Ink Review #164: Lamy Dark Lilac

I finally did it guys, I got my hands on a sample of Lamy Dark Lilac. Whenever I talk about a purple ink, someone always asks how it compares to Lamy Dark Lilac. For those of you who don't know, Dark Lilac was a special edition Lamy ink from 2016, it sold for around ten dollars per bottle and in the past month I've seen bottles go for anywhere between 60 and 100 dollars. Since I didn't have a sample of the ink I could never answer comparison questions, but now I finally can. @hotcupofloving in the Pen Addict Slack room was very kind and sent me over a sample. Let's take a look at how the ink behaves.

The color...

Dark Lilac is a medium purple, a little bit on the magenta side, with shading and sheen.

When you lay down a lot of ink the gold sheen starts to look green.

Dry time: 20 seconds

Water resistance: Low

Feathering: None

Show through: Loww

Bleeding: Low-it did bleed through in the swabs on all of the papers.

Other properties: Medium shading, medium gold sheen

On 20 pound copy paper, there was a little bit of feathering, but other than that it behaved well.

Ink swabs for comparison, left to right (top to bottom for mobile RSS): Diamine Flowers Pansy, Lamy Dark Lilac, and Cross Violet. Click here to see the Lamy inks together. I think both Pansy and Violet are good replacement options. Pansy has the gold sheen like Dark Lilac, while Violet has a green sheen. 

Waterman Tender Purple, Diamine Imperial Purple, and Diamine Purple Dream. Click here to see the purple inks together. 

Longer writing:

I used a Pilot 912, FA nib on Tomoe River paper. The ink had an average flow.

Overall, I like the ink. It's well behaved and it's a pretty color. Would I pay $100 for a bottle-no. If I could purchase a bottle at the original price I would. I will do some more testing on Diamine Flowers Pansy and Cross Violet in the future to see which is the better match. 

Disclaimer: This ink was sent to me for free for the purpose of this review. All photos and opinions are my own. There are no affiliate links on this page.