Diamine’s twelfth ink is called Noel. It’s a dark red ink with yellow sheen, which makes it the third red of the calendar, but the first with any effects. As per usual, I’ve rested this ink with a Kaweco Sport extra-fine nib and using a Rhodia Webnotebook
I want to start by talking about some of the ink’s properties, because that’s what caught my interest during testing. Noel is a very saturated ink, more so than most of what I’ve tested during Inkvent. Cleaning it out of a pen taks longer than normal and the dry time is fairly long. It barely smears after 10 seconds, so I’m not going to say that it’s horrendous, but I’d like it be shorter. It also doesn’t hold up well to water, smearing badly and making writing unreadable. If you’re using this ink, keep drinks well away. However, for all the saturation, I was stunned to find that it didn’t bleed through the paper at all.
And while I’m iffy on the properties, I’m not iffy on how it writes. The lines I get a rich and clean and the, while writing wasn’t completely smooth, it was pleasant to use. The flow is nice and wet and I have no issues with using this ink.
The colour is interesting to me. I’m not keen on darker reds, but I would put this in my reds lineup. There’s same shading going on, mostly to a pinkish colour, but nothing major. As for the sheen, I’m getting little bits of it. Rhodia paper isn’t great for sheening inks, but I notice in the darker sections of the ink, the is some gold.
Overall, I’m still really intrigued by this ink. It’s not an everyday writer for me, but the colour and the potential sheen do have me interested. I think it’s a solid ink, even if it doesn’t quite match my preferences.
The Pen Lover's Nook 