Sailor Studio inks are a collection from Sailor covering 100 ink mixtures from pastel, multi-chromatic to saturated and highly sheening. Over the summer, Sailor announced that they would be retiring three inks from the lineup (543, 531, 864) and adding another three inks – 224, 252, and 280.
The first number of the Sailor Studio ink name indicates the relative saturation of the ink with 1 as the lightest up to 9 with 0 as the darkest. Sailor Studio 224, 252, and 280 are light enough that significant color combinations can be seen in ink swatches.
Sailor 224 is a tough ink to compare to others. The haloing green is a good match for Vinta Karnival.
The shading color in 224 is close to Sailor Chushu while the base color (the lightest on the swatch card) is somewhat similar to Vinta Aegean Armada. As I said, 224 is a tough ink to compare to other colors!
Sailor Studio 252 was easier to match up for comparison. Birmingham Grant Street Weathered Brick is close in color, especially to the base color. The haloing color here is a greenish brownish shadow.
I’ve also compared 252 to the popular Sailor Studio 237 (252 is much dustier) and the hard-to-match Private Reserve Arabian Rose (252 is almost a toned down Arabian Rose).
Moving on to Sailor Studio 280 – a tough ink to describe. As you can see on the swatch card, the ink writes closer to a yellowish brown than the actual yellow green of the swatch. The written ink looks a bit lighter than Sailor Rikyu-cha or Troublemaker Kelp Tea with a touch more brown. The swatch is closer to PenBBS Tolstoy or KWZ Green Gold.
I will be looking at how these three inks change dramatically when using a wide variety of paper types – that was what originally had me waiting impatiently for these inks to be released. Until then, however, here is a small look at how the ink performed on Cosmo Air Light paper and Bank Paper with the ink swatches (the same used above) for comparison.
- Swatch Cards: Col-o-ring cards (100 for $10)
- Ink: Sailor Studio 224, 252, 280 ($18 for 20mL)
DISCLAIMER: The inks in this review were purchased by me although the Col-o-rings were provided to me by Ana because she knows she can keep me writing all the time in exchange for the wonderful cards. Please see the About page for more details.
