Review by Laura Cameron
For the last few years I’ve focused on the Pantone Color of the Year when doing my ink reviews. But it’s already the end of March and I still haven’t done any reviews of this year’s color, Classic Blue.
A month or so ago, when I was cruising through the JetPens site, I found Monteverde’s Horizon Blue (30mL, $10.50). I don’t know that it’s quite Classic Blue, but it is an awfully brilliant blue that I just had to have.
I find Monteverde inks tons of fun. They come in tons of gorgeous colors, work well in all my fountain pens, and are inexpensive enough that I don’t mind springing for new colors.
Horizon Blue is, as I said, a bright brilliant blue. It shades a bit, without any discernible sheen.
As it turns out I don’t seem to have this exact blue in my ink stash! When I went looking for comparisons, the only thing that came close was Colorverse Supernova, and when shading, Supernova tends more towards turquoise (I don’t have Colorverse Quasar available to swatch, but I think it might be closer to Horizon Blue). I thought Diamine Blue Velvet might be close, but that is more muted and slightly more purple.
I’m not sure what my next blue ink will be, but I couldn’t be happier with Horizon Blue!
- Paper: Crossfield Journal ($24), Col-o-ring Oversize ($15)
- Pen: Delike Glass Signature Pen ($37.80)
- Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10) and Col-o-Dex Rotary Cards ($15)
- Inks: Monteverde Horizon Blue (30mL, $10.50)
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Hi Laura,
My classic blue is Visconti Blue. The Monteverde Horizon Blue looks very nice.
Thank you for the thorough review.
Thanks for letting me know – I haven’t tried the Visconti Blue, I’ll have to add it to the list.
I recently got a bottle of Horizon Blue and in my Monteverde Innova pen, which is a wet writer, I get a slight red sheen on Tomoe River paper.
Oooo clearly I missed something. I’ll have to try again!
Yes! Me too. It’s lovely 🙂
Capri Blue is also a really nice color, a little bolder than Horizon without being as dark as Blue Velvet.
That said, my bottle of it was one of the ones affected by their mold problem. I understand they’ve fixed it, and they sent me a replacement bottle, but that one also had the problem, so I’m laying off their inks for a while.
Well that’s a total bummer. I’m sorry. 🙁