In 2014, Diamine released thirteen new ink colors to celebrate their 150th anniversary. Diamine Purple Dream, one of the 150th Anniversary inks, is the focus of this week’s review. Read on for all the details!

All About the Ink Maker: Diamine

This week’s ink comes from Diamine Ink Company, a prolific and well-respected ink company established in 1864. Made in the UK, Diamine inks are known for excellent ink flow. Check out the different ink series currently available:

• Regular Edition
• Guitar Series
• Shimmering Series
• 150th Anniversary Series
• New Holiday Inspired “Blue” Edition

This week’s ink, Diamine Dream Purple fountain pen Ink, is one of thirteen 150th Anniversary inks.

All About This Week’s Chosen Ink: Diamine Purple Dream Ink

Diamine Purple Dream fountain pen ink is a lovely plum purple shade that writes really dark but is not a dull black or blue-black. It’s a deep, densely beautiful shade of purple ink.

*** We’re about to dive into the nitty-gritty details of this week’s review. If you’re a full review reader, enjoy. If not, you can skip to the bottom to enter to win the bottle of ink used in this week’s ink review. Just don’t forget to come back and read the rest of the review later if you’re interested in learning more about Purple Dream ink from Diamine’s 150th Anniversary Ink Series. 

It’s Time: Diamine 150th Anniversary Purple Dream Ink Review

This week we put Diamine’s Purple Dream fountain pen ink through our standard ink review tests. And we’re ready to share the results with you!

Read the full 150th Anniversary Diamine Purple Dream Ink Review.

Ink Review Testing Factors (to keep things scientific):

For this week’s ink review, we tested 150th Anniversary Diamine Purple Dream ink using a French-made J. Herbin spiral glass dip pen (with a tip comparable to a medium-fine fountain pen nib) on Rhodia dot pad paper. Remember that using different papers or different nib sizes may produce different results!

What Sort of Ink Bottle Does Diamine Use?

Diamine inks come in different shapes and sizes. The ink bottle your Diamine ink uses depends on the ink series. The Diamine Regular Ink Series and Diamine Guitar Ink Series come in the unique 80 ml. glass bottle or a small, plastic sample 30 ml. ink bottle. Diamine’s Blue Edition inks come in a different, uniquely shaped bottle that has “legs.” Diamine packages their shimmering inks in a basic, round “medicine” shaped bottle with a very small lid. This week’s featured ink, Purple Dream, comes in a stand out 50 ml. triangular-shaped ink bottle. The “triangular” shaped bottle could be described as the shape of a pie slice. Fountain pen ink collectors will the change to arrange their Diamine 150th Anniversary inks into an attractive display – only eight are necessary to create a “pie” shape with your Diamine 150th Anniversary inks.

How Much Does Diamine 150th Anniversary Ink Cost?

Diamine 150th Anniversary ink has a suggested US retail price of $15.95, but you can always look for discounted prices at PenChalet.com. Diamine’s 40 ml. 150th Anniversary inks are more expensive than other Diamine inks due to the special edition ink bottle’s unique nature.

How Did Diamine 150th Anniversary Purple Dream Ink Fair in the 1-Dip Test?

We use the 1-dip test to see how far the ink can write on paper with “1 dip.” This week, we dipped our J. Herbin spiral glass dip pen in Diamine Purple Dream ink once for each writing sample shown above (“S,” “X,” and scribble lines), and the ink very easily wrote across the paper on all three writing samples with a lot of ink to spare.

How Fast Does the Diamine 150th Anniversary Purple Dream Ink Dry?

Diamine Purple Dream fountain pen ink had a dry time of about 4-5 seconds. (This a quick dry time, and we’d comfortably recommend this week’s ink for daily use in the home or office.

Does Diamine Purple Dream Ink Bleed Through?

We saw no bleeding during normal use of Purple Dream ink on Rhodia dot pad paper. And there was only very slight bleeding during the heavy saturated cotton swab test – so slight that it was almost imperceptible.

Was There Any Feathering While Using Diamine’s Purple Dream?

We saw no feathering during normal use of Diamine Purple Dream ink. There was some feathering during the water test, but the lines remained legible.

How Does Diamine 150th Anniversary Purple Dream Stand Up to Water?

For the water test, we let an ink sample dry for about 3 minutes before running a wet cotton swab over the sample. This week’s ink isn’t waterproof, and when we ran the test, we saw significant color smearing, which is typical for dark inks. Even with the color smearing, the lines were still legible and clear.

Does Purple Dream Ink Have Good Shading Traits?

We saw some shading possibilities during our Purple Dream ink review – dark, deep purple-black to a plum purple to a dusty purple shade. When you’re searching for inks with shading traits, don’t forget that a significant amount of shading depends on penmanship and the type of nib. It’s also usually harder to see the shading with dark fountain pen inks.

Final Conclusion on 150th Anniversary Purple Dream Ink:

For an imported ink, Diamine150th Anniversary Purple Dream fountain pen ink comes at a reasonable price, but it is more expensive than Diamine’s regular ink series. The gorgeous dark plum purple color comes from the prolific and highly respected Diamine Ink Company. Purple Dream ink has a very quick dry time, great flow, and is safe for fountain pens. If there’s a downside to this deep, dark, and dreamy ink, it’s that the triangular-shaped bottle almost demands that you keep buying more 150th Anniversary ink colors until you have a set of eight that you can create a complete circle for display. Happy writing from the UK!

Enter to Win Diamine 150th Anniversary Purple Dream:

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