My Favourite Purple Inks

My recent ink purchases have focused more and more on purple inks which I’ve become somewhat obsessed with. If I think back to my last few ink purchases, most orders have included at least one if not more purple inks, so I thought I would take stock of what I owned and talk about my favourites.

1. Lamy Dark Lilac

Arguably my favourite, I nearly missed out on this ink, as I typically procrastinate before I will buy anything limited edition, but I’m really glad I picked this one up. Darker than what I typically go for, this purple is such a beautiful, refined dark purple that doesn’t seem to stain (much) either. It shows a beautiful greeny gold sheen on Tomoe River paper and remains my favourite of the bunch

2. Bungubox Tipsy Purple

This is a more muted, lighter colour, but what I love about this ink is the hint of pink sheen that comes through on Tomoe River paper in the light. I like that in the shade it looks like a boring muted purple gray, but really comes to life in brighter lighting. This is the sort of colour that makes me feel like a secret rebel in the boardroom. The downside, this ink is near impossible to photograph well. 

3. MontBlanc Lavender Purple

On a similar vein to Lamy Dark Lilac, I think the MontBlanc Lavender purple runs a bit redder, compared to Dark Lilac. Really well behaved and lovely ink, I also like the bottle shape, which is designed to help refilling and the cost effectiveness of this ink.

4. Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi

This is one of the newer inks in my collection and I’ve really enjoyed the colour chromatic changes in this ink. It’s a light, bright purple with strong hints of cornflower blue. Such a beautiful ink, it makes me happy whenever I used it. I also like that the colour shift is apparent on most papers used, even cheap photocopy paper.

5. Sailor Ink Studio 150

I nearly didn’t buy this due to the price and relatively small size of the ink bottle. This is a brighter, more red leaning purple with hints of pink on Tomoe River paper and in the sunlight. This one reminds me of Sailor Kobe #57 (I think) but less fluorescent and more usable.

6. Pelikan Amethyst

This is arguably where the obsession began. Before this ink, I owned only Diamine Damson, but this is probably my purple ink zero. This ink is a lighter version of MontBlanc Lavender Purple and is a lovely red leaning mid purple with a beautiful gold sheen. I love this ink in wet, wide nibs as I prefer the darker colour of this ink. In drier pens, it can look more pink (like Yama Budo) than purple.