on saleJacques Herbin 1670 Bleu Ocean - Ink Sample

This ink sample was the first I ever purchased and I was so impressed with how it performed. I was unaware however that there was gold sparkles in this ink (I clearly didn't read the disclaimer on the page) and was pleasantly surprised that when I was almost finished with the vial the extreme amount of gold that appeared. Upon initially inking-up my pen, I did not shake the vial so at the start there was very little gold. Once I figured out however that there was significant gold, I was very impressed. The ink went on with a dark blue/purple hue and when dry appeared to be just gold. A VERY unique ink indeed. Now it is one of my favorite inks! The only drawback is that the gold gets caught up in the feed and some railroading can occur. Also cleaning the pen is more than slightly difficult (again due to the tiny gold particles) so I recommend using a pen flush. In all, a great ink with a nice two-toned quality. Because of some of the maintenance issues involved with a sheening ink, I give J. Herbin 1670 Bleu Ocean 4 out of 5 stars.

I bought a sample of this and love it. I think I'm going to make it my daily ink!

I wanted to love this ink so bad, but I just couldn't force myself. The specks were cool and it made for some interesting looking writing, but it was so dark it ghosted to the next page. I don't see much of a practical use for this ink myself, but I'm glad I got to see what it looked like.

First I put it in a Sheaffer M. Nothing special. I even thought for a moment that Goulet had sent me an old-stock sample without the gold sparkles. No, Goulet doesn't make mistakes like that; the gold just didn't show for whatever reason in that pen. Tried the remaining ink in a Pilot Plumix. Now we're onto something. I get regular sparkles though-out the stroke, with more settling on the bottom of the stroke than the top because more ink has accumulated. I don't see any shading at all with this ink even with the Italic nib. You get sparkles instead of shading...From discount-store no-name journals to Clairefontaine and Apica, it worked well throughout. There was occasional bleed through more due to the Plumix being recently inked than to the ink itself. If they hadn't added the sparkles, I don't think there would be anything special about this ink. With the sparkles, it has something you don't get from the other inks.

For a FP newbie, I love how the ink is pigmented and had that extra pizzazz because of the gold. The ink is smooth, writes/flows nicely, doesn't feather, and dries up pretty fast.