Review by Jessica Coles
I don’t know about any of our readers out there, but I can’t resist picking up a sample of new Robert Oster inks when I see them. Like the new Robert Oster Avocado ($17 for a 50mL bottle).
All new inks are fairly thrilling in the pen world, especially so to those who grew up when the best you could hope for with color was the pen that had the four ink colors — I’m sure you remember. The one where you would inevitably try to push all four down at the same time and get all of the refills stuck. Red, Green, Blue, and Black.
Now the world seems to have no end in sight to the number of fountain pen ink colors that will come out. I love trying the new colors, but Robert Oster inks seem to be on an entirely different level. Some Oster inks sheen, others shade deeply, all of his inks are extraordinary. Each new ink holds its own surprise.
When I saw a couple new inks when placing an order from Vanness Pens, I threw them in the shopping cart before checking out. Avocado and Smokescreen are their names — I’ll post the review on the Smokescreen a little later.
I wanted to get this information out as soon as possible, though. Because this ink has even more strange quirks.
What a wonderful ink! The shading is there, even while writing in cursive. Sometimes cursive keeps the ink flowing along the page rather than letting it settle to form darker pools.
Avocados are not a single color. The unripe fruits are a light, dusty green, the ripe fruit a deeper green with tones of brown. The inner flesh is a spring green while the edge of a halved avocado is a dark ring.
Robert Oster Avocado ink does the same. In writing, the ink looks like the dusty light green of an unripe avocado. As the ink shades, the darker areas are the color of a more mature fruit. The pooled ink in a heavy swab is the color of a ripe avocado and includes a dark halo that appears to sheen a very dark green or black. The pooled ink also shows a strange phenomenon. The yellowish brown appears in the dried ink but appears a lighter color than the unpooled ink. Lighter where the coverage is heavier? I have never seen this before in an ink.
The chromotography of Avocado shows distinct bands of color — a dusty pink, magenta, a very light yellow to bright yellow and a thin band of cyan at the very top. The original band of ink is nowhere to be seen, indicating that the ink is absolutely not water resistant.
I highly recommend this new color. Maybe we will even have a new term for inks that show an entirely different color when laid down heavily! At least the ones that don’t really sheen. Morphing inks? Lighter shade inks? This is the best thing that could happen with a new ink — a whole new category!
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were paid for by myself purchased from Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review.
I must admit, I’m not a fan of green ink. Teal or turquoise, yes, but not green. But this Avocado ink has me intrigued. I’ll put this on my list to try one day.
Judy, I think you may find this different from any other green. As far as I can tell, Avocado is in a class of it’s own.
Jessica, thanks for this review. Ah yes the days of only four colour inks….
I do appreciate the fact that the ink actually shades when writing cursive, this has always been one of my pet “peeves” as folks talk about shading and when I use the inks (cursive) I see non of that.
Must add to my list
I’m glad we’ve moved past those days of boring colors!
Nice review! It reminds me of J. Herbin Vert Empire, but with shading
Thanks, Glenn! This doesn’t have quite the same color as Vert Empire and is a dustier color. But it is in that color family.
I must admit, when I saw that this was a review of an avocado green ink, I almost passed it up. I’m not a big fan of green inks. However, lately I’ve been considering adding more greens to my collection. And I know what you mean about inks not shading when writing in cursive – I actually started printing so that I’d get more shading from all my inks. I have to say I am totally impressed with the amount of shading I see in your cursive writing with this ink. It’s awesome. After seeing the ink in your writing and in the swabs, I have decided to give this one a try. Thanks for the great review!
I don’t think you will be disappointed, Debi. As soon as I finished writing this review, I ordered an entire bottle myself!
That chromatography is amazing. I love Robert Oster inks. And to think, I was going to skip this one. What an unusual ink! Thanks for the thorough review.
Did you ever complete a review of the Robert Oster Smokescreen you mention?