Ink Review: Colorverse Voyager I 2018 LE Set

The Colorverse 2018 Voyager I set ($50, see below for a special bonus offer) is the first limited edition set released by Colorverse and it was highly sought after and greatly anticipated. The set includes four of their now-recognizable small 15ml bottles in a beautiful packaged box with all the accoutrements that Colorverse has become known for as well. While I am not normally a fan of packaging, Colorverse creates an experience with their packaging. Every detail has been considered. Every flap is designed, every side of the box includes artwork that goes along with the theme of Voyager I.

Inside this set, they’ve included an envelope with some blank paper to test inks along with stickers and a napkin in a cellophane bag. There is also a pamphlet showing the inks from the previous series.

The cute little bottles which I have, on occasion, had trouble fitting some larger nib/grip sections into the small openings. In these cases, I’ve had to take the converters out of the pens and fill them and then put them back into the pens. In the case of a pen with a piston, I think you’d just be out of luck or have to transfer the ink into a different bottle.

There seemed to be very little sheen with these inks but good potential for shading with all of them. There may be a little sheen with Pale Blue Dot and Jupiter FlyBy. They are all very saturated.

For writing samples, I’ll start with my favorite which is Pale Blue Dot. However, I do have a caveat with this color, which is to say that if you’ve already purchased Morning Star, Photon/Gluon or Gravity Wave, then Pale Blue Dot is not a strikingly different shade of teal blue. If you are new to Colorverse, then this is a great introduction to their line. It’s slightly more green than Morning Star and does not have as much sheen to it as Morning Star, but it’s definitely swimming in the same waters if you’ll pardon the pun.

Golden Record is the ink with the absolute best name and also the most misleading name. It’s not actually gold per se. And it does not contain any glistening particles or sparkle as one might have thought it might. Instead, its actually more of an Aztec Gold or burnt orange. Now, I am a little bit literal about the whole space them of this set and really wanted the Golden Record ink to be reminiscent of the actual Golden Record aboard Voyager I so this was a bit of a letdown for me in that regard. However, when I can actually step away from the whole theme of the set and appreciate the color for what it is, its actually really pretty. So, I have to wonder if Colorverse may have missed the mark with the color or maybe limited themselves a bit too much with their whole space and science themes initially. Though it looks like they are starting to break away from that a bit in their upcoming projects. Anyway, I think if you’re going to do a Voyager I set and name an ink Golden Record, it damn well better look more like gold. But if you’re not a big space nerd and you just like cute little bottles of ink, this may be a-okay with you.

I had a similar issue with Jupiter Fly By. Its a lovely shade of warm brown but what it has to do with any of the photos I’ve seen of the fly-by photos of Jupiter from NASA, I have no clue. To me, the ink is too dark. Golden Record is closer to the color of some of the photos of the landscape seen in the photos of Jupiter. However, the ink is a warm reddish brown which is not unpleasant and falls between Hubble Zoom and Space Laika in the Colorverse color wheel.

Finally, Interstellar Space is a deep forest green. I think Colorverse took some creative liberties with what interstellar space might look like but I’ll let that go. This ink, consistency-wise, is the wettest ink from Colorverse I’ve seen. With dip pen and glass nib, I had a very hard time using it at all and it actually feathered and bled a bit on my swatch card! Quelle horreur! With other Colorverse inks, some people have complained that the inks are a bit dry and that’s definitely not an issue with Interstellar Space. Because Interstellar Space is so dark, in fine nibs, there’s not much shading.

The only other green in the Colorverse world is Sea of Tranquility and Shrodinger in Shrodinger/Cat (which I forgot to photograph). Schrodinger is a very Kelly Green so Interstellar Space is definitely the darkest green thus far in the line.

So, my feeling about the Voyager I set is that if you’ve never bought any Colorverse inks before, this set is a great introduction that offers variety and the full experience of the packaging, stickers and delight of those little bottles that you won’t get from samples. It also makes a great gift.

If you are a space nerd, even though it misses the mark with some of the color details, everything else is really spot-on and therefore its a must-have.

If you have already purchased a few bottles of Colorverse, this set might replicate some colors you already own. You may want to purchase the ink you really want rather than duplicating them with this set.

BONUS OFFER: Vanness Pens is offering a 10% discount on the Voyager I set as well as all the Colorverse Series 1, 2, & 3 inks through July 1, 2018 with the code “pinkhairdontcare” (no quotes).

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TOOLS

• Paper: Rhodia Ice Pad No. 18 ($13.75)
• Pens: Traveler’s Company Bullet Pen hacked to hold a dip nib with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack),
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Cards ($10) and Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Brush: Silver Black Velvet #6 Round 300S
• Ink: Colorverse Voyager I Set (4 – 15ml bottle for $50, don’t forget to use the coupon code!)

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DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.