Diamine Inkvent Calendar 2023 Purple Edition

[Chrissy]

Diamine has produced another limited edition Inkvent Calendar for 2023. This one is the Purple Edition. It’s an advent calendar for the Christmas period from 1st December up to Christmas day.

Each day you open a door to reveal a 12ml square plastic bottle of a new Diamine ink. This year there are 7 Standard inks, 6 Shimmer inks, 2 Scented inks, and 8 Chameleon inks - these are inks that also have a mixture of shimmer colours that can appear to look two different colours depending on how much ink you lay down on the paper and the direction in which you view it. This year there is also a Star Bright ink that its described as having a very vivid, bright silver sparkle.

Then for Christmas Day there is a 30ml plastic bottle of a 9th Chameleon ink that also has sheen.

All of the colours are brand new colours for this Inkvent calendar and they have festive names.

I’ve done reviews for each ink, in random order, in my Silvine Notebook that contains white 80gsm paper and in my Tomoe River notebook on 68gsm cream paper. I’ve also swabbed and written with every ink on individual Col-O-Ring cards.

In order to attempt to give the best possible images showing as much shimmer and sheen as I can I have photographed the images in the Tomoe River Notebook and on the Col-O-Ring cards. The images in the Silvine Notebook were scanned.

I didn’t find any of the inks particularly dry to write with. They varied between feeling slightly drier to feeling quite wet. I generally prefer to use a M nib in a decent flowing pen in order to show shimmer and sheen. This year I used either a Lamy Safari, Al-Star or Joy and when using the Tomoe River notebook I swapped in other nib sizes from EF to 1.5mm to write with each ink. Shimmer and Chameleon inks show their shimmer colours better with broader nibs on less absorbent paper.

They all started up in my pens straight away and flowed well with lubrication that varied between a little feedback to very smooth with no feedback. They all felt smoother on the TR paper.

There was no significant difference in show through or bleed through with any of the inks on my papers. I could have written on the reverse of all of the pages.

Standout inks for me personally were Raise A Glass, Rainbows End and Glacier.

In order to be accurate I requested details of the shimmer and sheen colours from Diamine.
The inks are detailed in the list below

Diamine Inkvent Calendar 2023 Shimmer & Chameleon Colours



Bucks Fizz - Chameleon Gold/Light Green Shimmer
Rainbows End - Chameleon Purple/Pink/Gold Shimmer
Tranquility - Chameleon Green/Gold Shimmer
Lavender Frost - Silver Shimmer
Fortunes Gold - Chameleon Gold/Light Turquoise Shimmer
Bah Humbug - Chameleon Purple/Pink Shimmer
Moon Beam - Chameleon Turquoise/Pink Shimmer
Sugar Snap - Silver Shimmer
Glacier - Star Bright Very Vivid Bright Silver Sparkle
Astral - Chameleon Green/Gold Shimmer
Masquerade - Gold Shimmer
Raise A Glass - Chameleon & Sheen Green/Gold Shimmer & some Gold Sheen
Blizzard - Silver Shimmer
Merry & Bright - Champagne Shimmer
Nightfall - Chameleon Turquoise/Green Shimmer
Tinsel - Red/Pink Shimmer


The first image shows all 25 Col-O-Ring Swab cards. The next 5 images show the ink reviews from my Silvine Notebook 80gsm fairly absorbent paper.

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[Chrissy]

This next set of images show all of the inks reviewed inside my Tomoe River 68gsm notebook and these were photographed specially so that they would show the shimmer. In order to get the actual ink colours correct, the background paper might not look as cream as it actually is.


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[mizgeorge]

Thank you Chrissy - there's a lot of work there!

Some interesting shades - a couple that I really like, a few 'meh' and one or two I really don't fancy. Which is much the same as previous years.

[Chrissy]

Thank you Chrissy - there's a lot of work there!

Some interesting shades - a couple that I really like, a few 'meh' and one or two I really don't fancy. Which is much the same as previous years.
You're welcome. ;) Fortunately I have a couple of months to get it all done but sometimes time in October is too tight with Inktober and Inkvent LOL and one has to take preference. I hope that all of my pen friends who have been kept waiting for letters understand. :)
As you know, I'm currently quite a fan of lighter inks but some of these just don't wow me at all either.

