Ink Swatch - Diamine - Bilberry

Diamine Bilberry is an interesting one. Ostensibly, it’s a dark purple with some gold sheen and a little shading. But is it? Depending on the paper and light, a lot of blue comes out, so I’m inclined to say it could be a blurple, just a little more on the purple side most of the time.

Scans

The scans cut out the sheen and the ink color it a bit different on each paper. On col-o-ring it’s almost a midnight blue in the swatch but dark purple in the writing. On Iroful it’s much more blue in the swatch but again the writing looks more bluish-purple, and even more purple in the areas with less ink. On MD it is purple all around.

Swatch Card Scans. Click to enlarge.

Photos

In the photos, the difference isn’t as dramatic, but the sheen comes out. On col-o-ring the gold sheen kinda takes over on the swatch. On Iroful the sheen is prominent on the swatch, but not overly so. On MD again the sheen covers almost all of the swatch. However, in each case, the sheen doesn’t really show in the writing.

Swatch Card Photos. Click to enlarge.

Microscope

Under magnification, things get even more interesting. On col-o-ring, it’s mostly purple but the gold sheen is all over the edges and fibers in the foreground. On Iroful the background is very blue, but there is a lot of sheen around the edges and some even covering large portions of the lines. MD is similar to col-o-ring, but looks a smidge more purple.

Ink under Magnification. Click to enlarge.

Chromatography

Chromatography strip scan

The chromatography starts blue, and stays blue most of the way to the end where it turns dark blue and magenta. As with some other inks, the background of the lines on Iroful looks more like the right half of the strip while the foreground is a mix of the left half.

Chromatography strip photo under UV light

Under UV the magenta part of the chromatography glows very brightly!

UV Check

Swatch Card Photos under visible and UV light. Click to enlarge.

Under UV light the areas with less ink, including all of the writing, glow kind of pinkish-purple. The effect isn’t very bright in practice, but it’s there.

Verdict

I was gifted a 5ml sample vial of this in last year’s Secret Santa exchange and I’ve used it heavily. I’ve had this ink in a WingSung 698 (that I swapped a Pilot CM nib into), and it’s the primary pen and ink I’ve been using in my hobby log. With that nib it did quite well even on the very absorbent Sunny Log Note paper that I didn’t like.

Once I fully use up the sample vial, I’ll definitely be buying a bottle!