Jim P.

Father, geek, serial hobbyist.

I have mixed feelings about Endless Alchemy Candy Sea. It looks great, but it’s not very unique (lots of blue+heavy red sheen inks out there) and it sometimes has drying issues. Like I swatched this a week ago and parts are still tacky. On top of that, it has a tendency to dry out pens faster than usual and gum things up, so hard starts and so on.

But all of that is worth the trouble since it looks nice on the page.

Swatches

Photo of two ink swatch cards and a chromatography strip. Both cards have text reading "Endless Alchemy Candy Sea" followed by an X and curlicue in a stub and EF nib width. Overall the ink is a deep, dark blue with heavy dark red reflective sheen. The top card is an Iroful swatch card with an outline of a paint palette. Inside the palette is mostly filled in with swirls of midnight blue ink and areas reflecting magenta. Some areas with more ink are even darker blue, and areas with even more ink are reflecting magenta. The bottom is a Col-O-Ring swatch card. It has a large vaguely circular blob of ink that appears to be purple with some areas closer to magenta, but the entire surface appears reflective. The chromatography strip starts sort of a blue-gray, then a little clear, then gradually darkens to medium blue then very dark blue around the leading edge.
Group photo of Iroful, Col-o-ring, and a chromatography strip

Iroful Paper

Low angle photo an ink swatch card. Overall the ink is a deep, dark blue with heavy dark red reflective sheen. The card is an Iroful swatch card with an outline of a paint palette. Inside the palette is mostly filled in with swirls of midnight blue ink and areas reflecting magenta. Some areas with more ink are even darker blue, and areas with even more ink are reflecting magenta.
Iroful at an angle to show sheen
Even lower angle photo an ink swatch card. Overall the ink is a deep, dark blue with some areas of even darker blue, almost black. The card is an Iroful swatch card with an outline of a paint palette. Inside the palette is mostly filled in with swirls of midnight blue ink. Some areas with more ink are even darker blue, and areas with even more ink are almost black.
Iroful at an angle that shows little sheen

MD Paper

Swatch on MD paper head on with sheen
Swatch on MD paper at a steep angle to show even more sheen
Closer view of low sheen
Closer view of high sheen
Video of the swatch tilting to show changes in sheen

Microscope

Microscope photo of ink on the Iroful swatch card. Paper fibers are visible. On the right the ink is dark blue with even darker blue on the paper fibers. Some have a slightly red tint. On the left is very reflective and varies between purple and magenta.
Photo of Candy Sea under high magnification

Uniqueness

I don’t think I have all that much ink in the grand scheme of things and even I have three other inks with similar properties, though one is just a sample vial:

Imported from Mastodon

Updated:

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