Diamine Lady Grey
Ink Review #167
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
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Overview
The Color and Properties
Diamine Lady Grey is a wispy purple-grey ink with heavy multi-shading properties. In general writing applications, you can expect the base color to be more on the pale grey side. Where the ink pools the heaviest, the ink will begin to appear as a pinkish-purple with hard, dark edges around the shaded areas. In larger applications like swatches, you might see some hints of blue around the edges of the shaded areas. I have noticed traces of blue in writing, but it’s much less common.
The ink is pale; however, I don’t personally find it to be all that difficult to read. Even with a darker ink on the opposite side of a page, it comes through clear enough, although it could be an issue when used with finer nib sizes. On the subject of nib sizes, I don’t generally accept the notion that you need to have a larger nib to enjoy the color of an ink, but in this case, I’ll agree that a larger nib size will absolutely make the most out of the multi-shading effect of Lady Grey.
Ink splat
Ink droplets
Chromatography
Performance on Paper | Dry Times | Water Resistance
Lady Grey is unsurprisingly well-behaved. There was some standard bleeding from the Kokuyo notebook, but none of the other notebooks showed any signs of bleeding or feathering. This ink should be fine on most fountain pen-friendly paper choices.
Rhodia
Leuchtturm1917
The dry times are slightly above average. Fine nib sizes dried within 1-10 seconds, while the larger nibs between 10 and 20 seconds.
The water resistance isn’t great, although there are some pink shadows left over of the writing. It’s not the easiest to read, however, and I don’t think it would hold up to longer water exposure.
More Pages
Performance in the Pen | Cleaning
Lady Grey has a surprisingly good medium flow. It’s not the slickest ink, but it’s miles ahead of most multishading ink options in terms of lubrication. The flow keeps up well, too. There weren’t any drop-offs during my extended writing tests until I got to the 1.9mm music nib, where it would slow down after a few lines. With that said, the ink only had an issue keeping up with the music nib when writing in cursive, and the flow would catch up quickly. With most nibs, this ink should perform very well.
Unsurprisingly, the ink cleaned out very quickly in a single soak and flush with a bulb syringe. There weren’t any remaining traces of color or residue in the test pen or nib units.
Writing Samples
Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper (white, 6mm ruling) with a medium nib.
Written on Midori MD paper (cream, 7mm ruling), with a medium nib.
Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper (white, 7mm ruling) with a 1.9mm music nib.
Written in a lined Traveler’s Company 001 notebook insert (white, 5mm ruling) with a 1.9mm music nib.
Written on 68gsm Tomoe River paper (white, 5mm ruling) with a fine nib.
Performance in a pen: 9/10
Performance on paper: 10/10
Color saturation: 4/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 8/10
Dry time: 8/10
Water resistance: 1/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Shimmer: None
My Personal Thoughts…
I have to admit, Sarah and I weren’t exactly thrilled when we saw this year’s Diamine-Reddit collaboration ink. When the original poll to pick the color was up, we were hoping that a brown/sepia/yellow option would pull through. Then came the name. I don’t hate Lady Grey, but I couldn’t help but fear that this was heading in the direction of redundancy with Earl Grey. At this point, my interest had dropped. I recall a cursory glance at the color vote, but when it was all said and done, I was even hesitant to buy it for this review. Once I got my hands on it, however, it won me over instantly. I’m loving Lady Grey, even more so than its aforementioned predecessor. As a multi-shader, it’s not just good, it’s one of the better ones out there. The flow is surprisingly usable, and the effect is beautiful. Despite my hesitations, this ended up being my favorite Diamine-Reddit collab so far. With that said, it’s not nearly as purple as it appeared in the color vote. It just isn’t — you have to lay this ink down so heavily for it to be that purple. But I’m happy with that as it is. Much like Diamine’s earlier Reddit ink, Celadon Cat, Lady Grey has the kind of special character you might expect from the Inkvent line, or an ink from one of the smaller boutique ink houses. Still, there’s part of me that feels like there’s some redundancy. As much as I like it, there are now two Reddit collaborations that are effectively grey. Would a brown/sepia/yellow have been better? I don’t know, but maybe next time we’ll get to find out.
Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper with an Opus 88 Mocha Mousse (medium nib).
More images/info:
Featured in the photography and writing samples:
Diamine Lady Grey
Opus 88 Mocha Mousse, medium nib
52 gsm B6 Tomoe River notebook by Sterling Ink
52 gsm B6 Tomoe River notebook insert by Galen Leather
Midori MD B6 Slim lined notebook (Amazon)
Traveler’s Company lined insert 001 (Amazon)
Traveler’s Company brass clip (Amazon)
Tim Holtz mini bulldog clips (Amazon)
Pen rest and bottle holder by Fountain PENdulum
Current text: Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery (Amazon)
Sources:
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units, including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
A Midori MD A5 Notebook
A 52 gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook