges of the ink bottle mark and the lines drawn are visible on three of the pages. The top page you can see the geometric shapes, ink pool, ink bottle color in, straight lines, the end of the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the last dog” then a page separator of a straight line followed by a dot repeated, and then thoughts on the ink.
Krishna inks, Cassia Flora, Mountain Breeze, Ghat Green, Sailor’s Blue.


Krishna: (quoted text pulled off the paper they send with their inks – excellent descriptions!)

Cassia Flora, “Along with Bamboo Shoots and Mountain Breeze, Cassia Flora is part of Spring ‘22 ink collection of shading colors. Cassia Flora has a chartreuse hue with tones of teal and reddish brown.” Oh that’s what chartreuse looks like! Only really seeing the teal and brown it mentions in the pooling. 

Mountain Breeze, “This bright and juicy purple ink looks exceptional when used with broad, flex, or stub nibs.” I LIKE this color!

Ghat Green, “This lush olive green shades nicely. A fan favorite.” I think of this as a grass green.

Sailor’s Blue, “This vivid blue ink is well-saturated with a pop of magenta sheen.” I’ve seen a couple of this combo, but I like the balance on this one.

The edges of three pages in a journal. Each page has samples of a single ink, a bright green, dark blue, and a bright red. Only the edges of the ink bottle mark and the lines drawn are visible on two of the pages. The top page you can see the geometric shapes, ink pool, ink bottle color in, straight lines, the end of the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the last dog” then a page separator of a straight line followed by a dot repeated, and then thoughts on the ink.
Krishna Inks, Bamboo Shoots, Mountain Breeze, Sindhoor.

Bamboo Shoots, “A fresh, light green ink that shades with a blueish halo and clouds of ochre.” Yep, I agree with that!

Golden Summer Blue, “Introduced in the summer of 2022, this ink has a blueish-purple base with a lustrous golden sheen.” Absolutely on the nose. 

Sindhoor, “A bright red ink with wet flow, some shading and a hint of sheen.” Didn’t see the sheen, but I know that can depend on the paper sometimes.

A single page of a journal. The text reads “Oct 2022 Ink Flight, Krishna” in a shiny grey. Each ink name is written with that ink color, and has a smudged line underneath of the same color. “Cassia Flora, Bamboo Shoots, Mountain Breeze, Golden Summer Blue, Ghat Green, Sindhoor, Sailor’s Blue.”
All of the Krishna inks!
7 ink vials lined up horizontally, underneath from the left to write: the message Ink Flight sends about the box, a pen loop, an octopus sticker underneath, a sheet of ghost stickers, and a Write notepad.
The full October Ink Flight box!

Along with these lovely Krishna inks I got a sticker of an octopus in a scary mask, wielding a fountain pen taller, and with one of those pumpkin halloween candy buckets but instead of being full of candy, it’s full of ink vials. Jealous. I’ll save this one for next October Captain’s Log. 

Also a pen loop that I can attach to something, and conveniently there is a notebook from Write – loop would go well with that. And lastly there is a sheet of absolutely adorable ghost stickers that I am super in love with from Midori. I definitely do what they recommend and draw little speech bubbles and reactions. SO CUTE. 

And that’s October’s Subscription boxes. Thoroughly enjoyed. Looking forward to the November boxes!

Fountain Pens

September Subscriptions Samples Review – (Ink Flight) Troublemaker, (Truphae) Private Reserve

I have added Ink Flight subscriptions to my monthly fun! I had to, there are 7 samples per month, so of course I needed it. I also noticed they have some other fun stuff, like stickers or puzzles, and I thought heck why not. Trying new inks is a greatly pleasing and calming for me. 

Anyway! 

Lime green tray with seven vials of ink arranged around the paper with Ink Flight’s logo, September 2022, and text related to the Troublemaker’s inks.
My first Ink Flight! Also, that tray? Husband designed and printed it. He’s pretty cool!

September Ink Flight Sample Subscription was for Troublemaker inks – which I haven’t tried yet, but now I want to get a bunch more! I enjoyed these inks a lot, they stayed on the metal nib, and applied to the paper pleasingly. There are several multi-chromatic inks, which are becoming my favorite thing these days, and the shimmer inks looked well distributed. 

7 ink vials frame a sticker of an octopus in a knit hat and flannel coat, holding a pen, pumpkin, and a cup. There is a long narrow piece of paper listing all of the inks. Below that is a clear plastic bag with empty ink cartridges and a syringe labeled Private Reserve Ink. In the bottom left hand corner is a sheet of stickers that look like different kinds of pens.
Okay, look at that sticker, how cute is that??? And suspiciously well timed refillable cartridge kit…

There was also an adorable sticker of an octopus wearing flannel and a knit hat, holding a pen and tea – clearly intended for my October Captain’s Log. The cartridge kit is something I am very excited about because I was thinking about getting into refillable cartridges so I can use some tinier pens and here comes this kit! And the pen stickers are shiny, which is delightful. I really enjoy the descriptions Ink Flight sends with the inks because I’ve been learning a lot from how folks with more experience describe inks. 

4 journal pages overlapping so each page can be seen enough to see the color. There is a maroon, a yellowish green, an orange, and a blue. The blue one is the only page mostly visible. There is an ink bottle stamp colored in with blue ink. The same blue ink was used to make triangle and circle shapes, some continuous s shapes, and straight lines. The text says “Troublemaker, Abalone, multichromatic, iro-utsushi, map”
First time I’ve tried Troublemaker inks and it was a lovely experience! Nenite, Tuslob Buwa, Mango, and Abalone.

