Sailor Jentle Apricot Ink is one of the 5 Sailor Jentle ink colors that were discontinued a couple years ago. In addition to Apricot, the other discontinued Sailor Jentle ink colors were Sky High, Grenade, Ultra Marine and Peche.
When Sailor stopped delivering these 5 ink colors, their popularity soared and some were paying extra-ordinary prices for the final few bottles available. However, due to the demand and popularity of the inks, Sailor’s U.S. distributor made a special purchase from Sailor to return these colors back to America. Unfortunately, the cost for the ink increased slightly for these 5 previously discontinued colors, but they are well worth the price.
Sailor Jentle Apricot ink is a bright vibrant orange color. Not as dark as Pelikan’s Mandarine Edelstein ink or Pilot’s Iroshizuku Yu-Yake ink, but darker than Noodler’s Apache Sunrise. When Sailor’s new Jentle ink Kin Moskusei was introduced it seemed to be the heir apparent to Sailor Jentle Apricot ink. This orange ink is very close in color but is slightly darker.
Sailor Jentle Apricot ink shows up well on white paper, has great ink flow, is known to be gentle on all fountain pens. If you are looking for an orange fountain pen ink it is a wonderful option. We currently carriy all 27 colors of Sailor’s Jentle ink including all the new Four Seasons ink colors, the basic colors, the pigmented colors and of course the 5 formerly discontinued Sailor Jentle ink colors including Apricot.
Continuing reading for a chance to win the bottle of Sailor Jentle Apricot ink we used for this review.
Sailor Jentle Apricot Ink
We found the following traits while testing Sailor Jentle Apricot ink that you may find useful:
Testing Factors
We used a French made glass dip pen by J. Herbin on Rhodia dot pad paper for this review. The dip pen has a tip that is equivalent to a fine fountain pen nib.
Bottle Sizes
Sailor Jentle Apricot ink comes in Sailor’s standard 50 ml. glass bottle, with its round shape, extra large opening. Included in the bottle is an internal ink reservoir which allows for easy ink access when the ink is running low. The bottle comes in a “no frills” standard Sailor cardboard box, with a small apricot orange sticker indicating the color inside.
Cost
Sailor Jentle inks have three different price points. Sailor Jentle Apricot ink and the previously discontinued colors retail at $25.00 per bottle. This is more expensive than the standard Sailor Jentle four season ink colors, which sale for $18.00. The basic blue and black colors cost the least and retail for only $12.50.
Dry Time
We found a quick dry time of approximately 5-6 seconds during our review of Sailor Jentle Apricot ink. This dry time was using a glass dip pen on Rhodia paper and you may expect a longer dry time when using a larger tip fountain pen nib.
Bleed Through
We found no bleeding during normal use while testing Sailor Jentle Apricot ink on Rhodia dot pad paper. We noticed only slight bleeding at the wettest part of the cotton swab test, but the vast majority of the test produced no bleeding at all.
Feathering
We found no feathering during normal use with Sailor Jentle Apricot ink. However, during the water test, we did notice some line distortion and feathering, but only at the wettest point of the test.
Water Test
Sailor Jentle Apricot ink is water based ink and not waterproof. During the water test, where we ran a wet cotton swab over a dried ink sample, we found a significant amount of color smearing some slight line distortion and feathering. For most of the test though the lines remained distinct without feathering, although there was color smearing throughout.
Shading
We didn’t see very much shading during our review of Sailor Jentle Apricot ink, although with the right hand, paper and nib, it will produce some nice dark orange and lighter orange shading traits. At the very wettest point of the cotton swab test, we did see some red or dark pink sheening.
Conclusion about the Sailor Jentle Apricot Ink
Sailor Jentle Apricot ink is a nice bright shade of orange. It has wonderful characteristics such as quick dry time and nice saturation for orange ink. The ink is gentle on fountain pens and flows well. It is a bit more expensive than other Sailor ink colors, placing it in the high mid range price scale. However, Sailor Jentle Apricot ink, along with the other 4 previously discontinued Sailor Jentle inks are worth the extra cost. If you have never tried a Sailor Jentle ink before you must. It is one of our favorite inks. The colors are fantastic and from past experience if they are discontinued again you will be thanking your lucky stars you picked up a bottle or two.
Enter to Win
Enter to win the actual bottle of Sailor Jentle Apricot ink that we used in this ink review:
