Ink Review: Diamine Raise a Glass

Welcome to my first ink review! Today I'm looking at the new Diamine Raise a Glass from the Inkvent 2023 calendar. I really loved the whole Inkvent calendar this year, and this ink in particular looked like the perfect pairing to the purple and green sparkles of my Moonman M8.

COLOR

Raise a Glass is a rich, dark purple that hovers right on the blurple (blue-purple) threshold. The base color alone is a bit of a shifty sort, where warmer light brings out the warmer purple tones and cooler light makes it look more blue.

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CHARACTER

There is a lot happening in this ink. This ink features a shifty chameleon shimmer that shifts subtly between bright green and soft light blue. For the most part, in regular use it comes across as greeny-teal shimmer. It's only in these super-saturated extreme angles under bright light that the chameleon effect can fully be appreciated.

The bright yellow sheen really compliments the shimmer and looks very intense in swatches on Tomoe River. In regular use with a medium nib, I don't see as much sheen. It occasionally peeks through and is a very fun flash of color, but it takes quite a bit of ink pooling up to yield any sheen.

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CONSISTENCY

Diamine Raise a Glass is moderately wet ink that has worked very nicely in my Moonman M8. I have yet to experience any clogging or drying out. The shimmer is the most fun when it is present in large quantities, and like most shimmer inks it's hard to get the 'perfect' distribution during longer writing sessions.

It behaves well on most papers. Sheen is more apparent on higher quality papers, but the shimmer is amazing on every paper I tried. Only when I reached the cheaper notebook papers did I start to see any feathering, and even at that point it was minimal. Bleedthrough is moderate - it mainly comes through in small patches rather than the full text.

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CONCLUSION

I love the surprises that you get with high sheen/shimmer inks. This ink is absolutely a gem - it's like Mardi Gras in a bottle with the color combination. It's dark and legible while also being incredibly fun. I wish the shimmer chameleon effect was more noticeable in everyday journaling, but even without the green and yellow on purple is a very good pairing. It's very legible on all papers, and doesn't have much feathering on cheap paper.

Diamine Raise a Glass originally came in the 2023 Inkvent Calendar. It is slated to be released in a 50ml bottle in summer 2024 at most ink retailers.

DISCLAIMER: Pens and inks purchased by myself. Photos and opinions are my own.