Ink Review: Cult Pens Pumpkin Shimmer ink - Diamine Exclusive

[Chrissy]

Today I'm reviewing Cult Pens Pumpkin Shimmer ink, one of their latest Diamine exclusive inks. This ink comes as a 50ml glass bottle with four small feet like those used for the Diamine Red & Blue Edition inks.

Pumpkin Shimmer is a bright orange coloured ink with gold shimmer. A great ink for writing Halloween cards.
I found it a well behaved ink that flowed well and felt reasonably wet. Lubrication felt quite smooth across the paper I used.

It didn’t suffer from any hard starts or non-starts when I put the uncapped pen down to do swab tests, dry times and water resistance. I found no start-up problems after leaving the pen overnight. It dried fairly quickly on most papers and once dry it didn’t smudge or smear.

I saw hardly any show through and no bleed through on the papers I used.

• Flow Rate: Good.
• Lubrication: Smooth
• Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
• Start-up: Immediate.
• Saturation: Unsaturated ink.
• Shading Potential: Some shading seen.
• Sheen: Gold shimmer seen.
• Show-Through: None seen.
• Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen.
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen.
• Staining (pen): Not seen after several days in the pen. Very easy clean-up.
• Staining (hands): Clean after one wash.
• Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.
• Water resistance: No water resistance.
• Availability: 50ml glass bottles exclusively available from Cult Pens, UK.

My thanks to Cult Pens for sending me this sample to review.

Cult Pens Pumpkin Shimmer.jpeg

[TSherbs]

Interesting. Nib size seems to have little (to none) effect on the hue of the ink on the page. Even the swab passes hardly change in color depth (they do, a little). Thanks, Chrissy.

[Chrissy]

You're welcome. It's much easier to see the gold shimmer with a wetter, broader nib.

[Monsoon]

Bit of a rube here but what makes the ink shimmer? And if it's a suspension does that mean it will settle in the convertor? I cant see the shimmer on the review. Maybe too hard to photo?

[Chrissy]

Micro shimmer particles make all shimmer inks shimmer. You need to shake the bottle first to move them around in the ink then fill the pen. Some will settle inside the converter when the pen isn't being used and you will need to gently shake the pen before use.

It's harder to see the gold on the review sheet as that's a scan but you can see the effect of the gold shimmer along the top in the 3 squares under the paper details, then along the longer line below the pens used. You can also see gold shimmer in the single swab underneath the 3 level Q-tip swabs. When I post the results on other papers you might see some on less absorbent papers such as Tomoe River paper too.

All shimmer inks are best used in fountain pens that are easy to clean out, with broader nibs, and when you're writing on non-absorbent paper.

[Monsoon]

Neat. I went back and scrutinized the boxes and lines and can see what you meant but it is still hard on a computer screen. It's the sort of effect that may be easier to see if angling the paper to a light source differently perhaps. Anyways I don't have anything with shimmer particles right now but will have a look around for one to try. I prefer blues so if there's a recommended blue shimmer please hit me up with the name.

[Chrissy]

Neat. I went back and scrutinized the boxes and lines and can see what you meant but it is still hard on a computer screen. It's the sort of effect that may be easier to see if angling the paper to a light source differently perhaps. Anyways I don't have anything with shimmer particles right now but will have a look around for one to try. I prefer blues so if there's a recommended blue shimmer please hit me up with the name.

There are loads and loads of shimmer inks made by many manufacturers. Have a look around, try a few samples maybe and find one you like.

[TSherbs]

Neat. I went back and scrutinized the boxes and lines and can see what you meant but it is still hard on a computer screen. It's the sort of effect that may be easier to see if angling the paper to a light source differently perhaps. Anyways I don't have anything with shimmer particles right now but will have a look around for one to try. I prefer blues so if there's a recommended blue shimmer please hit me up with the name.

There are loads and loads of shimmer inks made by many manufacturers. Have a look around, try a few samples maybe and find one you like.

Indeed.

Here is a start: https://Mountain of Ink Shimmer Inks swatches