Jacques Herbin 1798: Kyanite du Nepal Ink Review

What is it? This new ink from Jacques Herbin (the ink maker formerly known as J. Herbin) is a medium shade of blue with a very fine silver shimmer particulate suspended in the ink.

Notes:

It’s that time of the year again. The weather gets warmer, the days get longer, and J. Herbin comes out with a new shimmery fountain pen ink. This year, they’ve introduced a brand new shade of turquoise that has silver shimmer throughout and a slight red sheen around the edges. It’s always fun checking out their newest ink, so let’s get into it. As always, photos in the gallery at the bottom of the post are sized so you can really zoom in. Make sure you take a look!

Let’s start off with the name of the ink. Kyanite du Nepal. It translates to Kyanite of Nepal (that was a bad joke, please laugh in the comments). The color of the ink draws inspiration from the kyanite crystal, a medium blue semiprecious mineral. What makes it even more interesting is that the crystal can naturally show signs of chatoyancy, which is a natural shimmer. Nepal is one of the premier sources for kyanite in the world, and it follows the travel theme that the past few inks have adhered to. The name is spot on and the ink does, in fact, represent the naturally occurring gemstone that it’s named after.

When writing (okay, it’s more like playing) around with a folded nib dip pen, the ink exhibits some nice shading and variation in tone. Both dark and light shades of turquoise are visible, with extra sheen in the areas where the ink goes down thicker. There’s just a tiny little hint of red sheen around some edges. I wouldn’t count on seeing that regularly unless there’s a LOT of ink on the page.

I loaded up my trusty Platinum 3776 Black Diamond with broad nib with some of the Kyanite. The ink flows really well, leaving a nice, wet line on the page. To get the maximum amount of sheen on the page, be sure to shake up the ink thoroughly (and carefully) to spread the particulate throughout the whole bottle. You can see some slight shading when writing with the fountain pen. The silver shimmer is definitely there when writing with a fountain pen. A broader nib will have better results. Kyanite du Nepal is a much brighter shade of blue compared to the older J. Herbin 1670 Bleu Ocean. Also worth noting, Bleu Ocean started out with no shimmer and was then given gold shimmer at a later date.

Overall, I’m a fan of the ink. It performs well, especially for an ink with shimmer in it. The color is great and it plays into the theme of the 1798 inks nicely. Thank you to Sunnny over at Exaclair for sending over the ink to review. It should be hitting shelves in June, so keep an eye out!

Gallery: