Ink Review: Sailor Studio 150

Review by Jessica Coles

Ah, purple inks. If I had to choose only one color of ink to use for the rest of my life, it would be purple. I love that purple spans from nearly pink or red all the way to dark blurples. I love how purple inks have experienced a renaissance lately as evidenced by Montblanc’s special edition, Psychedelic Purple and Lamy’s Dark Lilac. The Pantone color of the year for 2018 was Ultra Violet! What a great time for purples.

I have found pastel purple inks very difficult to find, however. Not that they don’t exist, but the exact shade that I crave seems to be hard to find. Robert Oster has a beautiful variety of purple inks, but nothing quite right. Sheaffer had a beautiful shade of lavender ink, but it was discontinued in the late 80s or early 90s and the bottles of lavender are coveted by those who can find them.

I was delighted when I found Sailor Studio 150! This ink is very close to Sheaffer Lavender but is still easily legible in writing.

Studio 150 also has the bonus characteristic of colors that separate slightly, showing unusual shading at times. The ink also varies in color based on the paper being used.

Sailor Studio is somewhere between Diamine Amazing Amethyst and Toucan Violet (another difficult-to-find ink that has been nearly discontinued) in color but shows the complexity seen in Robert Oster Viola (an ink that can be difficult to read since it is so pale.

Tucan Violet is the ink that I have historically seen as a replacement for Sheaffer Lavender. Of course, it also has now become quite difficult to find. It seems I was doomed to be always searching for my perfect lavender until I found 150!