Lamy Dark Lilac. Along with my Dark Lilac Lamy Safari I ordered a box of cartridges of the accompanying ink. In the Safari with medium nib, Dark Lilac ink is a nice dark purple, fairly saturated, and without much shading. It really flows well, too.
Here is Dark Lilac ink compared to two purple inks I own and then to a standard blue ink and black ink for reference.
Dark Lilac is dark enough that you could possibly get away with it at work. Depending, of course, on how fabulous your work setting is, and on how cool, or near-sighted, your boss is.
It’s a Sign o’ the Times that this purple also makes me think of the recently departed Prince. Would the Purple One himself like this ink? Oh yeah: it totally reminds me of the cover of 1999.
My Dark Lilac Lamy Safari just arrived, and it’s really excellent. This is the nicest Safari in years, in my opinion. And not just because it’s neither neon nor green. It just looks great.
I have heard that purple pens aren’t big sellers, which may be why Lamy waited so long to add one to the Safari lineup, but this is very smartly done. It’s less tween, more grownup. The textured plastic, which is also found on the Charcoal Safari, helps with that. There’s also the black clip and nib, and the dark boysenberry color of the pen.
I also bought cartridges of the Dark Lilac ink, which is similarly dark and actually very attractive.
Here is the Dark Lilac next to the Charcoal, to give a better sense of the color.
Thank you to Appelboom, who sent this very quickly.
Lamy Al-Star Ocean Blue with extra-fine nib. Blue is my favorite color for fountain pens and ink. That’s not really a secret. Also not a secret is my love for Lamy pens. But I far prefer the ABS plastic Safari to the sleeker, more sophisticated aluminum Al-Star.
Except … sometimes. And this gorgeous deep blue Al-Star is one of the exceptions. I think the deep blue tone and the reflectivity of the aluminum makes the Ocean Blue Al-Star a stunner.
I am using it to review the ink, KWZ Azure #1. That’s because Lamy’s extra-fine nib is very different from the broad nib Aurora Optima that I’m also using with Azure #1. Here is Azure #1 in an extra-fine.
Hey, look what I found in my Easter basket: two Lamy Safaris from Line Friends.
Cuteness overload, I know. But let’s revel in it, just for one day.
And this is roughly reason number 1,979 why I love Chicago: green bagels for St. Patrick’s Day. I love the melting pot.
Though, yeah, the green color looks slightly strange in a bagel. Only kids would actually eat those, probably. Or Shrek. Or the guy in charge of Lamy Safari color choices.
My pen cup runneth over. Both of them. And they show what’s going on here for the next week or two.
I’ve got four Kaweco Sports inked right now. Three of them contain inks I’m going to be reviewing, or might be reviewing or really thought I’d already have finished reviewing. Those pens are blue, clear and purple, respectively.
The other is my new AL-Sport. Which is new. I am not sure I expressed that clearly enough. I meant, new! Well, actually, newest. Newest!
Does that photo up above look sufficiently dark and mysterious? Good. There are two pens there that I think are going to be pens of the week this very week, so I don’t want to give away too much now. I hope it’s just like Pretty Little Liars here, in terms of suspense. So you can tune in tomorrow, when I reveal “A.”
I have five yellow Safaris? Yes, I have five yellow Safaris. I really had no idea.
The truth is, yellow pens are not exactly necessary in my life, since I never use yellow ink. Let’s say I own 9,043 bottles of ink. Admittedly, that’s a rough estimate; the actual number might be higher (cough). But I do know that, of those roughly 12,000 bottles, exactly zero contain yellow ink. It’s not exactly legible, at least not to me.
But I still like the yellow Safaris. And that photo puts a smile on my face. The cute Line Friends Safari is especially adorable. Though it lives in a box. Which I had to search for. Because it was in a storage box. In the basement. We’re talking deep storage. I really only use the regular yellow Safari.
The funny thing is, as shocked as I am by the breadth of my yellow Safari ownership, I know that Lamy has made more than five different yellow Safaris. There’s a lighter yellow with black clip for sure. And there probably are other special edition Safaris in yellow: I think I’ve seen some with logos. I just don’t buy the ones with logos. Or the rare and expensive ones.
Rest assured that I am okay with not having every yellow Safari. In fact, I’m thrilled.
It might mean a tiny bit of sanity prevails. But you know me better. It really means: more room for my blue pens!
Hey. If I put a few more of these in the storage box in the basement, wouldn’t that mean … there’s room for that blue Pelikan M205?!
We have an extra day this February, which means I’m celebrating with an extra post. Sorry, readers! But let’s do an Oscars theme, in honor of yesterday’s Academy Awards.
The “Mad Max: Fury Road Sweeping All Categories” Award goes to KWZ Ink. I’ve only reviewed four KWZ inks this month, I think, but I’ve got at least two more in pens right now. This mighty little brand continues to impress me: beautiful inks, different styles, all so easy on my pens.
The “Gosh, That ‘Room’ Kid Has Gorgeous Parents, Too” Award goes to MY63’s beautiful leather pen cups. Here and here. Put them next to his wonderful leather pen cases, and the whole family is beautiful.
The “Chris Rock Rocks” Award goes to Lamy, a company that certainly could diversify past the color green, but at least is finally making its fans happy with a forthcoming purple Safari. Now on preorder, by the way. I’ve seen a lot of people excited about that purple Safari, and about the Charged Green Al-Star that arrived this month. It’s nice to see people excited about pens.
Here are a few more ink possibilities for the new Lamy Charged Green Al-Star, these suggested by readers of the original post, here.
The first is Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku-rin, as suggested by Rafael. I think Chiku-rin really works with the suggestion of celery green in the pen. It might be slightly greener, and the pen slightly more yellow, but I like more green, and I like this combination.
Second is Derek’s suggestion of Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldgrün. This is a very popular ink with nice shading, that I think of as an avocado green. And I think this color really works beautifully with our Charged Green Al-Star, too.
Chiku-rin and Alt-Goldgrün are both yellow-greens. With the Charged Green Al-Star, that’s clearly the way to go — or else greenish yellow inks. Thanks to Rafael and Derek.
Fountain Pen Follies 