Customer Reviews

Not "pensive violet purple": "Pensee" (noun, feminine) is the French name for the flower called "pansy" in English. There's a drawing of one on the label, and the petals are indeed very similar in hue to that of this ink.

This is not a colour I have much call for, but it is indeed a lovely, clean violet- a grown-up version of the ink ( AKA Waterman's Violet) that French primary school kids would use in their exercise and composition books.

Herbin inks are among the best in the world, and have been made to a very high standard indeed for centuries longer than most ink manufacturers have been in business. This superb, pure hue is no exeption. If you are a fan of violet and have not tried this one yet, I urge you to buy a bottle. More likely than not, it will not be your last.

This ink is the first bottled ink I've ever used, and I am in love. It dries quickly, doesn't smear, and doesn't have an odor. The color is fantastic. It is everything I hoped for. It is bold and vivid, with the perfect hue of violet. I would by this a thousand more times!!!

I love this ink! It's a good shade of purple. I've also used this as a highlighter although it's a bit dark, but still good

I love this color ink! I've been using it daily and it's superb. I've also tried using this color as a highlighter. It's a bit darker when used as a highighter, but still readable (depends on type of paper of course!)

I simply adore this color. I have been using J. Herbin ink for some time now and the ink is superb. I decided to write this review because of the color. It is purple perfection; not too blue, not too red. I thought I would use this in a fountain pen that I only use occasionally, but after the first time I wrote with it, I decided it is everyday ink. I filled up my Lami and haven't looked back to my usual blue hue. If you enjoy writing in a colored ink that doesn't seem juvenile, you have to try this!

Without a doubt the best black fountain pen ink in the world. A very deep black, with great flow, good lubrication, limited feathering and bleed-through on most papers, nice dry-time and very safe in all pens. I just wish that Jet Pens would stock the cheaper 100ml plastic bottles!

A great brown color. As with the previous reviewer, I feel that it matches the swab on the site perfectly. This is a great alternative to a harsh black when journaling. It looks especially good on off-white paper.

Writes smoothly and nice brown. Might differ from screen to screen, but the color chart was pretty accurate for me.

This may be translated as 'midnight PURPLE', but I wouldn't describe it as purple at all - there's nowhere near enough red tones for that. After going through a couple of bottles of this, I would describe it as closer to a blue black than to anything else; I believe translating it as Midnight BLUE would make more sense (a more literal but awkward translation of the french would be 'night-time blue' - IOW this is basically meant to be the color of a night sky). So if you're looking for a purple ink, this isn't it - try violette pensee for a classic violet ink (like that used for years by french school children).

That said, if you're after a great looking ink, do give this one a chance :-) Particularly if you're one to appreciate the subtle charms of blue black ink ;-) I've tried a lot of ink over the years, including some pretty hoity-toity brands, but this niche brand is by far my favorite. I have about a dozen colors (maybe more) and not one of them has been a disappointment - vivid but not loud, and all of them really distinctive.

The real strength in this one is the way it falls right in between blue and black. A lot of blue-black colors are really just black softened with a little blue (which basically ends up looking like a dark grey) or they are a basic washable blue with a hint of black added - think the way it looks when you have just switched from one to the other without first rinsing out your pen lol).

Not this one, which falls right in the middle. The benefit of this is that it's a great color for notetaking, particularly stuff you need to memorize or review a lot: it's dark enough to provide enough contrast with the page, but not harsh like pure black inks which, when it's 2am and you're staring at a page full of scribbling in pitch black, it ends up looking like chicken scratch :P

This is my absolute favorite ink! It looks like a much less saturated Noodlers Baystate Blue, but without the worries. It has nice shading and it is quite safe compared to other inks I've tried. It has the quality one would expect from a company that has been around as long as J. Herbin. The bottle's built in pen rest is quite convenient for resting one's pen on one's desk. I've bought two bottle from JetPens and will definitely buy more in the future.

Herbin makes one of the best quality inks I ever use and this in particularly I LOVE. It's a great color and works good and almost any paper. Highly recommended

This ink is a high quality product. This particular color is a dusky purple and is so beautiful on paper.

Quick to dry, and a beautiful smoky purple-grey shade. Not intense, so if you want a bright color try something else, but it shades beautifully with a broad nib. Highly, highly recommended.

This is a really great ink, one of my favourite colours in the Herbin series. It has a lovely warm coffee colour. Unlike the other reviewer's experience, it has behaved beautifully in my Lamy Al-Star. It's a very smooth flowing ink for me.

Life is too short not to use your favorite color in your favorite pen. After years of using a dependable royal blue ink for every day, this green ink by Herbin is now my signature color. The green shown on the label is the green that it writes: the fresh green of spring, a green that makes me purely happy. I tried a lot of samples of green ink before choosing, and this shade of green is, I believe, unique among all the ink manufacturers'. It writes beautifully, with no bleeding or feathering and with lots of shading (to yellow undertones).

I am very happy with this ink. It matches the swatch on the site perfectly and looks great for my everyday writing and is a great alternative to using the more common Black or Dark Blue inks. I highly recommend.

I borrowed this ink from an uncle of mine to write a letter for a good friend overseas. I'm not a big fan of colors other than black - the richness of a good black ink makes me so happy - but when I used this I thought I had fallen in love.
The blue is, well, blue! A truly rich and wonderful one. I didn't want to let it go, but I was forced to return it to my uncle.
If you're a fan of J. Herbin and blue, I would definitely recommend that you pick this up. Your letters will be beautiful - I promise!

This ink is GORGEOUS. It writes so smoothly, and although it writes in a more auburn rosy color, it dries in an elegant ashen-purple. The ink shades beautifully as well. Definitely my favorite purple.

From the packaging to the color, this is a really beautiful ink. When you use it at first, the color looks a bit mainstream and you might think this is just another blue ink in pretty pacakaging. Well, give it about a day or two and the ink softens, turning light purple/blue. It's extremely pretty.

I love this ink. I think it is a tad lighter than the sample pictured, and I would even say there is a slight gold tinge to it. It glides nicely and dries quickly. Lovely ink.

this ink looked so lovely in the pictures i had to try it out. i'd been looking for a nice color to annotate my notes with. unfortunately, this wasn't it. it's a lot paler than i expected - barely darker than the lines on my notebook - and basically unusable as a result. i'd have liked it a lot more if it was slightly more saturated.

on the other hand, it is quite a pretty color, and if you're using it for drawing/painting with a brush I think it'd probably work nicely.

Lovely, quality ink. The colour is a nice sepia and perfect for documents you want to have a historic look. Gorgeous on ivory or cream paper!

wonderful bright blue with vibrant color to rival Iroshizuku Asa Gao. Good flow, more saturated than some other Herbin inks

I find this to be more of an olive color than a fresh green. However, it is still an excellent ink; smooth and consistent.

I thought that I loved Eclat de Saphir, but I am absolutely enamored with this blue. In my Lamy Nexx xf it is the exact same shade as the swatch on the site, however, I could imagine that it would appear darker if used with a medium nib. This is the perfect "happy blue." I am extremely satisfied with the color.