Diamine Enchanted Ocean
Ink Review #41
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color/properties:
Enchanted Ocean is a shimmering ink. The base color is a deep, although slightly faded, midnight blue, with bright silver shimmer particulates. The ink has an okay shimmer distribution, often concentrating in the pooled/shaded areas of the ink.
There’s also a red sheen to this ink. It’s especially noticeable with the larger nibs, and even more so when writing in print, outlining the areas where the ink pools in the writing, but it wasn’t as easy to see with the fine nibs.
I also noticed a slight smell of sulfur. It’s not as strong as in some other Diamine inks I’ve used, but I occasionally noticed it while writing.
Ink splat
Ink droplets
Performance on paper:
Enchanted Ocean’s performance on the paper was generally good. There was significant bleed-through on the Kokuyo paper, but I didn’t notice any bleeding or feathering on the other test papers.
The dry times were slightly below average, but not terrible. The finer nibs took longer than normal to dry, but the larger nibs mostly dried within 20 seconds. Enchanted Ocean is a highly saturated ink, however, and any residual moisture on the hand may easily smudge it after it’s dried.
The water resistance isn’t the best, but there’s some retention after water exposure. The ink clouds slightly, which could become a problem with larger nib sizes, but it may retain some legibility.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Enchanted Ocean had a consistent wet flow across all of the test nibs. Despite this, I experienced 18 clogs while doing the writing samples with (both) the fine nibs, and the extra fine nib. The clogging wasn’t an issue with the medium through stub nibs, and when writing correctly, Enchanted Ocean felt adequately lubricated enough for an enjoyable writing experience. I did notice that the particulates in this ink didn’t agitate as easily, or stay in suspension as long as I’d like, and had a tendency to stick to the walls of the barrel. Despite that, I didn’t have any issues with shimmer distribution.
Cleaning was surprisingly easy. For such a saturated ink, it didn’t take long to clean out, and the shimmer particulates washed out with ease. Still, I wouldn’t let this ink sit in a pen too long, or you may run into difficulties washing it out.
Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper (white) with a broad nib
Written on Midori MD paper (cream) with a broad nib
Performance in a pen: 5/10
Performance on paper: 7/10
Color saturation: 7/10
Sheening: 4/10
Shading: 2/10
Dry time: 6.5/10
Water resistance: 2/10
Ease of cleaning: 7.5/10
Shimmer: Silver, Medium
My personal thoughts…
This was the first shimmering ink I ever tried, and honestly, it almost scared me away from shimmering inks entirely. Thankfully, it didn’t scare me away forever and I’ve since had plenty of opportunities to try Enchanted Ocean — and others — once more (to laughably varying degrees of success).
As a color, Enchanted Ocean has a lot going for it. It’s a nice dark blue, with a light sheen and a great shimmer effect that’s exceptionally eye-catching. My first experience using it could be defined as complete amazement. It’s unfortunate that it was so quickly followed up by absolute disappointment. It was just too volatile. It would work seemingly perfectly, and then suddenly stop. It was frustrating. That’s not to say that this ink is entirely bad. In the correct circumstances, the ink appears to work just fine. The problem is I don’t like recommending something that only “works in the correct circumstances.” Sure, that could be said about shimmering inks in general, but then I’ve worked with plenty that don’t feel that way.
Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper with a Conklin Endura Abalone (broad nib)
More images/info:
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 with 5 nib units including an EF, F, M, B, and 1.1mm stub, All nibs are tuned to perform at the same wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
A Midori MD A5 Notebook
A 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook