Ink Review #366: Diamine Skull and Roses

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It's reader request week! Today let's take a look at Diamine Skull and Roses, a German exclusive ink. I was able to purchase a bottle of this ink through a group buy. The ink is available in 80ml and 30ml bottles (I have the 30ml). I think Papier and Stift still has some bottles for sale.

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The color:

Skull and Roses is a beautiful bright blue with a ton of pink sheen.

Swabs:

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In large swabs there is a ton of bright pink sheen. 

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Writing samples:

Let's take a look at how the ink behaves on fountain pen friendly papers: Rhodia, Tomoe River, and Leuchtturm.

Dry time: 60 seconds

Water resistance: Low

Feathering: None

Show through: Medium

Bleeding: None

Other properties: no shading, monster sheen, and no shimmer. I do consider this a monster sheener since it does show sheen on all nib sizes on Rhodia, Leuchtturm, and Tomoe River paper, but it does not have quite as much sheen as other monster sheeners such as Organics Studio Nitrogen (you can see the two compared below).

On Staples 24 lb copy paper there was feathering and bleeding in every nib size so it's not an ink I would recommend for cheap paper.

Comparison Swabs:

Ink swabs for comparison, left to right (top to bottom for mobile RSS): Organics Studio Nitrogen, Diamine Skull and Roses, and Diamine Majestic Blue. Click here to see the Diamine inks together. Skull and Roses has less sheen than Nitrogen, but more than Majestic Blue.

Skull and Roses shows blue for the top half of the letter, and sheen for the bottom half of the letter. Nitrogen is complete sheen, no blue is visible. I used Pilot Vanishing Point mediums for both writing samples, and Nitrogen is much wetter than S…

Skull and Roses shows blue for the top half of the letter, and sheen for the bottom half of the letter. Nitrogen is complete sheen, no blue is visible. I used Pilot Vanishing Point mediums for both writing samples, and Nitrogen is much wetter than S&R.

Longer Writing:

I used a Pelikan M400 White Tortoise with a vintage 400N nib on Tomoe River paper and Midori MD paper. I waited a day for the ink to dry, and then tried to smear both pages. You can see on the left of the TR (in front) that it did smear quite a…

I used a Pelikan M400 White Tortoise with a vintage 400N nib on Tomoe River paper and Midori MD paper. I waited a day for the ink to dry, and then tried to smear both pages. You can see on the left of the TR (in front) that it did smear quite a bit. There was just a little bit of smearing on the Midori paper, but not nearly as much as on TR. It does dry out quickly on the nib so I had some issues with hard starts.

Overall, I found it to be a little better behaved than the other sheen monsters I've tried so far, but I still find it a bit too smeary for everyday use. It can also be hard to clean.

Disclaimer: I purchased this ink myself, and all photos and opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links, and is not sponsored in any way.