Ink Review #94

*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.

Overview

The color/properties:

Endless Alchemy Mystic Forest is a deep, earthy green with minimal blue undertones and soft shading that darkens the color to a near-black in areas where the ink pools. I wouldn’t call this a sheening ink, but the ink has a light brown-red sheen to it as well, which you might see around the edges of shading areas. It was difficult to capture on camera, but in some lighting, I even noticed soft speckles of sheen around the whole of the letters. I noticed this the most while writing in cursive, and I was quite fond of it. Very nice.

Rhodia

Leuchtturm1917

Performance on paper:

Mystic Forest is fairly gentle, and outside of the usual bleed-through on Kokuyo with large nib sizes, there wasn’t any visible bleeding or feathering on the other test pages. With that said, during some extracurricular testing I did find that it was prone to some light feathering and bleed-through on some of the less ink-resistant papers like Leuchtturm and Rhodia (and surprisingly even Midori) when pushed too hard with a wetter nib. The dry times were average and mostly dried within 20 seconds with the larger nib sizes and 5-10 seconds with the fine ones. Surprisingly, the dry times were just slightly better on Rhodia paper. Also surprisingly, the water resistance wasn’t that bad. Most of the color washes away, but there isn’t a lot of clouding when the ink is exposed to water and the remains are at the very least crisp and legible.

Midori MD

Maruman

Tomoe River

Kokuyo

Performance in the pen:

Mystic Forest is an excellent writing ink. It has a medium flow and ample lubrication for a comfortable writing experience across all the nib sizes. I didn’t experience any decreases in flow as the nib sizes increased, and didn’t have any hard starts, stops, or skips while writing. The cleaning process was easy, and the nib units ran clear after a simple soak and flush. However, much like Alchemy Drops of Mars, there was a blue ring of residue left over inside the barrel of the pen after the initial cleaning. Thankfully this went away after leaving the barrel to sit with water in it overnight, and the pen didn’t require any kind of disassembly. Still, it’s good to keep in mind, just in case.

• Performance in a pen: 10/10

• Performance on paper: 7.5/10

• Color saturation: 8/10

• Sheening: 3/10

• Shading: 4/10

• Dry time: 7.5/10

• Water resistance: 4/10

• Ease of cleaning: 8/10

• Shimmer: None

My personal thoughts...

My first impressions of this ink were pretty simple: I was so happy that it wasn’t just another light-sheening blue-green. Sure, there’s still a flicker of blue in there, but that’s okay — it helps move the intended aesthetic along. I would still call it a true green. And let’s not forget, it’s a mystic forest after all, right? It’s a little darker than I had thought it was going to be, but that’s not a bad thing: the darker color does conjure a sense of mystery, but it still retains some earthiness, especially paired with the light traces of brown-red sheen. I highly recommend using this ink with a paper that can take advantage of that. Even though it’s (really) not a sheener in the same way as Candy Sea from this same set, it’s just the right amount to drive the whole alchemy theme home while also setting this ink apart from similar greens. All-in-all, it’s a great green, and definitely a recommendation if you want something that’s on the earthy side with a hint of spice.

More images/info:

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 52gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook

• A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook

• A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook