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Laura N
September 29th, 2015, 09:21 AM
Hello, I just put a longer post about Blue Pearl on my blog, with more photos, and at higher resolution, but someone asked for a post here as well. And I'm happy to oblige. If you'd like to see more, you can go to the blog post here (http://fountainpenfollies.com/2015/09/29/first-look-diamine-blue-pearl/).

This isn't a typical review, but I think of it more as a first look.

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Blue Pearl is part of Diamine's soon-to-be released Shimmertastic series. It is a medium blue with silver flakes. Confession: I've tried all the Shimmertastics now, and I like them all, but Blue Pearl is my hands-down favorite.

I'm a blue ink fan, and this just seems the ultimate blue ink. It reminds me of Parker Penman Sapphire, but with added silver.

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It's unfortunately too shimmering and gorgeous to use at my boring and conventional job, but I think I'll want to use it for everything else. If I can't switch careers to something entirely more fabulous, just to use this as my signature ink. :)

These photos show Blue Pearl in a Pelikan M200 with a gold Richard Binder medium stub. I have found that the Shimmertastic inks, like the J. Herbin 1670 inks, really look their best in wetter nibs. Wider nibs also are good, but you can see that even this Pelikan medium shows off the ink very nicely.

I also believe that the Shimmertastics, like the Herbin 1670s, often benefit from rocking or rotating the pen before writing. That seems to get the gold or silver flakes moving a little in the solution. However, just like with the 1670s, when I forget to do that, I still get shimmer -- just maybe not always as much.

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I just received Blue Pearl yesterday, so I haven't had it long enough to clean it out of any pens yet. It does seem saturated to me. My experience with the first six Shimmertastics was that the gold particles rinsed out immediately, so the amount of cleaning depended entirely on the underlying ink. My first six all cleaned up pretty easily with just water, with Purple Pizzazz, as you'd expect with a purple ink, requiring the most time.

With Blue Pearl specifically, I have a friend who made a great guess about what the base ink might be. And if that's the case, it's an old friend to FPG readers, and I know for sure it's only an average to slightly higher maintenance ink -- one that will clean up after just flushing with water.

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I received my Blue Pearl ink sample from Diamine, which was very generous of them, and I'd like to pass that along. I have enough to send a sample to one more person. If you'd like to throw your hat in the ring, just go over to my blog and enter a comment. I'll also be posting reviews there in the coming days of Sparkling Shadows, Magical Forest and Night Sky, and I will do the same for those.

Chrissy
September 29th, 2015, 09:36 AM
Excellent review. you caught the pearlescence very well on your pictures, and I know that's not easy to do.

dannzeman
October 9th, 2015, 05:06 PM
Here's a bit from a sample I received from Laura.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/09/539d6ea21bd5b1491d430e70790c1369.jpg

You can view the full hi-res version on Flickr: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5621/21872315588_38d8cd3b46_o.jpg

This ink is fantastic and I can't wait for it to be released!

alc3261
October 9th, 2015, 05:12 PM
All of mine should arrive tomorrow!!

Chrissy
October 9th, 2015, 05:48 PM
All of mine have arrived, despite the outer box looking like it got stuck in the conveyor belt.

I have been advised that the lady who designed the Shimmer ink boxes also designed the cover for the latest Harper Lee novel.

Lady Onogaro
October 9th, 2015, 05:54 PM
Here's a bit from a sample I received from Laura.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/09/539d6ea21bd5b1491d430e70790c1369.jpg

You can view the full hi-res version on Flickr: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5621/21872315588_38d8cd3b46_o.jpg

This ink is fantastic and I can't wait for it to be released!

What pen and nib are you using, Dan?

dannzeman
October 10th, 2015, 07:09 AM
Here's a bit from a sample I received from Laura.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/09/539d6ea21bd5b1491d430e70790c1369.jpg


What pen and nib are you using, Dan?

It's a Pelikan M1000 medium cursive italic and since the M1000 nibs are quite springy and allow the tunes to open up as you write, the flow is about 8-9. Nice and juicy!

dannzeman
October 11th, 2015, 09:34 AM
It's interesting how much lighting makes a difference. This ink goes from a fairly mild, nice looking blue to "holy crap, look at that!"

Note: for those using Tapatalk, please tap the image to see the animation.
http://i.imgur.com/v6CInOq.gif

Laura N
October 11th, 2015, 09:48 AM
Lord, that should come with a warning. :)

I actually like the mild-looking blue effect, as well. I would "heart" it if we had the emoticon.

Chrissy
October 11th, 2015, 10:12 AM
I think it's great. They should have used it for their advertising. Dan please can I forward it to Diamine? If I did would it work for them?

dannzeman
October 11th, 2015, 10:16 AM
I think it's great. They should have used it for their advertising. Dan please can I forward it to Diamine? If I did would it work for them?

