Ink Review: Cult Pens Iridescink Herbert

[Chrissy]

Cult Pens Iridescink Herbert is one several high sheen inks in the “Iridescink” range that is made for Cult Pens by Diamine Inks.

Herbert is a very saturated ink that exhibits some dark red sheen. I found it flowed very well with all of the pens I tried it in, felt wet, and it’s lubrication was really smooth across the page.

Cult Pens describes Herbert as blue but I would call it a dark blue. It’s at least as dark as their Deep Dark Blue ink and I predict that it will darken even more, if you keep your pens filled with it for a while.

My review was written on 100gsm smooth coated paper, that is not very absorbent, and I saw a bit of show-through but no spread or feathering. I saw some nice red sheen on some of the papers I tried it on. The lines were crisp, and it dried quite quickly for such a saturated ink.

It washed off of my hands fairly easily with soap and water and didn’t stain my pens or the insides of my converters that I rinsed out with warm water as usual.

Available in 80ml and 30ml bottles from Cult Pens web-site. Cult Pens calls the 30ml bottles “Little Herbie.”

Thanks to Diamine for sending me a review sample of this ink.

• Flow Rate: Very good - felt wet.
• Lubrication: Very smooth - wrote really smoothly across the page.
• Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
• Start-up: Immediate.
• Saturation: Very saturated.
• Shading Potential: None seen. Too saturated.
• Sheen: Dark red sheen on Maruman Mnemosyne and Tomoe River papers.
• Show-Through: Some seen but I could write on the back of all of them.
• Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen.
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after several days in the pen.
• Staining (pen): Not seen after several days - easy clean-up.
• Staining (hands): Cleaned off with soap and warm water.
• Clogging: Not seen.
• Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, but shows a little water resistance.

Cult Pens Herbert.jpg