fountain pens.

• moonman A1 (smooth) - pilot gold nib in M
• moonman A1 (ridged) - pilot gold nib in F
• platinum preppy - M nib
• parker 51 aerometric demi - M nib (but honestly writes more like a B)
• pilot kakuno (madoromi ivory) - F nib
• jinhao shark 993 (transparent) - F nib (writes more like a MF)
• (gifted to my bf) pilot metropolitan - F nib

fountain pen inks + thoughts.

• pilot iroshizuku tsuki-yo

my go-to ink. beautiful dark teal, flows very well, no notes! iroshizuku inks are very no-fuss and write beautifully in all of my pens. iroshizuku inks are my favorite line so far.

• pilot iroshizuku kon-peki

another go-to of mine. i like this one in my M nibs because of the shading but not as much in my F nibs. feels like channeling a cloudless day into your writing.

• pilot iroshizuku take-sumi

a beautiful ink but i just prefer the other colors; why use black ink when i have freedom to use whatever i want? (ok so this is actually a very dark grey and it does get some very nice shading but still)

• (sample) pilot iroshizuku ajisai
• (sample) pilot iroshizuku asa-gao

• sailor shikiori-nadeshiko

i bought this thinking it was MANYO-nadeshiko, which i wanted because troublemaker milky ocean was not behaving like i wanted it to. oops. this is still a very pretty ink, but a little lighter than i wanted it to be, and it's a lilac color instead of the blue-indigo i was really wanting.

• sailor manyo-nadeshiko

a deeply saturated blue with hints of purple that runs a lot better than milky ocean (thank god). i like how this looks combined with a little bit of my other sailor ink since it's a lilac; it pushes the color a little more into purple-with-blue territory than blurple.

• troublemaker inks moon river

honestly i have not tried this much because milky ocean gave me so many problems. but the swatches are pretty!

• (out) troublemaker inks milky ocean

this ink is what got me wanting to try out fountain pens. it's beautiful. unfortunately it's so dry i could NOT get it to write well in any of my pens. i tried buying an additive to help it flow better, but that didn't seem to help except make it bleed through my pages. i gave up and got rid of it, which made me very sad because it's gorgeous.

• diamine inks oxblood

really nice rust-red although it reads closer to brown in my F nibs. was hoping for something more crimson. i will have to get writer's blood next time.

• (sample) diamine inks writer's blood

this is exactly what i was hoping oxblood to be. it has a slightly more purpley-blue undertone to it vs. the brown of oxblood. the red is similar to oxblood but the undertone is more appealing to me; it still gives the impression of writing 'with' blood while the ink is wet but it doesn't look so much like dried blood after the ink dries, which i prefer. this color is 'richer' and not 'desaturated' like oxblood.

• (sample) diamine inks ancient copper

pretty burnt orange brown that does, impressively, mimic the appearance of making it look and feel like you're writing with melted copper. i think i'd pick charred hickory over this though; it's a darker and thus easier to read color and i like the green in charred hickory over ancient copper's more reddish shading.

• robert oster vanness exclusive charred hickory

beautiful deep reddish-brown with some green shading to it. i added it on because i needed some ink additive (see milky ocean entry) and they were out of the other brown ink i wanted to try (diamine ancient copper). i've since full-sized this.

• (sample) robert oster fire engine

• color verse arrokoth

not impressed with this one. it is a very light brown that is difficult to read, even while the ink is drying down. sad.

• (sample) de atramentis scented ink black roses

my sample leaked a little into the plastic baggie it was shipped in but the scent is really nice. not overbearing at all and not super artificial smelling either. excited to try this out.

• (sample) wearingeul dracula

i typically try to avoid shimmer and high-sheen inks because of how high maintenance they can become but i could not resist this red. the shimmer is very understated, which i appreciate, but gives a nice twilight dust-sparkle in direct light. i really like red ink and this is a nice addition to my collection especially since it's a little pinkier! i'll probably keep this ink in my medium nib platinum preppy in case of clogging issues (although the shimmer particles are so small i think it'd be safe to use in my 'nicer' and finer nibbed pens). a little dry compared to the other inks i have but it writes well + i think some level of dryness is to be expected from a shimmer ink.

• j herbin scented rose-red

this smells wonderful! i don't really smell it after the ink dries, which is a plus or a negative depending on the kind of person you are--i don't really want my hobonichi to smell like rose every time i open it, so i'm ok with that. 'rose red' is an apt descriptor, it's not ms paint red, but instead it truly resembles what a crushed up rose petal might look like in ink form. i might end up developing a pavlovian association with rose and writing due to this ink. so far i have been using this exclusively in my pilot kakuno in case the scent ends up sticking to the pen.

• (sample) vinta inks malayan apple makopa 1938

super pretty magenta! since i don't have any broad nibs the sheen doesn't show up as much as it would otherwise but i'm impressed that i'm able to get it to show up in my M nibs at all! the ink behavior is really nice and wet too, and i like the base magenta coloring enough to consider getting a full bottle of this even without being able to see the pretty green sheen as much as i would in a bigger pen nib. i imagine this would look really nice in a broad TWSBI if you have one or a fude nib.

stationery preferences.

my go-to combo is my moonman A1s in my A6 hobonichi which i use as a planner & journal combo. i use the F nibs for the calendar and the M nibs for writing in my daily page. i am also a fan of the midori notebooks.