u/OrWhatYouWilll

Very happy to see a small business in the ink sample selling space. As an avid ink enthusiast I have often wished for such a service in India.

Placed an order at theinkcrediblestore.com and promptly received my package, neatly packed with lovely branding. And I appreciate the two complimentary mini samples!

Wish this team the very best, and hope the inks multiply, as mine are in the habit of doing... :D

I managed quite well a short while ago with my lone Pilot Metropolitan (in addition to, if I'm being honest, a couple of Avenue Road nameless buys) and my set of Bril inks. Going from only ever knowing inks to be blue, black or if you get really lucky then green... I felt I had all the colours in the world at my fingertips at 25/- per bottle pre-covid. What more can one want from life? This was until I met Iroshizuku and my life changed. I felt guilty for buying 2 new ink bottles, and that too at what seemed like an absolutely insane whopping 1500/- per bottle! I gave away my Bril ink collection and eased my conscience... For a couple of days.

Now that I have accepted my ink addiction, I have bought them back, at a princely 35/- per bottle.

I find these inks to be fundamentally good inks - functional and decently behaved. My favorites are the red (beautiful rich coral shade - a pinky orangey red) and the turquoise (bright and happy) in addition to the staple from high school - royal blue. If you haven't tried them, please do. You may love them, and at 35/- per 50ml bottle, they don't break the bank. You can order on their website if they are not locally available. Brilindia.com. Be aware that Laurel Rose has a reputation for staining.

Here are swatches of all the shades that Bril makes.

Somebody on a pen group flagged this item on Amazon.in which Amazon hasn't even bothered assigning a model name to! It looks VERY similar to the Hongdian/Asvine Black Forest pen, which I have, and is solidly built and works well. Got me curious, so thought why not buy it and compare?

So here goes:

This Amazon Basics (AB) pen is very similar to the Hong Dian (HD) Black forest, but falls a little short in terms of quality. The barrel is almost identical. The cap is a bit different but can still be interchanged between pens (in my case the HD cap clicks into place on the AB body, but is still a bit loose and rotates freely unlike the corresponding swap of AB cap on HD body).

My weighing scale needs its batteries changed, but while in my hand the uncapped pens could be almost similar in weight, the cap alone seems definitely heavier in the HD. The overall finishing of the HD is significantly better. The section of the HD is matte metal whereas the AB section is glossy plastic. The cap finial of the AB is plastic, whereas the whole cap is sturdy metal in HD.

I directly dipped the pen in ink without washing it out first. First strokes were a bit unsatisfying, but after I loosened the tines with a shim, ink started to freely flow and it wrote smooth like butter. I used an ink that I'm playing with (I'm adding mica powder to ink for shimmer) and it had a lot of particles in it, but the AB still managed to deliver it smoothly and evenly on the page.

The pen comes with a cheap convertor, which I haven't yet tried to use. Overall, good enough value for this pen cost at 380/-. I do suspect the colour will chip off soon enough though, if the cap or barrel rims are anything to go by. Try at your own risk!

Each time I've thought about buying Pelikan inks, I've shied away hearing reviews of dryness whereas I love my inks juicy and wet. The Edelstein series has stood out as an option, but seemed prohibitively expensive for colours which I already own in other brands having similar shades...

A week or so ago I bought a grail pen. And the website showed me an offer of free Pelikan Edelstein Rose Quartz ink for purchases above INR 20k. I qualified but was unable to activate the offer and I let it be, thinking they must have run out of the offer inks, and I made my purchase regardless.

A week later when I had some other things in my shopping cart of the same website, some pesky executive from the company WhatsApped me to ask whether he could help me complete my purchase. I usually dislike this kind of intrusive sales effort, but as I politely declined his help, I brought up the matter of the free ink that I was not able to apply to my purchase. And voila! I now have Rose Quartz, absolutely free of cost, which is worth a hefty INR 3300 right now. Yayyyy for overenthusiastic sales practices!

As for the ink itself, I have heard many on this forum sharing dissatisfied reviews and dislike for the colour etc. Personally, I find it to be a unique and lovely cool pink, well behaved and with good shading. Perhaps I'm less critical owing to its free-ness, hahaha! But I'm a happy camper today. :)

[I've used a glass cocktail stirrer for the blobs and streaks, Moonman N8 glass nib pen for the larger lettering and patterns, and Pilot Falcon in <SM> for the smaller lettering. Paper is Ayush. The last photo is from when the swatch was still wet.]

I bought an expensive grail pen on OnlineMantra. There was an offer of free Rose Quartz ink for purchases above 20000 but for some reason I was not able to activate the offer. Didn't think much of it and made my purchase anyway.

Fast-forward to another day a week later, when I had a couple of things in my OnlineMantra shopping cart, and an executive whatsapps me to ask if he can help me make my purchase. I politely declined, but thought to bring up the issue of the coupon for free ink with my previous pen purchase... Next thing, they shipped out the ink to me. Yay!

It's my first Pelikan ink, Edelstein at that, and I must say, Rose Quartz is very unique and rather lovely! I've used a glass cocktail mixer for the blobs, a Moonman N8 dip pen for the larger lettering and patterns, and a Pilot Falcon <SM> for the smaller thicker letters.

Bought a small 18ml bottle of Majohn ink the other day for Rs.375 (~4USD), and fell in love with it (It was Bingdilian). Quickly placed orders for others before June began, what with having rashly sworn off non-essential purchasing for the month. Luckily my May purchases are still slowly trickling in, so I won't be truly suffering until a week into June at least. Gulp!

One problem with ordering Majohn inks is that they haven't bothered with English names. I really struggled with having to return an ink which was different from what I ordered, since there are no names so to speak. I've written down their names here in Chinese (based on Ali Express listings) along with a general colour description like how I see it on the Moonman site in India (although that's not consistent either).

So here goes, from left to right we have:

1. Bingdilian (Lotus red pink)

2. Jinghua (Cherry Red)

3. Qingmeng (Lilac Purple)

4. Yunshan (Sky Blue)

5. Yusheng (Forest Green)

6. Fengxu (Grass Green)

7. Xiaochong Shan (Muddy Yellow Green)

8. Carambola/Star Fruit (fruit series)

9. Longan (fruit series)

I've swatched them in the same order too. I found them to be fun, moderately priced inks, esp in these cute 18ml bottles (which are very nice quality) which allow you to play with lesser saturated inks as well as vibrant shades. Other than the first two greens running overly dry, the rest were mostly well behaved.

I found very few reviews or swatches while deciding whether to buy these, and I'm quite pleased with my purchases, so I thought I'd share my experience for others who may be considering Majohn Inks. (The last pic is to show how blue the lilac one writes as compared to how purple it dries to, as seen in the other pics)

Now wish me luck for the rest of the month. :)

Just dipped my vintage Lady Sheaffer IV Skripsert into my chai instead of the water pot! 🙈

But then again, if she's survived from the 1950s till now to still write so beautifully, she'll surely weather this storm in a teacup too. 😅

But seriously, I must stop this bedside pen-play nonsense and use a desk.