Inkvent 2025 - Final Recap

Things got overwhelming in the lead up to Christmas and the end of December, so I wasn't able to continue the weekly Inkvent recaps. For completion's sake, I'm posting a very belated recap that covers days 15 - 25.

Colorverse - Week 3

For week 3 of Colorverse, I prefer Polar Night the most, but I am concerned that in regular writing with a fine nib, it'll be too light. I have not yet filled a pen with it to confirm. I really like the chromoshading, though. Golden Airglow is my second choice. It's a decent brown (maybe slightly too dark for my tastes, but it's fine) with lots of pretty gold shimmer.

Colorverse - Week 4

Colorvent ended on day 24, so only 3 inks in this "week". I actually am not a fan of any of these. Sojourner, as I mentioned in my post for Day 22, is a very dark version of Sailor Yurameku Date Gokoro. But because it doesn't have that ink's nice translucency and chromoshading, I don't like it as much as the Sailor ink. And by the time day 24 came around, I was pretty "tealed out" thanks to other teals from Colorvent and Inkvent, so I wasn't that interested in Winter Wonderland. It does remind me of Wearingeul Wayfarer, which I used to like. Winter Wonderland is pretty, but I probably won't use it much, unless my dislike of teal changes. Overall, none of these inks really appealed to me, which was sort of disappointing for the end of Colorvent, especially since it started out stronger than Inkvent did, seemingly.

Diamine - Week 3

Diamine week 3 had a few more likes than Colorverse's week 3. My top preference is Overcast. I really like the chromoshading. Second would be Gala, though I have mixed feelings about the shade of purple (maybe it's more lilac?). It's nice and spring-y. Runners up are Frostbite and Ruby Taffeta. Again, I'm not currently in a mood to like shimmer inks, but both of these are pretty. I like the blurple base with contrasting champagne shimmer of Frostbite, even though at the time I wrote about Day 15's inks, I was not as impressed. Ruby Taffeta's candy apple, Christmas-y red doesn't seem to be obliterated by the golden sheen it has. I did not like Spiced Apple from Diamine's Inkvent Green because the gold sheen ruined the base color.

Diamine - Week 4

Inkvent's last week was stronger than Colorvent's, even though my preferences for the Diamine inks have a bit of a caveat. Firstly, Antler is my top choice from this batch. It's a nice brown shade evocative of deer. However, it's a pigment ink, so besides concern about how well it would clean out of a pen, it's not going to show off much shading in writing (I don't think), so it might just look like I'm writing with a brown marker (not my favorite look for fountain pen inks). Second pick would be Let it Snow but the caveat is I'm not actually a fan of this light a blue, so I probably would not actually ink a pen with this. I just happen to like the "branding" of the ink: it's an icy blue color with nice shimmer and a fun, albeit very on the nose, wintry name. Finally, I pick Pineapple Spritz as a runner up of sorts. It's a pigment shimmer ink, which is interesting. The yellow is a nice legible shade with pretty gold shimmer. But similar to Let it Snow, I don't usually write with yellow ink, and it's a pigment ink, so I doubt I will use this much at all. But it's nice to look at on paper. 🤷‍♀️

Final Thoughts

Swatching 3 sets of inks for Inkvent season was a lot. But it was an enjoyable activity leading up to Christmas that helped take my mind off of other stresses (😿). Now that I have 4 years of Diamine Inkvent inks, I really have to figure out what to do with the ones I don't use. It's totally out of hand! Next Inkvent is so far off, but I gotta figure out how to pare down my ink collection (of both Inkvent and regular inks) before then.

Colorvent

It was my first year swatching Colorvent, thanks to someone who sold samples of the whole set. I really could not justify buying the full set in addition to Diamine Inkvent. I had to resort to watching other people's swatching videos so that I could see what the box flap said for each ink (since the glitter potion for day 9 confused me 😅), but that wasn't a big deal. If memory serves, Colorvent started out pretty strong compared to Inkvent's initial inks. Even among people who were swatching both on YouTube, there seemed to be an opinion that Colorvent was giving Inkvent a run for its money. But then Colorvent ended on a bum note for me, so that put a damper on things.

I am also somewhat disappointed I don't have a full bottle for the Colorvent inks I like, because there's a risk that Colorverse won't produce full bottles for them if they aren't voted as top 3. At the very least, I hope Erebus Crater is made into a full bottle and is not a limited offering. It's a cool chromoshader that I haven't found a dupe for (yet).

Slackvent

I really liked the variety of the "Slackvent" ink swap I signed up for (second year of doing so), since the brands were varied. I got to try a few brands I hadn't before, which is cool. Funnily enough, one of my favorites from the batch was a Colorverse ink – New Mexico White Sands – which thankfully is a regular offering I can get a full bottle of.

Inkvent

Diamine really leaned into the new gimmick of pigment inks this year. It was interesting, but I'm wary of pigment inks in general, mainly because I tend to leave inks in pens for a long time, which is not advised for pigment inks.

Diamine's one-time gimmick of a Star Bright ink (super dense and bright shimmer) didn't make an appearance this year. I would've preferred that to the extreme sheens or the scented ink they released (please STOP).

I also really wish that the last ink of the set (a full 30mL bottle, mind you) weren't a super-dark one with both sheen and shimmer. That's been the pattern so far, and I haven't liked any of them. I'm in the minority, though, so I doubt they'll ever break the pattern. 😐 I would love to see more chromoshaders from Diamine. I think they can do them well, but I don't tend to see many of this kind of ink from the brand.

Well, hopefully y'all got closure out of this final round up, despite being rather late compared to Inkvent season. Now that a little time has passed, has your opinion of any of these inks changed, like mine did for some? Also, if you have any recommendations of what I should do with the Inkvent inks that I don't use, let me know! I need some help in wrangling my ink library. 😅

(Yes, I recognize that my nudge above to "buy me an ink sample" is a bit contradictory to my desire to wrangle my ink library, but I am also just realistic about my never-ending desire to try new inks. 😆)