Note: This is the fifth in a series of reviews on the five inks in J.Herbin’s“Les Subtiles” scented ink range. For an overview of the range and the review of the “Rouge” ink, see the first post in the series For a review of the “Ambre” ink, see the second post in the series. For a review of the Bleue ink, see the third post in the series. For a review of the Vert in, see the fourth post in the series.

I purchased the ink reviewed below from Pear Tree Pens as part of an official sample set from J. Herbin. The sample set contains 10ml glass bottles of each of the five inks in the range: Rouge, Bleue, Ambre, Vert, Violette.

The Violette ink of the “Les Subtiles” range is the purple of the range and is advertised as having a violette scent.

Scent: I’ve kept the best scent for last. The Violette ink has such a true violet scent that it brought tears to my eyes. I don’t have many good memories of my childhood, but burying my nose into a little posy of violets, given to me by my mother at the beginning of each Spring until I moved out of home, is one of them. I still try to find a posy for myself, each year, but it is almost impossible, these days – many florists don’t even know anything but African violets, now.  The scent of this ink is spot on – no soap, no powder, nothing but the pure, sweet scent of those tiny, humble, delicate-as-a-butterfly flowers. As with all of Les Subtiles range, the scent does not remain once it is dry, but it is certainly  strong enough to feel that I’m lying in a field of violets as I write.

Colour: This is a vibrant purple and is a little lighter than real violets, but it’s close. It’s a little too vibrant for me but I don’t care – that scent will have me coming back and using it in my purple blends. Waterman Purple is one of my favourite purples and I have put a few drops into what is left of my current bottle, not so much it changes the colour, just enough for the scent - it’s strong, it doesn’t take much.  (I hope the consistency issues I suspect after reading reviews of the other inks of the range on Fountain Pen Network don’t include this ink)

Conclusion: The colour is a little vibrant for me but the scent is perfect! I’ll be buying a full bottle of this to ad to my Waterman Purple and other Purple Blends.

Note: This is the fifth in a series of reviews on the five inks in J.Herbin’s“Les Subtiles” scented ink range. For an overview of the range and the review of the “Rouge” ink, see the first post in the series For a review of the “Ambre” ink, see the second post in the series. For [...]

Note: This is the fourth in a series of reviews on the five inks in J.Herbin’s“Les Subtiles” scented ink range. For an overview of the range and the review of the “Rouge” ink, see the first post in the series For a review of the “Ambre” ink, see the second post in the series. For [...]

Note: This is the third in a series of reviews on the five inks in J.Herbin’s “Les Subtiles” scented ink range. For an overview of the range and the review of the “Rouge” ink, see the first post in the series For a review of the “Ambre” ink, see the second post in the series. [...]

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The last few days, I’ve been playing with a little desktop photo processing toy which I discovered through one of the photography blogs I follow. It’s called Camera Bag and it’s a hoot! I believe it began as an iPhone app but it is now available for both Mac and PC desktops. Essentially, it applies [...]

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The last few days, I’ve been playing with a little desktop photo processing toy which I discovered through one of the photography blogs I follow. It’s called Camera Bag and it’s a hoot! I believe it began as an iPhone app but it is now available for both Mac and PC desktops. Essentially, it applies [...]

The very first day we arrived in Nagoya, on our house-hunt a month before we moved there, a building just down from the main JR Station junction caught my eye with it’s stunning spiral lines. I was told that it had only just been finished and that, among other things, it housed the local design [...]

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That is all.

In a post this week, Betsy Learner asked her readers to post a comment about their favourite local bookshops. It prompted from me a meander down Memory Lne, and, since I have been too busy settling into my fancy new Sydney life to write about said fancy new life (which I will do at some point soon), and also since I’d like for my latest post not to remain the one about my father, I thought I’d post what I wrote.