Diamine Fountain Pen Ink (80mL) - Earl Grey

The best

After three years of using regularly, this is easily one of the best inks. The flow is silly, always easy, never too thin though. On the page, the grey is soothing, easy to ready, and interestingly complex - at times warm, at times cool, with echoes of purple, well saturated, yet still capable of shading. It is balanced and well behaved enough to put in any pen. It also performs well on a variety of paper.

I bought a little sample size of this ink and it's currently loaded up in my Lamy Al-Star. The shading is wonderful, and the ink is a different colour when put down compared to when it dries. There is a wide range of saturation, but it won't be too light or too dark at the same time. Just perfect!

I hemmed and hawed over various different shades of gray before choosing this ink. I wanted something light enough to distinguish from black but dark enough to be legible. So far I’ve only tried it with an extra fine Lamy nib. It was rather dry and feint on Rhodia paper, so I dug up an old Moleskine notebook, and it’s perfect on the porous paper.

As Michael noted in his review, there is a lavender undertone. The depth of colour is exactly what I wanted.

Because it’s rather dry, this would be a great everyday ink to use on cheaper paper for school or work, if you’re like me and tend to use finer nibs. I look forward to trying it in a bigger nib, because the shading is lovely.

I purchased a sample size of this ink alongside my TWSBI ECO that I purchased a month or two back. To my dismay, they were out of the full bottles, so I bought some Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki. There are many in the community who feel Kon-Peki to be the most beautiful and shading inks you could get away with using in an EDC; however, I just recently loaded up my 1.1 stub ECO with the Earl Grey, and now I'm even more disappointed I was unable to get a full bottle in the Kon-Peki's stead. That's saying something.

This ink is lovely, yet understated-- It is a very reliable ink with lovely shading, it's a nice grey with purple undertones. I sincerely believe it is the ink I want loaded in my 1.1 ECO hereafter. Buy this ink!