I was planning on waiting a few more weeks before I got this review up here, but if you follow me on instagram you know I have Stormy Grey, and you know I’m in LOVE. This ink is in a single word, delightful. In other words it’s sedate, yet fun; a business suit with a gold lamé lining. In the pen it’s stunning as the gold flakes fall in and out of suspension. This ink is much more stunning than it’s red sibling, Rouge Hematite, another ink that I adore.  Stormy Grey is just that, the color of a dark sky right before the thunder starts.

When compared to J. Herbin’s other grey ink, Gris Nuage, this is many shades darker, more of a charcoal grey than cloud grey. When it comes to loading it up in a brush pen for sketching, it can almost stand in the place of black. The great thing about the Herbin inks is that they can be layered. Once the initial layer dries, you can load up another layer and add to the depth of dark. It’s quite a nice, if unintentional feature of the ink. This ink won’t take the place of my Gris Nuage for sketching but will allow me to add another brush pen to my lineup. One thing with the brush pen is that the lovely gold flecks were significantly diminished.  They were visible but not as much as when this ink is loaded to a regular pen.

This ink in my TWSBI 530 with a medium nib was amazing. It went onto the page with a sedate grey. Somber tones, then turn the page to a different light and it lit up as if it were gold foiled. It turned the most boring list of stuff for an assignment into magic. As nibs go, the TWSBI 530 M is boring, I can only imagine what this ink would be like in a vintage flex. The important piece here is that it turned what I wrote with a boring nib into something special.

The flow in the TWSBI is quite nice. It’s well lubricated and very well behaved. I was able to use my TWSBI M in a Field Notes with some bleed through but it wasn’t so bad as most inks with a medium on Field Notes paper. With a fine or extra fine nib this ink might just work perfectly in a Field Notes! Which is pretty amazing. I can’t wait to fill my TWSBI mini with this ink and see how it works in my FN.

Some might call this hyperbole, but I think this might be the best journaling ink ever made. Consider writing a daily to do list, or grocery list with this ink, and feeling like you are on a treasure hunt while in the grocery store.

It has been noted in various other locations that this is a super saturated ink and may stain your pen. I am not noticing any issues with my TWSBI, and I suspect that if you follow proper pen hygiene and clean it out regularly, that you’ll have no issues.  just don’t leave the ink in the pen for weeks without cleaning.  Also due to the flakes it could clog your pen. My TWSBI 530 has had flow issues in the past, but so far, not a single one with this ink. However, when I decide to switch inks, I will flush this pen better than I usually do.

This ink was supplied to me for free for the purposes of the review by Pen Chalet. They may have paid for the ink, but the review is all my own.

I will test this ink for light-fastness. Gris Nuage is light-fast, but Rouge Hematite is not. So something to consider when using these inks for sketching and art.