Once upon a time, Vinta Ink was the darling of the pen world. They came onto the market with pretty bottles, history baked into their color choices and a beautiful array of multichromatic, sheening and shimmer inks before many of the popular inks of today (like Ferris Wheel and Wearinguel). Other brands may have existed but Vinta grabbed the attention of the pen community.
Maskara was the darling and one of the first washy, multichromatic inks on the market — well before Sailor Studio 123 took the market by storm. We wrote a brand overview back in 2019 and have never stopped loving them. This summer, I grabbed a handful of colors I had not previously acquired from Vinta and fell in love all over again.
I grabbed bottles of Carlos 1960 Emerald, Nakar 1934 Mother of Pearl, Holen 1946 Marbles (Hello Rai collection) and Ubi 1663 Mulberry. I added them to my previous collection of Karnival 1908 Summer Green, Sirena 1952 Sirena, Armada 1944 Aegean and Tabuan 2022 Purple Sea Star.
Ubi was the only sheener of the four and is a deep plummy purple. Nakar and Holen were both shimmer inks and both in the greyish color family, Nakar being a little more dark grey (with a hint of purple and green) and Holen being a little more grey-blue. Carlos was the only standard ink and its a dark, forest-y green. Carlos does shade but its a pretty dark color so YMMV.
I definitely appear to favor the cooler colors in the Vinta ink line-up. They do have other ink color options, I just like to hang out in my swampy, deep sea, stormy sky world.
Nakar has silver shimmer and Holen features a blue shimmer, both of which can be challenging to photograph.
When doing a color comparison, Ubi has some similarities to J. Herbin Poussiere de Lune and Montblanc Lavender Purple but the pronounced sheen of Ubi makes it hard to make a true comparison. I’d suggest that if you like the shade of Ubi but are not interested in sheen, consider the J. Herbin or Montblanc inks as alternatives.
Probably the closest comp I could find to Carlos is Colorverse Crab Nebula (#90) but Van Dieman’s Styx Valley is also a contender but a bit lighter.
Trying to find a comp to a shimmer ink is often challenging because the ink colors might be similar but a different color shimmer particle will throw off the comparison. So I found Birmingham Pen Co Steamboat Twinkle is a fairly close match but has silver shimmer. Birmingham’s Kier Refinery Petroleum is similar to the base color without the shimmer.
With Nakar, I was able to find two similar shimmer inks — similar in base ink color but NOT in shimmer. J. Herbin Stormy Grey features gold shimmer as does Van Dieman’s Midnight Sky. So the effect is notable different.
My ink comparisons are using what I have in my stash and does not represent the entirety of inks available ever. If I find two or more similar inks, I try to choose the one that is more readily available when possible.
In closing, I am delighted to have more Vinta inks in my stash. Of all the brands people are talking about lately, I feel like Vinta is not as popular or noted despite making good quality inks.
My only complaint is, despite their bottles being pretty and well-designed aesthetically, the text is often very hard to read on the bottles, especially the specific name in the sepia script type. Vinta inks start at about $16 per bottle for a 30ml bottle.
Have you tried any Vinta inks? What are your favorite shades?
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Dromgoole’s for the purpose of review. It does not look like Dromgoole’s is currently stocking Vinta Inks so I recommend shopping around to reputable online retailers to find one that is currently stocking Vinta. Please see the About page for more details.
