Ink Review: Diamine Soft Mint

[Chrissy]

Today I'm reviewing Diamine Soft Mint ink from the standard Diamine range.

It's a mint green colour, that matches it's name very well. Diamine Soft Mint is the best alternative I’ve ever found as a replacement for Caran d’Ache Colours of the Earth Caribbean Sea ink. Diamine Spearmint Diva is a similar colour as a silver shimmer ink.

I had Soft Mint in my Lamy Nexx M pens for several days while writing parts of the review, and I didn't experience any flow or lubrication problems. I found the ink flowed very freely on the smooth Xerox 100 gsm ColorPrint paper that I regularly use for my ink reviews. It was a pleasure to write with this ink.

Bearing in mind this paper is thick with a shiny surface, and the nibs used were a Lamy steel M and a stub, this ink was fairly quick drying. It dried in less than 10 secs.

It's a well behaved, unsaturated ink that exhibits some nice shading.

• Flow: Very good.
• Lubrication: Very smooth
• Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen.
• Show through/Bleed through: Hardly any show through and no bleed through seen on this paper.
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over 1 week in the pen.
• Staining (pen): Not seen after several days in the pen - easy clean-up with water.
• Staining (hands):Needed two washes.
• Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.
• Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof and has no water resistance.
• Availability: 80ml glass bottles, 30ml plastic bottles and cartridges from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets worldwide.
• It’s a reasonable price.

Diamine Soft Mint.jpg

[sgtstretch]

I have a sample of this, I may have to try it out soon. Thanks for the review!

[musicman123]

It's a nice color but it seems a little bit too light to my tastes. Thanks for sharing!