Where to buy: Pure Pens [Here]

Price: £6.99

Bottle size: 60ml

Price/ml: £0.12 (2dp)

Colour: Blue

Shading: Not much

Sheening: Yes

Recommend?: If you like sheen, it’s a good consideration given how cheap it is and how expensive other inks with this property can go for.

I have six inks to review from the latest Pure Pens batch of inks released in February 2018. The inks all have a Celtic theme to them, which gives the inks an extra level of personality above the colour they lay on the page. You can find reviews to the other inks below and the list will be updated as and when the reviews are published:

In the overview of the Pure Pen inks I wrote that I think this will be the most popular of the lot, mainly due to the sheen that this ink provides and the community is going nuts over sheen lately; to which I am not a fan.

Saltire is the name that is often used for the Scottish flag; Saint Andrew’s Cross. Though, a saltire is actually the diagonal cross and can be used with any combination of colours (such as the St. Albans cross or the flag of Jamaica, for example). Studying flags is a rather interesting thing in my opinion – it’s something known as vexillology. Some online communities will combine and/or provide “alternative” designs (such as “if England was a nordic country”) which can be fun to look at and consider. Anyway, back on to the review.

Saltire is, unsurprisingly, a blue ink as the Scottish flag is also blue (well.. All but the saltire, somewhat ironically). It is a deeper and far more saturated blue than that of the other blue in Pure Pens’ line up, Celtic Sea, which found itself lying more towards a lighter blue (though when I compared it with a turquoise it did was distinguishable apart from it). Due to the saturation you have a striking blue and it comes with a lot of sheen. Though, as a result of the saturation I also noticed that I could sometimes get hard starts in my pen if I didn’t write with it for a few days, part of the reason why I’m not very keen on these sorts of inks. Though, the answer is simple and obvious – just use the pen more often. Which is a very easy fix to the problem.

Despite potential performance issues such as the hardstarts, the ink is actually rather well behaved on cheaper paper. You don’t get nearly as much sheen, though I was able to see a little bit. There is a touch of bleed on the reverse side and showthrough which is often the case with these tests, but I don’t actually have any complaints regarding how it performs on the one side. Rather impressed actually.

Water performance isn’t great, as has been seen across the range. So no surprises there.

Ultimately, if sheen is something you’re not deterred by and you like striking blues then this is a good shout. There are other inks similar to this that will run at a far higher price. Also, the sheen isn’t the typical red that you notice from blue inks – it is a much darker red.

Disclaimer: This ink was sent to me in exchange for an honest review; all views expressed are my own.