Diamine Inkvent 2024: Day 21 — Cosmic Glow
Day 21!
Hello again! For day twenty-one of Diamine Inkvent, we have Cosmic Glow.
The color/properties:
Cosmic Glow is another of Diamine’s new “Extreme Sheen” inks. The base color is a deep purple with heavy blue undertones that dries into a bright, reflective, outrageous red-pink sheen where the ink pools.
There’s a smell to this ink too, very similar to the smell I get from Sargasso Sea and a few other Diamine Inks. It’s not a pleasant scent (still better than Fruit Cocktail), but it’s not as strong here, and I didn’t notice it as much while writing. Still, if you’re sensitive to strong-smelling inks, maybe skip this one.
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
How did it perform?
Cosmic Glow has a consistent wet flow and is well-lubricated, providing a very comfortable writing experience. Like many high-sheening inks, it has an unfortunate tendency to quickly dry out in the nib, and that was a problem I had most with the broad nib where it had consistent hard starts from lifting the pen for only a few seconds. I also had to get this ink started again every time I uncapped the pen, but it’s an expected trade-off for an ink like this.
As for cleaning (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) there was no stain! Incredible! I still wouldn’t trust this ink anywhere near demonstrators or easily-stained pens. I couldn’t be happier that I didn’t have to clean another Inkvent stain out. It’s an Inkvent miracle! With that said, it’s still not a fast process to clean out — the ink is so highly saturated you’re more or less guaranteed to have to soak and flush it multiple times, so I would recommend only pens that have easily soakable grip sections to make it easier.
Ink splat
Ink droplets
My personal thoughts…
I was ready to discount this one because, at a glance, it’s so similar to Vibe from a few days ago. Seriously, I showed the ink splats to a few non-pen friends and they wouldn’t tell the difference through the sheen. Its existence hardly felt justified. It wasn’t until I was working on the photos, and saw the writing samples from a distance that I saw that they really weren’t so alike. Aside from just being noticeably more purple, this one is slightly brighter, and the sheen gives it a beautiful pink cast that isn’t as strong in Vibe. So it’s another good synth-wave-looking ink, I’ll absolutely give it that. But if you have your eyes on the full-sized bottles, it’s a little harder to justify buying both.
Written in a Leuchtturm1917 notebook
More Images/Info:
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 3 nib units including a Fine, Medium, and Broad. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook