The Well-Appointed Desk

Another year of the Diamine Inkvent Calendar has wrapped, and with it, 25 new inks join the ever-growing Inkvent archive. When I pulled out my calendars this year, I realized that Inkvent may be the most consistent stationery tradition I’ve maintained over time. In fact, for a couple of years, it was the only stationery purchase I made all year.

Inkvent has become one of my favorite holiday rituals- not just for the inks themselves, but for the shared experience. In our household, we guess the ink color before opening each day, and beyond that, there’s the collective experience of opening each bottle alongside many other ink lovers across the internet. My favorite part is hearing the opinions, hot takes, and seeing the many creative ways people catalog each year’s inks. Even on days when an ink isn’t a personal favorite, the shared experiences are something I genuinely and consistently look forward to.

For several years now, I’ve been cataloging my Inkvent inks on the giant sheets of a Col-o-ring Folio. I trace out a Christmas tree where each of the first 24 days becomes an ornament on the tree, and Day 25 forms the trunk. This year, I decided (since I clearly didn’t have enough to do during the holiday season…) that in addition to my yearly tree, I wanted to take on a larger comparison project-looking at each released Inkvent ink over time by week, by ink type, and by color family.

The results of that swatching project are cataloged below. Before diving in, a few quick disclaimers:

1. 1. This project involved 600 individual ink swatches, with over 500 completed in the last 30 days. There may be minor (or major) errors in names, spellings, or categories so please feel free to point out anything you notice, and I’ll happily add notes where appropriate.
   2. Color families were assigned based on my own visual assessment while swatching, which may differ from retailer classifications or how others perceive certain colors (especially where boundaries between colors like red vs. orange are subjective).
   3. I’ve aimed for “scanned-in” color accuracy in the photos, but mileage will vary depending on your screen, and some inks are notoriously difficult to capture fully. This review is meant to give you a wide-ranging general review of the entire Inkvent collection. I would suggest referring out to other sources to see more about individual colors that interest you!
   4. The trees and Christmas light bulbs were all done on Col-o-ring paper. The other swatches were completed on OG Tomoe River 52gsm.

With that, let’s get into it. I’ll share each of the breakdowns in photos and of course my personal commentary throughout.

Diamine Inkvent Calendars 2019–2025 (Full Sets)

First up, we have Diamine Inkvent Calendars from 2019 through 2025, with each year pictured together in full (with the exception of 2019 Day 22, which remains the only Inkvent ink I’m missing across all years):

Overall observations for the 2025 Inkvent Calendar:

• This year featured the fewest “standard” inks to date- only six across the entire calendar. With the continued expansion of specialty categories (e.g. shimmer, sheen, chameleon, pigment), Diamine appears to be leaning further into experimental inks. If  a little “extra” in your ink is not your preference, Inkvent may be less appealing going forward.
• So. Many. Blues. There were more blue inks this year than in the previous two years combined. This was, of course, a teal-themed calendar, and I think you could reasonably classify at least five of this year’s blues as some variation of teal. It will be interesting to see whether Diamine pulls back from blue next year.
• I was initially surprised by how many pigmented inks appeared in the very first year of that new category, but it turns out this is not unusual for Diamine. There were five chameleon inks in their debut year in 2022 (seven if you include “Chameleon & Sheen”), and five extreme sheen inks last year when that category was introduced.
• Somehow, even after more than 100 prior Inkvent inks, each calendar still manages to introduce something unique. This year was no exception. Three inks that stood out to me in particular:
  • Energy is probably my favorite sheening ink across all Inkvent calendars. The matte-like quality of the sheen has me re-evaluating the category entirely. High-shine sheens aren’t always my thing, but this one is both striking and very usable. I’m excited to try it in a pen.
  • Bubbly is one of the most interesting gold inks in my entire collection. It leans green when wet, but once dry it settles into a warm gold-brown-beige glow that really lives up to its name. I’m curious to see what other (non-Inkvent) inks people end up comparing this to.
  • Even with the abundance of blue and teal inks with red sheen, Celestial Skies (Day 1) still managed to set itself apart. There’s a reason the ink portion of this hobby can feel like a never-ending rabbit hole.

Inkvent by Week (2019–2025)

Next, we have Diamine Inkvent calendars from 2019–2025 broken down by week (for example, Days 1–6 from all years shown together on a single sheet):

Looking at the weeks side-by-side over time, most years offer a fairly balanced mix of colors from week to week. I would love to know how the order of inks is determined each year, and some weeks stand out more than others. Two notable examples:

1. Week three of 2021 delivered an entire week of red and blue inks.
2. Week one of 2019 included two standard red inks right out of the gate. Those two still stand, in my opinion, as the most classic standard holiday reds Inkvent has produced, with 2022’s Cardinal being the only other ink that truly fits that description.

Inkvent by Color Family (2019–2025)

Next is one of my personal favorite breakdowns: Diamine Inkvent calendars grouped by color family (again, categories are based on my own experience and visual assessment rather than official listings):

	Total	2019	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
		Blue	Red	Green	Purple	Black	Teal
Yellow	4	1	1	0	1	0	1
Orange	7	0	2	1	2	1	1
Reds/Pink	32	6	6	5	6	6	4
Green	22	4	2	5	3	5	3
Purple	20	2	3	2	5	4	4
Brown	19	4	2	4	3	2	4
Grey	7	1	1	1	1	3	0
Black/Blue Black	8	1	2	2	2	1	1
Blue	29	6	6	5	2	3	7
	150	25	25	25	25	25	25

Inkvent by Ink Type (2019–2025)

Finally, we have Inkvent calendars broken down by ink type across all years:

