Vinta Inks- BLue Blood (Dugong Bughaw 1521)

Dugong Bughaw is a term denoting ancient Filipinos who were part of the royal family.  It is a calque of the Spanish sangre azul  (blue blood).  As a noun it means noble or aristocrat, as an adjective it means aristocratic or blue-blooded.

During the 8th century Spain was ruled by Moors, the Muslim population of North Africa, Portugal, Malta and the Iberian Peninsula.  As Spanish people started mixing with the Moors they produced the darker skinned people we now see in Spain.  Some of the aristocracy at the time chose not to inter-marry and were allowed to live in Castille.  Here not only did they separate themselves geographically but they avoided the sun to maintain their pale skin.  Their pale skin allowed blood vessels to show through as a blue colour – just like any normal pale skin.  However, as these veins were only seen on the nobles or aristocrats of Spain they started to be referred to as blue-bloods.  The nickname stuck and entered the English language.
Previous Vinta ink reviews have outlined where to purchase, the cost and the packaging.
Vinta describe this ink as a blue with undertones of pink and red, a literal representation of a blue blood.  On opening the bottle you can immediately see it is going to be a red sheener as there is red around the bottle neck and drops on the edge of the bottle cap despite the interior of the cap being completely blue.

Chromatography confirmed the base blue colour with A LOT of red.

On col-o-ring the colour or the amount of sheen you saw depending on the angle you looked at the swatch.

On Tomoe the red sheen was apparent at any angle.

It was after doing the Tomoe swatches I knew I had seen this ink before and had just bought another identical ink.

From top to bottom - Diamine German exclusive Skull and Roses, Vinta Blue Blood and Organics Studio Nitrogen

Looking at photos I have seen on IG and the web I strongly suspect KWZ’s sheen machine is also going to be very similar.
For the writing I started with copy paper and was using a new pen, a Monteverde Grand Sequoia with a stub nib.  I think stub and broad nibs bring out the best of sheening inks.  Unfortunately it was a hard start, in fact every time I used the pen I had to prime it to get ink to flow.  I wasn’t sure if it was the pen or the ink so I inked another pen and the same thing happened I had to prime the feed.  However, the following day I had to give the ink its due as I think a lot of the problem with the Monteverde was the pen not the ink.  I may have had to prime the second pen I used but after that I have had no issues at all.  The second pen was a Moonman pen, a cheap Chinese copy of a Parker Duofold
The pictures of the copy paper do not do the ink justice, with a macro lens the sheen is definitely there.

It was a pretty ink with a lovely red sheen but I already have two others that look exactly the same.
 On Rhodia, again not much sheen obvious when you look directly at the writing, move the paper slightly and voilà.

On Midori it was even better, a photo taken looking directly at the writing on this paper you can see the red but not in all its glory.

Move the paper slightly and there you have it.

The sheen on Rhodia and Midori paper was magnificent. 
This is a dry ink that flows reasonably well depending on the pen as I have discovered.  However, it does require the feed to be primed.  It is a dark blue with a crazy amount of red sheen.  When Organics Studio first came out with their inks everyone wanted them due to the sheen, this is a pretty ink but this amount of sheen is no big deal nowadays. 
In summary – if you have any Organics Studio Nitrogen, Diamine Skull and Roses or KWZ Sheen Machine  then you probably don’t need to buy this as it is no different.
Saturation – high
Shading – no
Sheen – yes, a real sheen monster
Flow - ok
Nib dry-out – yes and no, seemed to depend on the pen I used
Nib creep – none
Start-up – slow / hard start
Feathering – nil on any of the papers used
Drying – rapid
Cleaning – Easy and I am impressed, I have never known a super sheening ink to be so easy to clean
Water resistance – not sold as waterproof and quite rightly so.  I didn’t do my usual test as I had accidentally dropped a drop of  water on some of the writing and I saw what that did.