First, Merry Christmas! And thanks for sharing your December with us. We love this community and love sharing our passions with you.
I am so excited to close Inkmas this year with my favorite inks for 2025. I went through my planner and the lists I make each month of the inks I used each month to get a good guage of the inks I chose most frequently. Then I did a little cross referencing but if you’ve been following along with my monthly planner posts, you probably know which colors popped to the top.
I kept a couple pens filled with Kaweco Caramel Brown and Monteverde Birthday Cake all year so I knew these inks would be towards the top of the list of most used inks.
In spot No. 3, PenBBS No 224 Leo Tolstoy was used a lot but I also swapped out with PenBBS No 342 Green Tea Matcha Ice Cream and Sailor Waka Uguisa which all fall into that yellow green ink color range that I love so much. Even the Kuretake Zsolnay Green fits into this category. Since both the Pen BBS inks are discontinued, I have been searching for alternatives like the Robert Oster Sinner’s Green or Taccia Earth Green which I think will both be reasonable replacements.
In spot No. 4, I put Vinta Summer Green 1908 Karnival which I used in the spring and summer this year. Its a unique green with hints of blue without being turquoise.
For Spot No. 5 is the new-ish Diamine Marley. I grabbed a bottle in July at one of the pen shows and keep finding an excuse to use it. I like that its a smokier purple while still having some shading and a little bit of multichroma.
The last few spots in my 2025 ink ranking are inks I really like this year even if they didn’t get used a ton. These are Yaching Style Bellflower, and Dominant Industry Seaweed and Unknown Land. Again, these were picked up at various pen shows this year and have been used frequently.
You’ll notice I lean to low saturated and cool ink colors. I try to break out each year for a month or so and use pinks, reds or oranges but I have been loving purple, olives and browns and I’m not sure how much my palette will change in 2026.
When I compare them to my favorite inks for 2024, I’m embarrassed to see how many duplicates there are between the two lists. I have to admit that I do continue to use Diamine Olive Swirl to sign my order invoices so if you ever ordered from the shop and wondered what ink I used… it’s Diamine Olive Swirl.
I am debating whether I should push beyond mt color preferences for 2026 but I don’t think I want to rock the boat. I love these colors and they make me want to write and use my journals and planners. If I get bored with these colors, I will definitely make a switch but for now, I love my palette.
What’s your palette or favorite ink colors?