Ink Review #53

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

This is Pelikan’s 2023 Ink of the Year

Overview

The color/properties:

Preface: This color proved to be incredibly difficult to capture accurately. You may notice that many images have a pink hue to them — this is an unfortunate byproduct of the color corrections needed to produce the most color-accurate representations of the ink.

Rose Quartz is a pastel pink with purple undertones. It shades crisply with light tonal variation where the ink pools. With larger nib sizes you can notice a heavy purple edge around the pooled areas.

Rhodia

Leuchtturm1917

Performance on paper:

During my tests, there was the typical and minor bleed-through in the Kokuyo notebook with the larger nib sizes, but there wasn’t any bleeding or feathering on any of the other test sheets. The dry times were slightly above average, often drying within the 15-second mark with the larger nibs, but there were a few instances where the dry times extended to 20 and even 25 seconds. There was some minor water resistance, but the leftover traces are faint and may prove difficult to read.

Midori MD

Maruman

Tomoe River

Kokuyo

Performance in the pen:

Rose Quartz has a medium flow that was mostly consistent across each of the test nibs, but there was a noticeably higher flow with the architect nib. The ink isn’t especially slick, but it was lubricated enough to provide a comfortable and consistent writing experience between all the nib sizes. I experienced some light hard starting on the less spongy papers (Rhodia and Maruman) with the broad nib, but otherwise, this ink was well-behaved. Rose Quartz cleaned out of the pen very easily with a basic flush and soak, leaving no traces of color or sediment inside the pen.

• Performance in a pen: 9/10

• Performance on paper: 9/10

• Color saturation: 5/10

• Sheening: 0/10

• Shading: 7.5/10

• Dry time: 8/10

• Water resistance: 1/10

• Ease of cleaning: 10/10

• Shimmer: None

My personal thoughts...

I wasn’t sure what to think of Rose Quartz at first. I wasn’t sure that I liked it all that much, and I originally wasn’t even going to purchase it. In the end, I was able to acquire it as part of the Washington DC Pelikan Hub loot package (thank you!), and everything worked out.

It still took me a while to decide how I felt about this color. I didn’t dislike it as much as I thought I would, but looking at the color, it’s hard not to see a slightly blue tonality. I felt like it didn’t look that much like the stone it’s name after. Or at least, it didn’t fit the mental picture in my head of rose quartz. I looked into it further, and it turns out that there is, in fact, a variety of rose quartz with a slightly blue tonality to it. Fair enough, it looks like rose quartz, but I continue to look at the color and feel as if there’s something about it that isn’t quite doing it for me.

However, my girlfriend loves this ink — it’s the first rose pink that she has enjoyed using in her champagne Pilot Decimo. So, as always, Your Mileage May Vary™.

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 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook

• A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook

• A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook