Mont Blanc - Meisterstück Blue Hour Twilight Blue

This ink has been around since 2015 but it wasn’t until 2017 that I finally treated myself to a Mont Blanc pen buying a Blue Hour Le Grand.  Of course by then the limited edition ink released when the pen was released was no longer available – I was in blissful ignorance.  Recently a fountain pen-pal offered me some ink samples which included this ink, I snapped up the opportunity to try the ink in the pen of the same name.

As many of the previous reviews have said the pen / ink is named for the ‘blue -hour’ the time of day when day turns into night.  The pen itself is dark and when I google blue hour or twilight I find beautiful photos which do remind me of the colour of the pen.

The photos do not remind me of the ink or is it the ink that does not remind me of the photos.  I am not a great collector of blue inks, I possess a few but they don’t get used very often however I had an open mind for this especially as I love the colour of the pen.
As usual when doing a post I did some online research – not about the name of the ink as with previous posts as I think the name speaks for itself but more to see what other people thought about the ink.  There is absolutely no consensus.  I have read that: it shades beautifully and has plenty of red sheen vs it has no shading and no depth, it runs dry vs it is a flowing ink, it is blue vs it is teal vs it becomes dusty green as it dries and so it goes on.  It did surprise me as I find ink reviews are in the main very similar.
After reading all of that I am not sure my review is going to help and as the ink is no longer available I am not going to make this too long.  I can summarise by saying I was disappointed with the ink – no wow factor.  It is not the same colour or even shade as the pen.

My swatch revealed to me a teal ink, or at least one that reminds me of Diamine steel blue.

Even droplets did not help uncover anything more about the ink.  Both droplets photographed in natural light.

Absorbent kitchen paper

Tissue

My ink testing is where I disagree completely with every review I read.  I agree it is not waterproof but completely disagree with reviews that say the ink is fast drying or at least not slow.  The pen I used had a medium nib and maybe it was the pen but this is the wettest ink I have ever used. I tested to 45 secs and there was no noticeable difference between the smear at 5 secs and at 45 secs.  In fact as I was doing the drying time tests the 3 lines I had written above the tests were still drying when I got to the 40 sec test – nearly three minutes and the ink was still wet.

The redeeming feature for this ink is that it does have some lovely shading.

I really appreciated being sent the sample and having the opportunity to try the ink – I am not disappointed I can no longer buy it.