Ink Review: Monarca Inks Part 3

I have finally come to the last three inks in the new Monarca ink line. These inks are getting easier to find with more retailers carrying Monarca – Vanness received a batch lately, and Dromgoole’s still has them in stock.

The last three inks today are Cenote, Cardona, and Mar Caribe.

Cenote is a deep blue ink with a somewhat matte, pinkish sheen. It is close to Ferris Wheel Press Tanzenite Sky or Diamine Regency Blue, but the sheen factor is higher. One nice feature of Cenote – the ink never seemed to smear unlike most sheening inks.

Monarca Cardona is the other sheening ink in the line. The base color is a deep burgundy-magenta, close to Robert Oster’s Hot Pink while the sheen is like a toned down version of Cult Pens Robert, an ink that pushes sheen to the max. As with Cenote, I never saw the ink smear.

Monarca Mar Caribe is a beautiful light turquoise with plenty of shading potential. It is a bit lighter than Robert Oster Pacific Ocean Teal (a past special edition) but still dark enough for easy reading.

A lineup of the last three Monarca inks!

Once again I have the entire Monarca ink collection together, first on Cosmo Air Light paper:

Then on Tomoe River paper:

I have enjoyed showing the new inks! It is a great lineup of unusual colors for an introductory offering, but it is refreshing to see non-standard colors.

Each Monarca ink is priced at $20 for a 30mL bottle (except the special edition Rey Jaguar which is $29) and includes a small ink stand with a pen rest. You can find samples of Monarca inks at $4 for 4mL at Vanness as well.


DISCLAIMER: The ink in this review was provided free for the purpose of review. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

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