You can share it with them, but please make it very clear they are not to share it without first contacting me. I can be reached at dan@thenibsmith.com.

Chrissy
October 11th, 2015, 11:04 AM
I think it's great. They should have used it for their advertising. Dan please can I forward it to Diamine? If I did would it work for them?

You can share it with them, but please make it very clear they are not to share it without first contacting me. I can be reached at dan@thenibsmith.com.

I will just send them the link to the thread, as that's easiest. I tried saving it, but it doesn't flash

whych
October 11th, 2015, 05:39 PM
I think it's great. They should have used it for their advertising. Dan please can I forward it to Diamine? If I did would it work for them?

You can share it with them, but please make it very clear they are not to share it without first contacting me. I can be reached at dan@thenibsmith.com.

I will just send them the link to the thread, as that's easiest. I tried saving it, but it doesn't flash
Try opening the image file you saved in your browser. It may be that your graphics program doesn't display animated gifs.

tandaina
October 11th, 2015, 06:00 PM
Ahhh, come on US suppliers, let us order this stuff! :P

Tracy Lee
October 14th, 2015, 05:33 AM
Ahhh, come on US suppliers, let us order this stuff! [emoji14]
Yea, I got tired of waiting because no date for release has been set and when it is, folks like Goldspot will limit what you can buy. I just bought the whole set from Cult Pens. It worked out to $13 a bottle shipped which seemed okay to me. It is on its way.

dannzeman
October 14th, 2015, 05:34 AM
Ahhh, come on US suppliers, let us order this stuff! [emoji14]
Yea, I got tired of waiting because no date for release has been set and when it is, folks like Goldspot will limit what you can buy. I just bought the whole set from Cult Pens. It worked out to $13 a bottle shipped which seemed okay to me. It is on its way.

I'm considering doing this more and more each day.

mhosea
October 14th, 2015, 08:17 AM
I ordered mine, just 3 of them, direct from Diamine yesterday. I've done that before when I couldn't find a vendor with all of my (rather popular) selections in stock.

Laura N
October 14th, 2015, 08:46 AM
Diamine gives you free samples, too, with any order. Great news: I hadn't seen them on the Diamine website when I last checked. I want at least three.

Chrissy
October 14th, 2015, 01:51 PM
On a different thread, an order from Diamine proved to be less expensive delivered to the US, than buying them in the US plus delivery.

So if I was in the US, I would check Diamine's price first

bluesea
October 15th, 2015, 03:10 PM
Cool! I took it as a chance to jump on board with Red Dragon and Sargasso Sea. Color me different but for basic inks I prefer saturated colors.

john
November 18th, 2015, 08:31 AM
After tried the Pearl Blue and Shimmering Sea, I found a little disappointed with these two inks. I can mix those inks with my sparkling stuff, the size and the colour is the same with Diamine. Hopefully I paid less for shipping where I ordered directly from Diamine.

Newjelan
November 28th, 2015, 01:58 AM
I just tried this today. (My Shimmertastic inks were delivered 4 weeks ago but I've been living in temporary accommodation, everything was in storage & I only moved into my new home this week.)

I love this one and can see it becoming a favourite. I'm finding it's drying out quite quickly when writing with my TWSBI 580 Al, which is frustrating.

mhosea
November 28th, 2015, 10:32 AM
After tried the Pearl Blue and Shimmering Sea, I found a little disappointed with these two inks. I can mix those inks with my sparkling stuff, the size and the colour is the same with Diamine.

I wasn't so much disappointed with my choices as faced with the realization that sparkly inks are something I enjoy rather sparingly to begin with. I was glad to learn it. So I sold my Shimmer inks and bought a bottle of Bilberry, which sheens nicely on Tomoe River, and other inks which do not have a settling component.

john
December 6th, 2015, 09:10 PM
After tried the Pearl Blue and Shimmering Sea, I found a little disappointed with these two inks. I can mix those inks with my sparkling stuff, the size and the colour is the same with Diamine.

I wasn't so much disappointed with my choices as faced with the realization that sparkly inks are something I enjoy rather sparingly to begin with. I was glad to learn it. So I sold my Shimmer inks and bought a bottle of Bilberry, which sheens nicely on Tomoe River, and other inks which do not have a settling component. I won't buy the sparkling ink anymore after trying the Diamine shimmering inks and J.Herbin Emerald of Chivor. Also J. Herbin Stormy grey can't compare with Rouge Hematite. On the other hand, I will keep on buying the sheening ink and tired of shaking the pen before writing.

KKay
January 28th, 2016, 07:19 PM
This ink looks super cool. I really should stay away from all these super cool ink reviews...hehehe.

ecsegarra
August 26th, 2016, 04:50 AM
That is seriously THE best description of my exact reaction to this ink! Low light: "Hey, that's a really nice blue." Bright light: "HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THAT!!!"