Ink Review of Colorverse Martian & Life on Mars
/
It’s time to take a look at the last two inks from the August Ink Flight box, (the box is still available-you can find it here) Colorverse Martian and Life on Mars. This ink comes in a boxed set with a 65ml bottle of Martian and a 15ml bottle of Life on Mars.
The color:
Martian is an interesting burnt orange color, Life on Mars is somewhere between grey and teal. When I compared it to both grey and teal inks, I decided it leans a bit more toward the grey side.
Swabs:
In large swabs on Tomoe River paper the ink has some pretty shading.
Writing samples:
Let's take a look at how the ink behaves on fountain pen friendly papers: Rhodia, Tomoe River, and Leuchtturm.
Dry time: 20 seconds
Water resistance: Low
Feathering: Medium-both inks feathered in all nib sizes on Leuchtturm and the larger nib sizes on Rhodia.
Show through: Medium
Bleeding: Medium-both inks bled in all nib sizes on Leuchtturm and the larger nib sizes on Rhodia.
Other properties: medium shading, no sheen, and no shimmer.
On Staples 24 lb copy paper the ink feathered in the all nib sizes and had a lots of bleeding in the flex nib too.
Comparison Swabs:
Martian is similar to KWZ Butterscotch. Life on Mars is a bit more unique-I didn’t have any good matches for it, neither grey nor teal inks came close. Click here to see the Colorverse inks together.
Longer Writing:
I used a TWSBI Eco Transparent Orange with a medium nib and an Edison Beaumont Unicorn with a fine nib on Tomoe River paper.
Overall, I find the colors really interesting, but the performance just isn’t there for me. It performs well on Tomoe River paper, but 98% of inks do. There’s way too much feathering and bleeding on most papers to justify the high price of the ink. KWZ Butterscotch is a better-behaved alternative for Martian (which stinks because that was a limited edition show ink), but I don’t have a good alternative for Life on Mars.
Disclaimer: A sample of this ink was provided by Ink Journal for the purpose of this review. All photos and opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links, and this post is not sponsored in any way.