	Total	2019	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
		Blue	Red	Green	Purple	Black	Teal
Extreme Sheen	8	0	0	0	0	5	3
Sheen	9	6	2	0	0	0	1
Scented	6	0	0	1	3	2	1
Pigment	3	0	0	0	0	0	3
Pigment Shimmer	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Pigment Chemeleon	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Star Bright	3	0	0	0	1	2	0
Scent & Sheen	1	0	0	1	0	0	0
Chameleon & Sheen	2	0	0	2	0	0	0
Shimmer & Sheen	10	3	4	1	1	0	1
Chameleon	24	0	0	5	8	6	5
Shimmer	25	4	6	5	5	3	3
Standard	55	12	13	10	7	7	6
	150	25	25	25	25	25	25

 

Overall Observations:

• The color of the calendar generally aligns with the color family with the highest representation in that calendar, but not by a high margin. For example, the blue-themed 2019 calendar included six blue inks and six red/pinks. The 2024 black calendar was a major exception, featuring only one black ink.
• Traditional sheening inks were much more prevalent in earlier years (following the overall ink trends in the industry at the time), but we’ve seen a comeback in recent Inkvent years with the addition of the “Extreme Sheen” category. With all the other potential ink categories, I’m curious if they we will continue to see such high numbers from this specific category.
• It’s genuinely impressive how many distinct inks Diamine has produced through Inkvent. Even with all 150 inks side-by-side, there are remarkably few that feel repetitive. The closest pairs, in my opinion (and even these still show differences), are:
  • 2022 “Bliss” and 2019 “Blue Peppermint”
  • 2022 “Upon a Star” and 2022 “Arctic Blast”
  • 2021 “Black Ivy” and 2025 “Laurel”
• The growing number of ink categories has naturally resulted in fewer inks per category. I will be interested to see if they will retire categories over time, rotate categories in and out of the calendars year-to-year, or try to squeeze as many catalogues as possible into each future year. This year the “Star Bright”, “Scent & Sheen”, and “Chameleon & Sheen” categories were all absent. Are they gone for good or will they return in future cycles?

Favorites:

What kind of long-term review would this be without choosing some favorites?

Favorite Inks from This Year’s Inkvent:

1. 1. Bubbly- Day 12
   2. Energy- Day 2
   3. Nostalgia- Day 10
   4. Overcast- Day 19
   5. Fir & Fog- Day 6

Honorable Mention: Mittens (Day 14),  and Celestial Skies (Day 1)

NOTE: Harmony in the photo below and pretty much every other photo in this post should be “Energy.”

Favorite Inks from Inkvent’s Past (excluding 2025 to avoid recency bias):

1. 1. Party Time- 2021
   2. Ghost- 2022
   3. Dusted Truffle- 2022
   4. Masquerade- 2023
   5. All the Best- 2021

Honorable Mention: Olive Swirl (2022), Potpourri (2024), Weeping Willow (2023)

My Ultimate Holiday Ink Set:

1. 1. Spiced Apple- 2022
   2. Hohoho- 2019
   3. Noble Fir- 2024
   4. Pine Needle- 2024
   5. Gold Star- 2019
   6. Snow Storm- 2019

Wishlist for Future Inkvents:

• Calendar colors I would most like to see: Gold and Pink
• I would love to see  some behind-the-scenes Inkvent content. An interview with someone who has worked on this project over the years that gives insight into how the inks are selected and made would be fascinating to me.
• Calling so many of these inks “standard” sells some of them short. Even with the ever-expanding list of categories, a chroma-shading label could be a helpful distinction.
• Whether or not pigmented inks are your preference, the continued experimentation is exciting. This year’s pigmented inks (especially those with shimmer) were a fun addition, and I hope Diamine continues to explore this space.
• My perfect calendar? Less blue, the return of Star Bright, one scented ink at most, fewer extreme sheens, more chroma-shading, and increased representation of pinks, yellows/golds, and greys/silvers.

Conclusion:

No matter where you land on the individual inks from day-to-day, it’s hard not to admire the sheer scope of the Inkvent calendar project over the last six years. Diamine has produced an impressive range of inks, with very few that feel truly redundant even with all 150 inks placed side-by-side-by-side.

Inkvent continues to be, in my opinion, the perfect place for Diamine to “swing for the fences” with ink. If I wanted 25 inks perfectly suited to my personal preferences, I would curate my own line-up of samples. What makes Inkvent special is its willingness to take risks- even when some of those risks don’t universally land (…I’m looking at you Smoky Tobacco). I hope Diamine continues to push the limits of what a seasonal ink release can be, and I hope many ink addicts continue to swatch along each year. As with so many things in this hobby, it’s ultimately the community that makes it meaningful.

That sense of community is, once again, what truly made Inkvent for me this year. At one point, when I realized I was missing just two inks across all Inkvent years, I mentioned it in Slack and a stationery friend not only sent one of the missing inks, but also included a lovely card and a jar of homemade holiday jam. Moments like those are needed reminders of how generous and kind this community can be. Every year I also discover new accounts doing fun, creative, and downright impressive things with these inks. A couple of my favorites this year were Hold Your Hounds, nibsandflourishes, ink_apothecarian, atelier_tari, and of course the classic quinkandbleach.

And finally, thank you to Ana for welcoming me back as a guest to The Desk to share this year’s Inkvent adventure. These days, you can find me over at Kaleidocraft Prints (where discerning eyes will notice a new Blog page has been added with more stationery and small business content coming soon).  I’m also on Instagram at @kaleidocraftprints. I hope to see many of you online- or better yet, at an upcoming pen or stationery show this year!