Where to buy: Bureau Direct [Here]

Price: £6.95

Bottle size: 30ml

Price/ml: £0.23 (2dp)

Colour: Blue

Shading: Yes

Sheening: Yes

Recommend?: A very nice blue. Has some sheen on the edge of letters which might appeal to some people.

Publishing this after submitting my third essay this week (yeah). Boy today has been productive. A pint is well deserved, I should think.. Also, end of term!

I’ve never been to Australia. I’m not sure if it’s the heat, the long plane journey, the gabazillion animals that could kill you (and that’s just the spiders) or a combination of all three, but if the Blackstone inks are anything to judge the country off, it must be a pretty awesome place. I like the Blackstone inks, and when they came to the UK I was lucky enough to write with each ink colour at a London pen club meeting way back. I actually ended up buying Golden Wattle (which would be a great compliment to this ink), but for the moment I shall be considering one of their two blue offerings: Sydney Harbour Blue.

Being named after the Sydney Harbour, of which the Sydney Opera House sits, it only make sense for it to be a blue ink (because.. Water). I don’t think it’s coincidental that the other blue in their line up is also water orientated – Barrier Reef Blue. The ink also has some sheening properties to it, which could reflect sunset on the water if you want to be poetic about it.

Or a nuisance if you want to be a grumpy old man about it like I often am about sheen. Thankfully, this isn’t an overbearingly sheeny ink (ie you don’t buy a blue and turns out you’re actually writing with pink). Just some light accent on the edge of the letters.

Sydney Harbour Blue doesn’t strike me as a royal blue. It has some pop; some vibrancy to it. It makes using this ink pleasant and certainly one you could use for a number of occasions. For those of you out there who enjoy sheen, because this isn’t over the top, it could be something you’d like to use in the work place as well if you could get away with it. Though, beware if you’re using cheaper paper because the ink becomes darker, boring and there is no sheen to be seen.

It also bleeds quite badly and has a lot of show through. Wouldn’t really recommend it.

It’s not terribly waterproof, either. You can still quite clearly see what it says, but with a bit more water I’m sure this could be removed completely. Though, if you want a Blackstone ink then I believe their black is waterproof.

They say that a picture paints a thousand words. Well, here’s a picture of a couple of words, anyway. I’m including quite a lot of the pictures because I really have trouble describing this ink. It’s a blue. It is quite clearly a blue.. But do I see some green? A slight hint of a teal colour to it?

At any rate, this colour is a very interesting colour. If you don’t like overbearing sheen, but still want it to some degree then this would be a good choice for you. It’s a beautiful blue, whatever shade it may be.

Disclaimer: This ink was sent to me from Bureau Direct in exchange for an honest review. Blackstone Golden Wattle was purchased before doing this review and with my own funds. All views expressed are my own.