Sailor's Sailor Ocean Blue Ink

 

For the past 15 years, Sailor has been actively holding Ink Studio in-shop ink blending events all throughout Japan. These sought after events have always been a success with Japanese consumers lining up to have custom ink colors blended by their famed Sailor ink blender Osamu Ishimaru. To mark Sailor Ink Studio’s 15th year milestone - and to thank their loyal followers - Sailor will be releasing a special commemorative edition bottle ink – the Sailor’s sailor. This special edition bottle ink was originally intended to be sold solely within the Japanese domestic market, however Sailor has decided to extend the availability to North America as well. - Wonder Pens

Sailor's Ink Studio line comes in those tiny little bottles with crazy cool colors named after numbers, which is incredibly frustrating when there are 100 colors and you have to remember which ones you like (no. 1 - 100, basically). The names are numbers. They're beautiful, they're expensive, and I still want most of them. I have resigned myself to having four bottles in total. That might sound like a lot but it isn't when you consider most of my nibs write 1ml/minute.

The Sailor’s Sailor Ocean Blue has some notable differences from the regular Ink Studio line up: the bottle is larger, it's not just a plain white box, the ink has a name, and in comparison to the bottles I own, the color is pretty chill. The solid little box is really cute and while I'm not usually someone who likes presentation, this one is well done and is not excessive. In fact, I'd keep the little box and I'd reuse this bottle for sure.

The bottle is solid clear glass and holds 50 ml of ink with a little blue label and gold bowtie. The cap is faceted and it's really easy to get a grip on and thus, open. It's a pretty matte metallic blue-purple that is sort of iridescent? It's hard to describe so you can check out the picture, but overall, the presentation is really nice. The bottle is pretty heavy and is very stable on the desk. It's easy to fill from and because it's stable, there is no risk of tipping.

Ocean Blue is an attractive, vibrant, bright blue. I don't find it particularly unusual as far as blues go. It’s a lovely, very pure blue with medium sheen that matches the ink. I actually really like that.

It’s unusual for Sailor to have an ink in the Studio line up that isn’t 3429234 colors in one. Sometimes you just want a pure color. It's definitely work appropriate and I don't think it is boring. It has a surprising amount of water resistance, which makes it even better. It's a clean color that is not super duper saturated so I have not found it difficult to clean. If you have greasy residue inside a clear pen (for example, from a piston), the blue can cling to the residue but I was able to clean it out using a Q-tip.

Here's where I can shock you: this is probably the first ink I've ever used where I actually prefer it in the fine nib I inked instead of the super wet juicy music nib. Why? The music nib is dare I say almost too wet and just floods the color out. The fine nib has medium flow so I could see the shading better and it has a strange ethereal delicacy to it, like you're writing on tracing paper. It's really interesting.

I wasn’t planning to get this ink but the bottle was cute and a friend asked if I wanted to split some (in other words, this sad soul bought the bottle and I said oh can I just borrow this for pictures? ... *siphons ink into sample vials*).  Do you need it? If you need another blue, absolutely. It’s a pretty decent one. If you have 29384029348 blues, I’d suggest sharing it with a friend. You’ll have to share custody of the really cute bottle. ⁣

$55CAD at Wonder Pens

Last but not least my friends, if you enjoy these posts and/or my videos and you would like to support me in some way, please check me out on Patreon!