Smooth ink with a floral aesthetic (J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir)
Ink Sync’s third ink review and it’s yet another blue… wait, no! This ink is purple, I’m telling you! There is a line when it comes to blue and this ink has crossed it!
Text from Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. The paper is Clairefontaine.
J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir1 is a very bright, pure blue-purple - the best name for the colour might be periwinkle or cornflower. There is plenty of shading and no sheen. This ink has a good flow and an exceptionally lubricated feeling. It is not water resistant, but if you dry it off quickly enough, it should still be readable.
I got myself a 30ml bottle, but cartridges are available (and 100ml bottles, amazingly). The price was mid-range.
The J Herbin 30ml bottles aren’t pretty, but they are nice and stable with a wide mouth.
The wet ink is purple, but it dries to right on the edge of blue. If you’re required to write in blue or black, you could get away with using it. The colour is soft, yet vivid, yet dark enough to be readable - it feels like it’s already gone through an Instagram beauty filter or something. For me, the one flaw is that the shading is very straightforward, from less to more saturated.
Lamy Safari, B nib
I’m not kidding about the lubricated feeling, by the way. If you have a pen which is just a little scratchy, try inking it with Eclat de Saphir and you may find that it helps matters.
Pilot Prera, F nib
The writing sample from this review is a bit older, and back then I was experimenting with deliberately displaying different inks together. Diamine Lavender is a vivid medium purple, but it almost looks dark and mellow next to the brightness of Eclat de Saphir. Then I added Eau de Nil, which is teal, but looks practically green next to those purples.
With Diamine Lavender and Diamine Eau de Nil.
That was fun, but it doesn’t really give you an idea of the ink’s colour, nor how it can be used in practice… I think I’ll stick to my “in use” section in the future!
In use
I don’t like to write long journal entries with this ink - my delicate constitution can’t handle reading too many brightly-coloured words at once - but for anything else, it’s great. Dark enough to be readable, but bright enough to use for annotations. It’s been in heavy use for the last month while I was making revision notes for my exams.
With Diamine Jade Green, Diamine Grey, and Sailor Shikiori Sakuramori.
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“Sparkle of Sapphire” or “Shard of Sapphire” would be the literal translation. Literal translation is not always a good idea. ↩︎