Diamine Shimmertastic - Spearmint Diva

​I went slightly mad and bought  a lot of different shimmer inks from Diamine, Some I have already reviewed now I am finally using the remaining inks, starting with Spearmint Diva.

​Spearmint is a species of mint native to Europe and southern temperate Asia.  It is used as a flavouring (I love it) and in teas.  

A diva is a celebrated female opera singer, usually someone of outstanding talent such as Maria Callas, a diva that also led to the term being used for someone (usually a female) that is demanding and difficult.  Though the term relates to opera singers with time it’s use has been extended to be used in the fields of theatre, cinema and modern music.

I am not sure what a spearmint diva is other than the words sound ok together.

From the pictures of spearmint above you would expect this to be a bright green ink – it isn’t, I would put it on the green end of the teal spectrum.  A greeny-teal with silver shimmer which you can see from the bottle and definitely teal when opened.

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Chromatography was not particularly revealing, I have found that with all the shimmer inks, the base tends to be very monochromatic.

Colo-o-ring and Tomoe were similar.  What I can’t convey is how bright this colour is, the shimmer here though tends to give the ink a metallic hue / look.  As with most of these inks you sometimes need to move the paper a round or get the light just right to appreciate it is a shimmer ink.

Col-o-ring

Tomoe

I like this ink and have been using it for recent letter writing.  I thought blue peppermint from the 2019 Diamine inkvent calender would be similar but it's quite blue cf  this ink.  There are some credible dupes for this if you don’t like shimmer inks.

For the wrting I used a TWSBI go and copy, Midori and Tomoe river paper.  
Starting with copy paper I would call this ink spearmint it no longer reminds me of teal.  The shimmer is obvious but here it gives the ink a metallic look rather than the sparkles one usually sees with a shimmer ink. Ink behaved extremely well and dried rapidly.

minimal show through

looks more metallic than shimmer

On both Midori and Tomoe river paper it was quite a green ink and the silver shimmer really gives this ink a metallic look.  As expected as the quality of the paper improved the dry times increased - though it isa feature of Tomoe and many would say Midori is just as good quality..

Midori

at the right angle looks more metallic than shimmer on Midori

Tomoe

Again metallic looking

I do like this ink, the base shade is nice and the shimmer isn’t too ‘in your face’ it is more subtle than say firefly but not as muted as shimmering seas and cocoa shimmer.  I have previously said I have bought these inks directly from Diamine – postage was reasonable a flat 5pounds to New Zealand for 5 inks.
In summary -
Saturation – high
Shading – no
Sheen – no
Shimmer – yes, silver
Flow –good
Nib dry-out - none
Nib creep - none
Start-up – Excellent 
Feathering – none, not even on cheap paper
Drying – the better the quality of paper the slower the dry time, very slow on Tomoe
Cleaning - good
Water resistance – all the shimmer goes, there is quite a  lot of run off but enough colour left to be able to see what was on the paper before the water hit it.