Ten favorite inks, Nov 2025
I have 51 bottles of ink as of last counting, and a bunch of samples from various years. In the past, I frequently made lists for myself - what inks I would keep if I could only leave ten, twenty, five bottles. Five is way too few. Ten would be difficult, but doable. Twenty bottled inks is probably a good number for my ink library, but I have more than twice that number, and that feels quite comfortable. This year I’m sharing the joy of my internal listmaking here :) This ten favorite ink list reflects inks I enjoyed the most in 2025 and which were in repeated use this year, rather than favorite inks of all time.
In no particular order:
The ten inks in my Life A6 journal with cream paper.
Jacques Herbin Shogun - a magnificent black-brown with gold and silver shimmer, understated and special like a piece of old brocade sewn with stars and embers.
Diamine x Cult Pens Maple Leaf a rain-wet, glittering, fallen maple leaf.
Montblanc Moctezuma - this color gives me hope, it is invigorating, bold, without being garish; I love it in a broad italic.
A closeup of some of those inks. My camera continues to misbehave: Moctezuma is much brighter.
Montblanc Jane Austen - this was a tough choice between Jane and MB Elephant Gray, excuse me, 80 Days Brown. I got into greys* this year while thinking I was getting into browns. Neither greys nor browns have been a category for me before 2025; I’ve always been more into teal-greens and purples, but 2025 was the year of the muddy palette. MB Jane leans hard into the murky, color-shifting elegance of all things rich and understated, and it captured my imagination this year.
the gray/grey ink trio on Plotter paper
(*) grey is the British spelling and gray is the American spelling, but many people feel that there’s a difference in color between grey and gray, and I am one of those. Jane Austen is a grey. You can also argue that Jane is a dusky dark purple, a blue-black, or - forgive me - a brown; not a lot of people seem to agree with Montblanc’s claim that it’s umber. As for 80 days Brown, it’s gray.
Another closeup. Moctezuma shows up better on this one.
Teranishi Antique Black - new to me this year, and definitely a winner. I would describe the color as faded wrought iron.
Akkerman Steenrood van Vermeer - also new to me this year, this color has been sloshing in my Conid Wild Tiger. Beautiful brick color, well-behaved, and comes in a gorgeous bottle; I am on my second bulk fill.
Montblanc Origin Coral - this was a tough choice between Coral and Dragon Red, both have seen repeating inkings this year. I think MB really nailed the coral. It’s a gorgeous color, it makes me happy, and it is perfectly behaved.
Montblanc Great Gatsby was a greed-based purchase from the tail end of my “no guardrails 2024” ink acquisition phase, but I loved this ink from the moment it arrived. It was inked repeatedly through the first four months of the year. This ink reinforces my love of the teal-green category. The runner-up for the year is Oblation Sitka Spruce, a Papier Plume ink with a lovely color and aesthetic.
I think I’ll need to upgrade my phone soon. I’m sorry for the quality.
Diamine Salted Caramel was an inkvent 2024 shimmer I purchased in its 12ml sample form from the Gentleman Stationer. I’ve loved it so much I almost bought a bottle, but I need to do more art with it to see if a bottle is justified.
Taccia Ainezu - this was a late October inking. I have resisted this ink since 2021, when I first learned about its existence, but at that point I haven’t been writing with greys. The ink intrigued me, but I did not think I would use it. I almost bought a bottle multiple times. Early in 2025, I got a sample from Vanness, and forgot I even had it; in October I wanted to buy a few more Vanness samples and put Ainezu in my cart, but something nagged at me - yup, I already had it. So I inked it in my Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age. Wow. I guess I do need a bottle. I wondered if it might be too close to MB Jane, but then I tried them side by side, and they are not at all alike. In comparison, Jane is much darker and much more purple, almost a purpleblack. Ainezu is rain.
I feel this picture is pretty accurate to what I see on the page. Salted Caramel is lovely, and the shimmer is manageable.
Some of my friends and many reviewers claim that Ainezu is a blue black… to which I can only shake my head. I am outnumbered, but I just don’t see it.
The ten inks on Plotter paper, with a roadrunner friend.
This has been a year I got into greys while thinking I was getting into browns. I definitely added some browns - Teranishi Traveling Sepia, The Wet Pen Pacific Octopus - but it was the greys and that felt freshest in the lineup. Of course, we can count them differently - Shogun could be a brown, and Jane could be a brown, and 80 days Brown could (if you frown at it long enough) be a brown, and even my perennial burgundy favorite Encre du Desert is labelled “Marron” (brown), but please don’t ask me how. Teranishi Antique Black could be a brown, and Steenrood van Vermeer could be a brown. Cult Pens maple leaf, when stained by rot and rain, could be a brown. It could all be brown. But it wasn’t a year of browns for me after all. The glorious in-between colors ruled the year, the murk and the dark and the glimmer of them.
I inked my Kilk Yggdrasil with Shogun, and the next day I won the World Fantasy Award, which is represented by a tree. I should try this again with something else :) :) Top to bottom, Homo Sapiens Bronze Age (inked with Taccia Ainezu, perfect pairing), Montegrappa Mermaid with Diamine Blue Velvet, and Kilk Yggdrasil with Shogun. Bolo bear friend is enjoying the lineup. The bolo bear was a birthday addition to the Menagerie back in September :)
There is an overlap between “best ever” and “beloved and in use right now” - Shogun and Moctezuma would certainly make my top five. But other “best inks of all time” are not on the list - for example, Montblanc Homage to Stevenson, which has been in a near-constant rotation for years, has not been inked in 2025. Many of my favorite purples have taken a step back this year as well, such as Scribo Notturno Viola - but I’m sure I’ll come back to them in the future.
I might make this a regular series on the blog, so I’m adding “year planning” to the essay - let’s see how I feel next year.