I found a novel way of working out how wet an ink was by swapping nibs in my Lamy pens. I would remove the used nib and drop it into the water pot, then place the next nib onto the pen. With my left hand I would stand the pen vertically, nib down, on a piece of kitchen towel while with my right hand I would get the tweezers, grab the dirty nib and swirl it around in the water then remove it and dry it on another piece of kitchen towel. Sometimes the next nib had started to flow while it waited on the kitchen towel, sometimes it didn't and needed a bit longer and sometimes it needed dipping in the ink. I found it all quite amusing LOL.

[Yazeh]

:hail::hail::hail: Wow that's the mother of all ink reviews, Chrissy! :hail::hail::hail:
This is a massive work! The scope of it and the number of the inks is just overwhelming :crazy_pilot:

I'm glad I'm not swayed by inkvent stuff, though I find the lavender frost quite nice :)

Thanks again for such a monumental festive review :thumb:

[Chrissy]

Thanks Yazeh, you're welcome. :) I always breathe a sigh of relief when it's all done. Phew. On some papers Lavender Frost might look more grey.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks, Chrissy! These are all beautiful to look at. I'd probably like the first one (Early Dusk?) for everyday writing.

[TSherbs]

I like Fortune's Gold the most. And Sugar Snap.

But that is about it. Thanks for doing this, Chrissy. And the spoilers work just right.

[Chrissy]

Thanks, Chrissy! These are all beautiful to look at. I'd probably like the first one (Early Dusk?) for everyday writing.

You're welcome. :) I also like Early Dusk as a standard every day blue. :) It's a well behaved ink. :)


I like Fortune's Gold the most. And Sugar Snap.

But that is about it. Thanks for doing this, Chrissy. And the spoilers work just right.

You're welcome. :) Glad you liked the set up and had a look at some of them. :)

[junglejim]

Thank-you for all the hard work, Chrissy! Very thorough, as usual. Looks like a pass for me this year. Too many shimmer inks, which seems to be the latest fashion among ink companies.

[Chrissy]

Thank-you for all the hard work, Chrissy! Very thorough, as usual. Looks like a pass for me this year. Too many shimmer inks, which seems to be the latest fashion among ink companies.
You're welcome. :) Yes shimmer and chameleon shimmers seem to be taking over with not so many standard inks in the mix. Perhaps they are more popular than we all think?

[DrPenfection]

Wow! Impressive work, Chrissy! Well done!

[Chrissy]

Wow! Impressive work, Chrissy! Well done!
You're welcome. :)

[AndyLogan]

Impressive review Chrissy! and I'm impressed there's a spoiler feature so as not to ruin the surprise for some readers.

[lilycollins]

Diamine has produced another limited edition Inkvent Calendar for 2023. This one is the Purple Edition. It’s an advent calendar for the Christmas period from 1st December up to Christmas day.

Each day you open a door to reveal a 12ml square plastic bottle of a new Diamine ink. This year there are 7 Standard inks, 6 Shimmer inks, 2 Scented inks, and 8 Chameleon inks - these are inks that also have a mixture of shimmer colours that can appear to look two different colours depending on how much ink you lay down on the paper and the direction in which you view it. This year there is also a Star Bright ink that its described as having a very vivid, bright silver sparkle.

Then for Christmas Day there is a 30ml plastic bottle of a 9th Chameleon ink that also has sheen.

All of the colours are brand new colours for this Inkvent calendar and they have festive names.

I’ve done reviews for each ink, in random order, in my Silvine Notebook that contains white 80gsm paper and in my Tomoe River notebook on 68gsm cream paper. I’ve also swabbed and written with every ink on individual Col-O-Ring cards.

In order to attempt to give the best possible images showing as much shimmer and sheen as I can I have photographed the images in the Tomoe River Notebook and suika game (https://suikawatermelon.com/) on the Col-O-Ring cards. The images in the Silvine Notebook were scanned.

