Diamine Cerise ink review

Diamine Cerise is one of those inks that really stands out. You might need to blink several times after staring at something written in Cerise because it's bound to make your eyes water. If you're looking for a hot pink (novelty) ink, this might be the one for you.

Because Diamine inks are generally kind to fountain pens, I decided to test this one in my TWSBI Diamond 530 with the broad nib. I figured that this ink would benefit more from a thick line, allowing it to "shine" for your perusal.

Bottle

Diamine Cerise comes in the standard Diamine bottle of 80ml / 2.7 oz capacity which sells for about $12.75, which makes it $0.16 per milliliter. Since I'm only buying samples these days, a sample is what I used for today's review.

Color and saturation

As mentioned in the intro, Diamine Cerise is a hot pink ink and, boy, is it bright and saturated! It's what you might expect to come out of a fluorescent marker. As such, it makes good company with another ink I tested (of which I own a bottle), namely Diamine Orange.

Shading

Unlike its Orange cousin, Diamine Cerise shows a bit of shading. Not much but its there. I can see it with the broad nib. I can't say it makes a difference one way or another, because it's a bright, light-colored ink and I prefer to see shading in darker inks.

Feathering

None.

Bleedthrough

Apart from a little bit of ghosting on the cheap photocopy paper due to the high saturation of this ink, there is no bleed to speak of.

Flow and lubrication

Unfortunately I ran into a few flow issues with Diamine Cerise. I wasn't expecting this because Diamine inks flowed well for me, historically. What happened is that the TWSBI ran dry a few times and I had to pump the piston before the ink got started again. I doubt it was the pen's fault because it ran just fine until now. In fairness, those issues happened more often during the first few days, after which things became more or less normal.

Now, the ink flows ok but I'm not 100% thrilled with how it feels on paper. It doesn't have the smoothness I have come to appreciate in other inks. It feels a little bit dry, in fact.

Drying time

Drying times are on the long side, especially on Rhodia 80g paper. Sometimes, the ink is wet even after 30 seconds. But this could also be attributed to the broad nib. This obviously improves to a great extent with cheap paper.

Smearing when dry

None.

Water resistance

This is obviously not a water resistant ink but, as you can see from the sample, some of it still remains after being subjected to 1 minute under running water. Whether you can recover whatever was written in case of a water accident remains a toss-up. I wouldn't count too much on it.

Conclusion

Diamine Cerise seems, to me, like a niche ink. It can be very useful for artistic purposes though I doubt you'll be able to use it at the office for official business (unless your office is an art studio). It might not have the most desirable characteristics (slow to dry, not water resistant, potential flow issues) but I think it makes up for that with its very vibrant color. Personally, if I were in need of a hot pink ink, Diamine Cerise would be at top of my list.

Here are the two writing samples on photocopy and Rhodia 80g paper, respectively.