Ink Review: De Atramentis Pearlescent Camelian Red

Let's tackle one more De Atramentis Pearlescent ink set before we move on to something else. Today we are going to take a look at the four Camelian Red inks, and just looking at the swabs I like the copper version best, so most of the photos will feature Camelian Red Copper. I purchased my samples of ink from Vanness Pens. 

Left to right, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Copper. 

The shimmer isn't visible when the ink is wet, it only appears when the ink dries.

Swabs:

In large swabs there is a ton of shimmer but no sheen.

Writing samples:

Let's take a look at how the ink behaves on fountain pen friendly papers: Rhodia, Tomoe River, and Leuchtturm.

Dry time: After 30 seconds the ink is completely dry, but you can still smear the shimmer.

Water resistance: Low

Feathering: Low

Show through: Medium

Bleeding: Low

Other properties: no shading, no sheen, and lots of shimmer. There could be some shading in there, but I didn't notice any since it was covered in shimmer.

On Staples 24 lb copy paper there was feathering and bleeding in every nib size as well as clogging.

Comparison Swabs:

Ink swabs for comparison, left to right (top to bottom for mobile RSS): De Atramentis Camelian Red Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Copper. Click here to see the De Atramentis inks together.

Diamine Red Lustre, Robert Oster Red Gold, and Robert Oster Sparkling Cranberry. Click here to see the red inks together.

Longer writing:

I used a broad Pelikan M600 Turquoise with the Gold version, a broad Conklin Durograph Forest Green for the Silver version, a fine Karas Kustoms pen for the Bronze version, and a broad Kaweco Al-Sport Rose Gold for the copper version. I think I prefer the copper version out of the four. All had some clogging issues, even with the wet flow.

Overall, there was a lot of skipping, hard starts, burping and clogging, These inks are a hard pass for me, they are just too high maintenance.

Disclaimer: I purchased this ink myself, and all photos and opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links, and is not sponsored in any way.