Ink Review #127: Blackstone Barrier Reef Blue

Today's ink is Blackstone Barrier Reef Blue. Blackstone has been on my wish list for a while, so I'm excited to try this one out today. John at Lemur Ink, one of the newer US retailers, donated this ink for review.

The color...

Barrier Reef Blue is a bright blue, almost a turquoise, with pink sheen. The bottle is 30ml of ink. I love that it comes with a seal on the top of the bottle.

I love the pink sheen on this ink-it's so pretty.

Dry time: 30 seconds

Water resistance: Low-when this ink got wet it became a runny mess.

Feathering: None

Show through: Medium-High

Bleeding: None

Other properties: No shading, High sheen. This ink is close to monster sheen territory, but not quite. 

On 32 pound copy paper, there is some feathering, and you only get just a tiny bit of sheen.

Ink swabs for comparison, left to right (top to bottom for rss): Blackstone Sydney Harbour Blue, Blackstone Barrier Reef Blue, and Noodler's Navajo Turquoise. Sydney Harbour Blue is more teal, and Navajo Turquoise is a lighter blue with less sheen.

Robert Oster Soda Pop Blue, Robert Oster Bondi Blue, and Lamy Pacific Blue. Click here to see the blue inks together. Soda Pop Blue is close, but is a little bit darker, has more shading, and less sheen.

Longer writing: 

I used a Pelikan m400 White Tortoise with a vintage 400N nib on Tomoe River paper. I really loved this ink/pen/paper combo-the ink is slightly wet, so it keeps up easily with the flex nib. It's hard to get the sheen to show up in a photo, but there is a lot of sheen on the page.

Overall, the ink is pretty well behaved, and it's really pretty. I would use this ink in the summer. I'm glad I have a full bottle of this ink, because I think it's one I will use a lot.

Disclaimer: This ink was sent to me by Lemur Ink free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All photos and opinions are my own. There are no affiliate links on this page.