Introducing our range of Cult Pens Iridescink inks for fountain pens, specially created by the ink experts at Diamine.

Bob: Purple with green sheen

Mo: Blue with red sheen

Pip: Purple with gold sheen

Chris: Blue-Black with red sheen

Cult Pens Iridescink inks are a bit different. Where our Deep Dark inks are made to fit in anywhere, and to be perfect for everyday use, these are a bit more unusual. It's because they're made to sheen!

Sheen is a feature some fountain pen inks have, but it's a relatively rare and sought-after feature. Where a lot of the ink sits on the surface, the surface becomes over-saturated, and dries to a sheen, which can be a quite different colour to the ink itself.

Sheen can be fickle. Everything has to be just right for sheen to show up, so we can't guarantee you'll see sheen when you write with these inks, but they give you a good chance in the right conditions. You need the right combination of ink, pen and paper.

The ink has to be an ink that can sheen. Obviously. And these certainly can. The pen needs to put down plenty of ink, so a dry-writing pen isn't likely to give you much sheen. And the paper needs to resist the ink soaking in. If the ink is absorbed into the paper, it won't dry on the surface, and drying slowly on the surface is what makes the ink sheen. Once you've started with a sheening ink, the paper is the most important factor, so if you're not seeing sheen, switch paper!

When it works, the effect can be really beautiful. You put down a blue or a purple ink, and get a red, green or gold metallic sheen, depending on the formulation.

And if all else fails, and your pen and paper won't make them sheen, you'll still have beautiful blue or purple ink, so the worst case is still pretty good!

And what's in a name? Well, we temporarily named the first two 'Robert' and 'Maureen' but thought our customers should name them properly, so we posted pictures of them, and asked people to come up with 'proper' names. We thought they'd both end up being called 'Inky McInkface', which would have been a bit confusing, but people rather liked the idea of inks being called Robert and Maureen, and the names stuck. Of course, they set the scene for naming the others, and here we are.