Friday, May 6, 2011

Three Purple Herbin Inks



I recently blogged about my three green J. Herbin inks, a comparison review that was posted on the Fountain Pen Network. This time I thought I'd compare my three purples - Poussiere de Lune, Larmes de Cassis and Violette Pensee. This is one occasion when the labels on the bottles closely match the actual color of the inks.



Poussiere de Lune is a dusty purple with grey undertones. It's a dignified, elegant color, a good alternative to black and blue-black. Karen Doherty of Exaclair, Inc. very kindly sent me a bottle for review (along with Lie de The). My US-based cousin Jasmin also gave me a bottle, which she purchased at a neighborhood stationery store on the strength of it being a bestseller.

Larmes de Cassis, on the other hand, struck me as a romantic, old-fashioned color. It's not strictly a purple, but I'd classify it as a related color on the pinkish side. In my Waterman 32's EF nib it comes out as a pale berry pink. In my Parker Lucky Curve's EF nib it writes a darker, richer color. I guess it depends on the paper. It looks great on cream-colored paper. It also appears darker on the more absorbent papers. Larmes de Cassis also shades very prettily depending on the nib used.

Violette Pensee is the classic blue-purple ink used by generations of French schoolchildren, and evokes the color of the pansy. It comes out of the nib purplish, but dries bluer. It's a beautiful, bright color that's appropriate for most writing situations. This was the very first bottle of J. Herbin ink I ever bought.

All this ink reviewing just adds to my irrational desire for more ink, if only it didn't deplete the wallet so much! When Cafe des Iles becomes available at Scribe Writing Essentials, I'll review it along with Lie de The, to show the difference between the two brown Herbin inks. The third brown, Cacao du Bresil, does not appeal to me as it's an odd brownish-grey.

J. Herbin inks are available in the Philippines at Scribe Writing Essentials (3/F, Eastwood Mall, Libis, Quezon City) and the Scribe stall inside Powerbooks in Greenbelt 3, Makati. They come in 30ml "demi-courtine" bottles, at PhP 495 each.

I am not affiliated with Scribe, am just a happy customer.

1 Comment:

jeff pearson said...

I've spent two or three hours researching purple inks to find an alternative to my Diamine Imperial Purple (which is gorgeous). Thanks to your lovely review, looks like I'm going with Larmes de Cassis.
Or..... Violet Pensee.
And this is not a coin flipping situation!Two more reads of your review and I'll make a decision. Thanks for your help!