Now for the inks!

Troublemaker:

Nenita, Ended up sort of a maroon color but the green sheen on top made it more brown than anything else.  

Tuslob Buwa, Goose poop. I think I have three different samples in this shade now…ew? 

Mango, I really liked the color and the way it shades when written, I’ll be using this one in my October Pen/Ink Palette! (Monster theme, this one is for Pumpkin Head!)

Abalone, This is a really pretty blue, very much in the denim realm, but I would call this one a soft denim, it’s supposed to be multi-chromatic, but I wasn’t getting any of the lavender to come thru – maybe I need a different paper!

3 overlapping pages, a grey, a dark green, and a blueish purple. The page with the grey ink is the most visible. There is an ink stamp colored in with grey ink. To the left of that is a pool of the same ink, but greens and pinks can be seen. There are triangle and circle shapes, continuous s shapes, and straight lines. The only text that can be seen read “fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
Moon River, Polar Lights, and Foxglove

Moon River, I’d call this one a sort of grey ish lavender, doesn’t come across in the picture very well but it’s a really interesting multi-chromatic shading ink. I do like my weird grey inks.

Polar Lights, Sort of a super dark avocado green, looks black, but has a light blue shimmer that looks really neat in pools. Might be fun in a broader nib. The description says it’s a purple black ink and I super disagree! 😂

Foxglove, Fun shading lavender, light but should be fairly readable. I see pinks and blues in the multi-chromatic bits and these make me want to try a multi-shader palette some month! Maybe February…

A lime green vial tray with 5 ink vials. Each one contains a brightly colored ink. An empty plastic bag with a label is resting in front of the vials. Each line is written in that color ink. It reads “Private Reserve Inks, 1 Neon Fuschia, 2 Neon Orange, 3 Neon Yello, 4 Neon Green, and 5 Neon Blue.
Truphae! Third Private Reserve subscription!

My Truphae Sample Subscription this month was of Private Reserve Neon inks. I think this is the third pack of Private Reserve inks I’ve gotten from Truphae so far. I’ll need to go back and piece things together, but I’ve sampled an Infinity pack and a Silvers pack prior to this, for sure. Anyway! Neons aren’t my usual thing, but I think I would like to try these out on a fountain pen friendly black paper at some point. 

A red sparkly pen with silver hardware.
Look at the pretty peeeeeeen!

The subscription I have from Truphae includes a pen, and this month I got a Monteverde Strata, Red with a Fine nib. I got it in time to use for my September Pen/Ink Palette. I will talk more about that combo in the Palette post, but the reason I wanted to use it was the sparkly red finish, the weight felt nice in my hands, and I have had good experiences so far with Monteverde pens. It worked out well, and I’ll be using it in October as well! 

3 overlapping pages, a bright pink, a bright yellow and a bright blue. The pink is the only one visible. A stamp of an ink bottle, with pink ink colored in, a pool of the same color ink, triangle, continuous s shapes, and straight lines. The text reads “9.18 SeptTruphae”
Neon Fuschia, Neon Yellow, Neon Blue.

Now for the inks!

Private Reserve:

Neon Fuschia, this ended up being suuuuper pink, which is not my favorite color haha.

Neon Yellow, so bright, so unreadable! Curious how readable it would be on a black paper… 

Neon Blue, as usual, this one was the darkest of the bunch. Not sure I would call it neon per se, but it is on the brighter side. 

2 overlapping pages, a washed out orange, and a bright green. The fully visible page is of the green ink. The ink bottle stamp is colored in with the green ink, also a pool of green. Triangle, circle, continous s shapes, and straight lines. The text reads “Private Reserve, Neon Green, standard, iro-utsushi, mdp”
Neon Orange, Neon Green

Neon Orange, very light, almost seems washed out, not as vibrant as the pink or yellow. 

Neon Green, Not sure I would call this one neon either, but it is bright. 

Over all, not sure I’ll end up using any of these anytime soon, but they will probably end up useful at some point! Now, where can I find nice and fountain pen friendly black paper…hmmm… 

And that’s September! 

Fountain Pens

August Truphae Review, Caran d’Ache

Funny story, a friend of mine wrote a book with a character name Caran and I texted her to show her I’d just found this ink and she told me that is where she got the name! Small world, eh? By the way – excellent book, check it out: Resonance, by Dora Raymaker

Notebook page with the following text: August Truphae (‘22) Caran d’Ache Inks! (Written inside of an ink bottle stamp) Delicate Green Divine Pink Electric Orange Infra Red Magma Blue Each color name has a line of color matching it underneath
Qtip line swabs of each Truphae Sample

These are really fun colors! Two of them remind me of other inks I already love – Down the Don Valley by Ferris Wheel Press and Wonderland by Diamine. I will definitely use the other three, altho reds are not my favorite so…maybe not that one. It was kind of interesting how 4 of these inks were vibrant and bright and the blue was a lot darker. But the ink wasn’t sticky, it wrote smoothly, it didn’t feel dry, and it does not bleed thru the page. All good things. Overall solid inks! 

5 sample cards, they are stacked on top of each other so only the swatch of color at the top is visible on the first 4. the last one is fully visible and the text reads: Caran d’Ache Magma Blue xxx ooo sssss And the word “standard” written on the right edge of the card. The first four cards are a bright green, a brigh pink, a bright orange, and a bright red. the last one is a darker blue.
Sample Cards for the Caran d’Ache Truphae inks I sampled in August.