Ink Review #159: PenBBS 133

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Today's ink is PenBBS 133. PenBBS is a brand of ink made in China. Thank you to Vanness Pens for providing this ink sample for review. *Since posting this review I have learned the actual name of this ink is PenBBS #133 Starfruit.*

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The color...

133 is a bright green-yellow. It's very very bright-hurt your eyes bright.

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The color reminds me of stomach acid-I know that because when I was pregnant with my first kid, I threw up around the clock for seven months.

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I do the ink drops because they tell me about the consistency of the ink. Average to wet flowing inks with good consistencies will have lots of medium fingers coming off the drops. This ink has tiny little fingers on some, and long skinny disconnected fingers on others, meaning the ink is a bit thinner than average. 

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

Dry time: 25 seconds

Water resistance: Low

Feathering: None

Show through: Low

Bleeding: Low-there was some bleeding in the flex nib and the swab.

Other properties: Low shading, switching between a very light green and one shade darker green. No sheen.

On 20lb copy paper the ink behaved well if you don't count the fact that you can barely see it. 

Ink swabs for comparison, left to right (top to bottom for mobile RSS): Robert Oster Sublime, PenBBS 133, and Diamine Jade Green. Click here to see the PenBBS inks together. Both Sublime and Jade Green are a lot darker than 133. 

Diamine Spring Green, Diamine Kelly Green, and Diamine Meadow. Click here to see the green inks together. 

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Longer writing: 

I used a Pelikan 400N on Tomoe River paper. Even in the flex writing, the ink is too light for practical use.

Overall, this ink is too light to be used for writing, and it hurts your eyes a bit because it's so bright. It's possible it could be used as a highlighter, but I think there have to be better inks out there for that.

Disclaimer: This ink was provided to me by Vanness Pens for this review. All photos and opinions are my own. There are no affiliate links on this page.