I didn’t find any of the inks particularly dry to write with. They varied between feeling slightly drier to feeling quite wet. I generally prefer to use a M nib in a decent flowing pen in order to show shimmer and sheen. This year I used either a Lamy Safari, Al-Star or Joy and when using the Tomoe River notebook I swapped in other nib sizes from EF to 1.5mm to write with each ink. Shimmer and Chameleon inks show their shimmer colours better with broader nibs on less absorbent paper.

They all started up in my pens straight away and flowed well with lubrication that varied between a little feedback to very smooth with no feedback. They all felt smoother on the TR paper.

There was no significant difference in show through or bleed through with any of the inks on my papers. I could have written on the reverse of all of the pages.

Standout inks for me personally were Raise A Glass, Rainbows End and Glacier.

In order to be accurate I requested details of the shimmer and sheen colours from Diamine.
The inks are detailed in the list below

Diamine Inkvent Calendar 2023 Shimmer & Chameleon Colours



Bucks Fizz - Chameleon Gold/Light Green Shimmer
Rainbows End - Chameleon Purple/Pink/Gold Shimmer
Tranquility - Chameleon Green/Gold Shimmer
Lavender Frost - Silver Shimmer
Fortunes Gold - Chameleon Gold/Light Turquoise Shimmer
Bah Humbug - Chameleon Purple/Pink Shimmer
Moon Beam - Chameleon Turquoise/Pink Shimmer
Sugar Snap - Silver Shimmer
Glacier - Star Bright Very Vivid Bright Silver Sparkle
Astral - Chameleon Green/Gold Shimmer
Masquerade - Gold Shimmer
Raise A Glass - Chameleon & Sheen Green/Gold Shimmer & some Gold Sheen
Blizzard - Silver Shimmer
Merry & Bright - Champagne Shimmer
Nightfall - Chameleon Turquoise/Green Shimmer
Tinsel - Red/Pink Shimmer


Pictures of all of the inks follow but in case you don't immediately wish to see them they are hidden under Spoilers for now so that you can choose to see them if you wish.
The first image shows all 25 Col-O-Ring Swab cards. The next 5 images show the ink reviews from my Silvine Notebook 80gsm fairly absorbent paper.


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The writing experience was explored using various nib sizes from EF to 1.5mm, primarily using Lamy Safari, Al-Star, or Joy pens. The choice of nibs aimed to showcase shimmer and sheen, with broader nibs revealing the best effects on less absorbent paper.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Chrissy, maybe you could tell me the difference between Chameleon and Shimmer inks?

Thanks.

[Chrissy]

Chrissy, maybe you could tell me the difference between Chameleon and Shimmer inks?

Thanks.
Shimmer inks contain one shade of shimmer particles and when you write with them you can see the ink colour or the ink and shimmer colour combined depending on how much ink you lay down on the paper and how absorbent the paper surface is.
Chameleon inks contain more than one shade of shimmer colour so you can see at least two different ink and shimmer colours depending on the angle you view the writing at. If you write on paper that is less absorbent you can look at it from more than one angle and you will see quite different colours. i.e. pink from one direction and green from another.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Excellent, Chrissy. Thanks so much. I just got the 2022 Green edition, which has a chameleon or two.

[Chrissy]

Excellent, Chrissy. Thanks so much. I just got the 2022 Green edition, which has a chameleon or two.
You're welcome. :) Diamine seems to increase the number of chameleons each year. Perhaps they breed in a tank somewhere LOL

[Chrissy]

I've now removed the spoilers so that you can see all of the ink colours. Happy Holidays. Enjoy. :)

[Sailor Kenshin]

Beautiful, Chrissy. I wish I could take shimmer ink photos half as well as you.

[Chrissy]

Beautiful, Chrissy. I wish I couod take shimmer ink photos half as well as you.
You're welcome SK. :) The way I did it with the swab cards was to tape them all to one piece of paper in an A4 book then prop it up at exactly the right angle so that I could see as much of the shimmer as possible. Then I took the pictures with the flash on the top of camera as well as lightbulbs coming into the tent at both sides. :)

I also propped up the TR booklet and used the same kit but some always show up better than others no matter what you try.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks so much, Chrissy. I'll at least try the flash and prop-up technique (our room lighting is awful and needs some rethinking at least).