Troublemaker Ink Butterfly Dream Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)

What do butterflies dream of? Enchanted gardens, probably. Milkweed and big blossoms. Bottle that, and you have Troublemaker Ink Butterfly Dream, which has some enchantment of its own.

At first glance, it's a lovely dark green. Mossy, shady, dark enough to look nearly black, but with enough character to be interesting. In its lighter shades, it's a gem tone, like tourmaline or moldavite, an elegant green with an art nouveau attitude. And then you see the pop of blue shimmer, and look at the chromatography and fall even more in love. Rose pink, gold, lime green, and emerald all hide in this subtle tone. It drives home that tourmaline impression--like watermelon tourmaline. This is a complex color with a lot of subtlety in plain writing, but wildness when you turn it loose. It makes me want to fill pages.

The ink is on the dry side, with a bit of a dry feel and a super-fast drying time on the page. By 15 seconds, it was almost smudge-free, which would make it a great option for lefties. It was not unpleasantly dry to write with, though, and it flowed well, looking fabulous in any nib size.

There is a fair bit of shading to this ink, from that light bottle green to an almost black tone where it pools, and in the pools there's a deep blue shimmer that looks like magic.

When sprinkled with water, the green tones wash away, but the rose-colored undertones remain, so a tea spill may not eradicate all trace of writing, which is always good insurance.

The ink comes in a 60 ml plastic bottle. The rectangular shape makes it great for storage, but it can be a little tippy when filling, and the opening is on the narrower side. The bottle costs $24, which is an excellent deal.

This is the perfect blend of playful complexity in an ink that can be used in practical applications at work or for fun. It has merit for writers and artists alike. No wonder the butterflies like it so much.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Troublemaker Ink Mango Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)

I had to chisel my car out of ice this morning, so let's #KillWinterWithOrange. And this is a glorious orange.

Mango is the first ink I've tried from Troublemaker, so I was excited to dive in. The ink comes in a tall, rectangular plastic bottle with a narrow top. It may be a bit narrow for very wide pens, but it fit a standard width pen. The plastic bottle is lighter than glass ones, so it is a wee bit easier to knock over, which I almost did once, when filling. The bottle's shape is very convenient for storage, though. One could line up a lot of bottles in less shelf space than with thicker glass bottles with low profiles. The bottle looks small, but contains a whopping 60ml of ink. So while it's not my favorite bottle, it is one of the most practical for ink hoarding purposes.

Of course, it's what's inside the bottle that really counts. This ink is one for the stunningly shading, fiery, peppery, sunset family of oranges. The ones everyone goes bananas for, and for good reason. Where the ink is shallow, it's a pale mango color, but where it pools, it's a rich red-orange, and where it really pools, it's blaze red. Even where it's pale, it's very readable, and the shading makes for a visually fun effect. There is no shimmer, but that would be too much, given how much character the ink already has.

Chromatography showed what looked like an actual sunset--some soft peach hues with golds and orange.

The ink has very good flow, on the wetter side. It moves with less viscosity than some inks I've used, with drops of ink behaving more like water than many inks. Despite this, it didn't seem any more prone to feathering or bleeding.

Dry time was a bit long, close to 30 seconds. With dry times that long, I tend to reach for blotting paper more, but blotting this ink takes away some of that fabulous shading, so it's one of those times it's worth exercising a little ink-patience.

There was no water resistance, with the lines totally wiped out by a drop of water. Keep your cuppa tea away from these pages.

The 60ml bottle sells for $16.50 at Vanness Pens, which is a very good price. I will definitely be trying more Troublemaker inks. In fact--I inked up another today that looks just as promising. At this rate, I might just have to see how many of those bottles I can fit on a shelf.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

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Troublemaker Inks Petrichor Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

There are so many combination black inks available today — blue-black, blue-green, etc. — but gray combination inks are actually more exciting for my preferences. Mixing a gray ink with another color has potential for creating some really interesting shading effects if the formula is right. Today, we're looking at a gray-purple (or gray-green?) ink from Troublemaker Inks, who are based in the Philippines.

Petrichor is from Troublemaker's Shading collection, which features inks with (you guessed it) pronounced shading characteristics. Petrichor is a gray ink with a slight purple or green hue in some light. It's described as a gray-purple, but I don't think there's enough purple in this ink to really do the description justice. In most of my samples, it looks like a dusty gray that leans more toward green than purple. I really enjoy the color of this ink; it just isn't purple.

Since this ink is part of a collection that focuses on shading, it comes as no surprise that this ink has loads of shading. Even in small nibs, this ink shades easily. The color variation goes from a light semi-translucent gray-green to a darker gray with green and purple/blue tones. When it comes to shading, this ink does not disappoint.

Dry time is on the fairly slow side of the scale for this ink. In a medium nib, the ink was dry and smudge-resistant by 30 seconds. It smudges and smears easily under the 30-second mark, so this isn't a good choice for lefties or if you need to write and close your notebook quickly/frequently.

The characteristic of this ink that makes me hesitate the most when picking it up to use is the ink flow and lubrication. More than 90% of the inks I use are either in the middle of the scale for flow and lubrication, and I tend to like inks better if they are well-lubricated and flow easily. With Petrichor, it feels like ink supply is constricted even on pens that usually have no problem delivering lots of ink to the page. This also makes the nib feel a little dry when writing, which constantly makes me stop and think that I might have an ink flow problem. No, the ink is flowing just fine; it's just the ink formula is on the dry side and doesn't provide the amount of lubrication I like for writing. That's not to say it's a bad characteristic, but it is one that you should be aware of. If you want a dry ink with very controlled flow, this is great. If you want easy flow and a glossy feel when writing, this isn't for you.

The ink behaves well on paper. I haven't noticed any feathering or bleeding, and it starts right away. It's also easy to clean out of pens with just a water flush. I haven't experienced any weirdness with long-term storage in a pen either (meaning, no weird crusty build-up or other residue on the nib after it isn't used for a few days).

I've enjoyed the inks I've tried from Troublemaker Inks so far. This isn't my favorite by any stretch, but I still enjoy the color and shading that it offers. The dry flow takes some getting used to, but once I dialed in my writing speed and expectations, it keeps up just fine.

Petrichor is available in a 60ml bottle for $16.50, or as a 4ml sample vial for just $4. This is one of those inks where I'd really recommend going for the sample first. Given the color variation and dry flow, you need to be sure you like it before committing to such a large bottle. But, if you want the bottle, it's a great deal! Looking forward to trying more inks from Troublemaker Inks in the future.

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!