on saleJacques Herbin Noir Inspiration - 50ml Scented Bottled Ink

Most people try a few different black inks before they decide on their perfect one, but this was the first one I tried and will be the only one I use. The smell is absolutely heavenly. I want to bathe in it, drink it, sweat it, andwear it as perfume.Aside from all that it's also a great ink. I have two pens filled with it right now, one for home and one for the office.

Herbin scented inks are among my favorites! This one did not disappoint me! It is wet and luscious and the scent is subtly herbal. I thought the color might be too grey but it's beautifully black and looks gorgeous on white paper. It's expensive but well worth the extra expense in my opinion.

This ink seems to be similar to Drakkar Noir cologne mixed with a cedar scent. In terms of scents it's extremely masculine and would make a great ink for a long distance relationship, etc. If it's confined to an envelope or a journal page it will be strong on release but on the paper you'll only occasionally get whiffs of it. The only real complaints I can muster about it is of course the price which is significantly more than all of my other inks and also I'm not the biggest fan of the darkness of the black color. It's dark, don't get me wrong, but I prefer almost phantablack level darks. Most darks don't reach nearly that level though so it's not reasonable to expect this. It's also unfortunately not very water resistant.Overall it's a great ink and is my favorite scent out of all of the ones I've tried out, I would highly recommend the sample if nothing else just to experience it.

Firstly, this is a great, very dark, matte black ink that dries quickly and lays down an initially clean line, with a more powerful than expected but still subtle scent that is very masculine. If that were the whole story, then this would be a five star ink. Unfortunately, this ink is *extremely* high penetrating, though not quite as high penetrating as some of the crazy Noodler's penetrating inks. This means that it has much higher than normal bleedthrough and on many papers it will feather faster than other inks. For example, in a wet music nib on Apica CD Medium paper I get feather on a regular basis. This is the sort of ink that will work great in finer nibs on good paper, but which starts to cause issues in broader/wetter nibs on less than perfect paper. The ink lacks any sheen, and dries to a very solid matte surface texture, so those of you looking for that sort of matte black will be ecstatic with this ink (and many of the Herbin line), but those who are looking for a more glossy or sheeny black should look elsewhere. Additionally, I have had some issues with this ink being a somewhat dry (but lubricated) ink, meaning that the flow isn't as smooth/wet. This means that on some converters you might be more likely to get air bubbles and reduced flow compared to very wet inks. This doesn't mean that you aren't going to get a solid, clean line on the page (you might even get too much ink) but it can cause air bubbles in the converter more so than some other inks. Overall, IMO, there really isn't much competition against what this ink can deliver, and if that's what you want, and you take into account the particular special needs of this ink, then it's well worth it and will deliver many milliliters of enjoyment on a multi-sensory level, but if you expect this ink to be a low maintenance fire and forget ink, then look elsewhere.

To be clear, I 100% bought this for the smell. It is amazing and I desperately wish it came as a perfume. The ink itself is a medium black, a little chunky as to how it flows. Not bad, but not the experience I hope for at this price. But, thanks to the sample I bought... I knew that going in- I also write very fast. Really, it has the most compelling scent. Like if you took my 'questionable-choices' angst-riddled goth ex-boyfriends and magically distilled them into one perfect functioning, employed, adult man- he would smell like this. The scent does not linger long on paper, most I've seen (smelled) is 3 days. Does not stick to the pen either. Fair warning, the blue of this series is FAR stronger scent wise, may even hold up through mailing, and will stick to any plastic-like pen parts. I wish this scent did too! And really, I'd pay dollars for this as a perfume.