De Atramentis Elderberry: Ink Review

De Atramentis Elderberry (also known as Elderberries) is a delightful berry colored ink with a refreshing fragrance. This is definitely a great ink for quick note taking, journaling, or creating artwork. Want to learn more? Read on!

Drawing Inspiration and Technique

Ink Review

• Flow- Dry
  • This ink is smooth and steady!
  • Flowed well while I wrote, but I found it to be slightly on the dry side.
  • The dry time is surprisingly fast!
• Dry Time- 10-15 Seconds
  • It took about 12 seconds to dry without smearing.
  • By the time I was done writing a sentence, most of it was already dry!
• Water Resistance- Medium
  • Putting water over it makes the color pigments wash away to a pink hue, but it does leave behind a dark line so the writing doesn't wash away completely.
• Shading- Low
  • This is a low shading, highly saturated ink.
  • Beautiful, deep, berry purple color with slight pink tones.
• How did the ink behave on other papers?
  • The ink behaves beautifully on both Tomoe and Leuchtturm paper. During normal notetaking, there's no feathering or ghosting.
• Special Features Worth Noting?
  • This is a scented ink and it's very nice!
  • Subtle and lightly floral
  • The scent wafts up very faintly occasionally while writing
  • mostly noticeable when opening the bottle
  • not noticeable on the page after the ink dries

Overall, I think this ink stood out to me the most for its scented properties, fast dry time, and color richness.

Comparable Inks

If you love the color of De Atramentis Elderberry but would like to try some inks with different properties, Check out:

• Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses– Very wet ink and a favorite among many fountain pen users.
• Platinum Classic Lavender Black– A modern iron gall ink with permanence properties.