Oblation Papers & Press Rose City Rose
Ink Review #124
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
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Overview
The color:
Oblation Papers Rose City Rose is a bright pastel pink with a slight purple undertone, mostly noticeable on white paper. The purple tone is prominent in the ink splats and droplets, but I don’t expect that it would ever show up so dark in writing. It shades with a crisp cut and dark edges in both cursive and print writing and depending on the wetness of the pen, could even darken into a near red in shaded areas. As I mentioned earlier it’s bright, but not so much that it’s difficult to see. I love the way the color looks on cream paper in particular as it warms and softens the color up quite a bit.
Ink Splat
Droplets
Performance on paper:
There was a lot of feathering in both the ink splats and droplets and based on that I expected I expected to see more in my writing tests, however, there was only some minor feathering on the Kokuyo sheet and no bleed-through to be seen on any of the test papers. This ink should be safe for most fountain pen-friendly papers, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some feathering when this ink is used in wetter-tuned pens.
The dry times are average with the large nibs mostly drying within 20 seconds, and the fine nibs in 5-10.
Although not a lot there’s some water resistance. Water exposure quickly washes most of the color away but there’s not a lot of clouding and there are light but crisp purple/grey shadows left behind that are easily legible.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Rose City Rose has a medium-dry flow but for the most part, it was well-behaved in most of my test nibs. The ink feels well-lubricated and in the best conditions feels great to write with. It was with the 1.1 Stub and the Architect nibs, however where I ran into issues with the flow. The 1.1 Stub had a lot of issues with hard starting and not finding the “sweet spot” during my tests and while the architect never ran into any skips or hard starts, there just wasn’t enough flow to the nib and it was a less than enjoyable writing experience. I would suggest sticking to standard nib sizes unless you have a particularly high-flowing feed.
Cleaning this ink out only required a basic soak and flush and there weren’t any signs of stains or residue left in the pen or test nibs.
Written on 52gsm Tomoe River Paper (white) with a medium nib
Written on Midori MD (cream) with medium nib
Performance in a pen: 8.5/10
Performance on paper: 8.5/10
Color saturation: 5/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 6/10
Dry time: 7.5/10
Water resistance: 2/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Shimmer: None
Julian’s thoughts…
After the wonderful experience that was Oblation Olive, it’s safe to say I was eager to try the next ink from Oblation. Rose City Rose was an easy choice because light pinks tend to have spotty performance in my experience, and I wanted to see if Oblation would impress again. As a comparison, Rose City Rose didn’t necessarily knock my socks off in the same way that Oblation Olive did, but that’s an incredibly high bar to reach. Rose City Rose is still an excellent pink and outside of being picky with some of the specialty nibs, it performs well. I love the color too. It’s bright and refreshing, yet warm and not overpowered by any undertones. I kept thinking that this is what I wish Pelikan’s Rose Quartz had been (an ink that I never warmed up to). Easy recommendation.
Sarah’s thoughts…
Let’s start with the most obvious feature: the name. In my recap of the PNW Pen show last year, I mentioned that the name was inspired by one of Portland’s many nicknames, The City of Roses. Specifically, the ‘Madame Caroline Testout’ rose, a rosy pink hybrid tea rose, which became popular in America in the late 19th century. Thousands of them were planted throughout Portland to beautify the city in anticipation of the Lewis and Clark Centennial celebration in 1905. Shortly after, in 1907, the Portland Rose Festival officially launched and has been an annual tradition ever since.
The ink color closely resembles the soft pink of these lovely roses, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite pinks, if not my all-time favorite. Like Julian, I don’t find myself reaching for the Edelstein Rose Quartz as often as I thought I would, and I’ve definitely struggled to find dusty pinks that perform smoothly for me, but Rose City Rose is just a delight to write with. It is quite pale and would probably benefit most from a larger nib size to take full advantage of the delicate shading and warmth of the color. I know I said this before about Oblation Olive, but it’s true for this ink as well: I like it so much, I don’t even know what to say about it. Combined with my dearly beloved rainbow unicorn Retro 51 pen, my inner 8-year old is so, so happy. 🌹🌈🦄
Writing samples written in an A5 GoodINKPressions 52 gsm Tomoe River Notebook (Cursive), and a Midori MD notebook (cream) with a Retro51 Tornado Stardust (medium nib)
More images/info:
Featured in the photography and writing samples:
Retro51 Tornado Stardust fountain pen (medium nib)
Wearingeul White Panda Swatch Cards
Chic Sparrow Orient Express A5 and B6 Slim leather notebook covers
GoodInkPressions 52 gsm Tomoe River dot grid notebook
Midori MD A6 lined notebook (Amazon)
Spy x Family Kokuyo Campus Notebooks (Amazon)
Kirby 30th Anniversary Nanoblock (Amazon)
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