Usually when I get ink samples from a company/brand and there’s more than one ink, I’ll do separate reviews for all of the inks. I will be doing the same here, only this time I’m going to give an overview of the brand. Links to the ink reviews can be found below. You can buy these inks from Beaufort directly, which you can follow using the direct link that will open in a new tab.

Beaufort is the new kid in the neighbourhood. Stationed (get it? Stationery? No? Never mind) in Scotland, the company have released six inks with their name on the bottle. Is this where they stop? I hope not. But with the six they’ve released, they have an incredibly strong line up and show something promising for the future.

The inks come in bottles with a circular bottom which means most of the volume comes from the length of the bottle rather than the height. Usually I prefer it when much of the volume is because the bottle has more height to it, as this often indicates it’s easier to fill your pen from it as the volume of the ink goes down. I’m not sure how useful using this bottle will be as the volume decreases; if I was to guess then I would say not very. However, you could tip it on its side and fill that way. Be very careful doing this, of course.

Made of glass, the ink has a capacity of 45ml. Priced at £8.45 a bottle, that means the price per millilitre is £0.19 (2dp) which makes it fairly reasonable. Not as economical as an 80ml Diamine bottle, but still more economical than some others (especially when considering some brands are priced at 0.5+ a ml).

If, after reading the reviews, you find yourself struggling between which inks to get, you could in fact get your own selection of four samples (10ml each) from Beaufort for £8.35 (that’s cheaper than an entire bottle!.. Just) which I think is a very nifty idea. The sample bottles also look slightly nicer than the standard plastic vial you’d get (in fact, they’re very similar to the 5ml bottles from Diamine’s sample range). You can follow this link (opens in a new tab) to begin choosing your samples.

So. The inks..

Obsidian Black

Obsidian is a “hard, glass-like dark volcanic rock that forms from the rapid solidification of lava without crystallisation.” Part of what excites me about the ink is the name, and this sounds pretty badass. It reminds me of Diamine Onyx Black. The two inks are, however, different in the way they look.

Obsidian Black is a useful ink for many applications, but at the end of the day – yes. It’s a black ink and it does it well. It has its own little characteristics that I rather enjoy.

Zodiac Blue

Zodiacs aren’t for me. I don’t believe in them and think they’re rubbish. Zodiac Blue, however, is for me and certainly isn’t rubbish. It’s no secret that I don’t shy away from blue inks. Blue is my favourite colour; I have even earned ‘Blue’ as my nickname. Despite my love for them, it does mean I judge them perhaps a little bit more than other inks

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Zodiac Blue is a rich, saturated blue. It’s vibrant but not shouty. It also shades very nicely. Despite being saturated and a blue, it doesn’t sheen obnoxiously. Excessive sheen in an ink, in my opinion, ruins it. Zodiac Blue keeps it to a very reasonable and aesthetically pleasing level.

Blue Black

Beaufort have mastered this colour very well in my opinion. I should really get into more blue-blacks (the only two others in my collection are Diamine & Pelikan) as it’s a nice colour family. This blue-black isn’t too dark but it isn’t a ‘dull grey blue’ and you get a nice hint of blue coming through in the ink. If you’re in a situation where you need to use a black, but want to push the boundaries a little then this is a very good call.

Scots Pine

A green ink.. A forest green, at that. I try to stay as objective as I can with green inks because I dislike the colour so much. So I’ll preface with this and be completely hypocritical due to how subjective this is – this colour is ugly and I’m not a fan. That’s my subjective view.

Objectively, my comments will be similar to that of the Blue Black ink – Beaufort have mastered this colour. The name indicates a forest green ink and it’s very much that. If I was asked to think of what a forest green would look like, this is it. By nature (get it) these inks aren’t as vibrant, can be rather muted and often lean darker. This ink has all of those characteristics. So with this ink, I need to consider what it actually stands for – as you can’t judge a tiger by its ability to fly. For that reason, if you like forest greens then this is one you should certainly look at!

Peacock

When can I handle green inks? When they look like pond water (Röher und Klinger Alt Goldgrün (I quite like olive coloured inks)) or when they’re mixed with, unsurprisingly, blue to give you a teal. As perhaps suggested by its name, this ink isn’t very pond-watery.

This teal is darker than others I’ve come across. A good analogy is that this is the “blue-black of teal inks”, in that instead of being a straight up teal, you get something a bit darker; a bit quirkier and subtle whose colour hits you every so often which makes it quite a pleasant ink to write with.

Roasted Red

Red isn’t my favourite colour, not by a long shot. In fact, I think the only other red in my collection is Diamine’s Red Dragon, which I use for annotating university work/essays. What I love about Red Dragon is how vibrant, perhaps even violent, it looks on the page. Roasted Red, in comparison, is slightly more muted. I would imagine this would be the result of Diamine Autumn Oak & Red Dragon having a child. I tried to understand what “roasted” actually meant for this ink, and in my opinion I think it shows off how autumnal this ink feels on the paper. Slightly muted, quite soft. I can imagine leaves falling from the trees in the autumn that look similar to this ink.

So. Six inks. Which one are you most looking forward to?