Sailor Shikiori Fountain Pen Ink Cartridges Make Great Gifts! Also, They're Very Adorable.

Sailor keeps changing things up with their fountain pen inks - the ink used to come in those squat little 50 ml with the plastic cup inside, then without the cup, then they discontinue them, then they re-release them at a higher price, then they remove the cup (ok, that was a good move), then they drop them to 20 ml and they are expensive per ml. The most recent launch is the set of 20 Shikiori ink colors in adorable little portable cases with three cartridges inside. They're silly and adorable and I am a sucker for cute things like this, even though I certainly do not need them. I convinced myself using a few arguments but one was that having a few Sailor cartridges on hand that are not Sailor black (the standard that comes with a fountain pen). 

I was at Take Note just a few days ago and saw them on the shelf. Le sigh. They just have the look of tidy and simple that appeals to me. The entire set is so organized and looks so appealing and I am just a big sucker for this. Soooo as I said, I didn't need them but they come in this tiny adorable little carry case with a tiny adorable little sleeve and they were sitting in their little bookshelf home urging me to select some of them. ONEOFUS.ONEOFUS. Except it's four of them and I ended up with: Okuyama, Rikyucha, Sakuramori, and Yamadori. I don't need the whole set so I just picked out a few of my favorites and I haven't even tried Sakuramori before so this was for science so I had no choice. ⁣

Yamadori is a favorite of mine - Copper Pheasant Teal - sounds like the name from one of those weird memes where your day/month/year of birth = Copper/Pheasant/Teal. Um. Wikipedia says the copper pheasant, or the Soemmerring's pheasant (Syrmaticus soemmerringii) is endemic to Japan the name makes sense. It's a stunning blue-green teal with red sheen. 

Each individual box at Take Note is $9CAD - none of Sailor's ink is inexpensive but I these are a neat novelty for me and I'll definitely use them and reuse the cartridges. The full set is $165CAD at Take Note but I love that Jolanta has made the individual colors available for purchase. I can't drop 165 right now for the full set but I can split a few boxes with a friend or two and it's not too bad. 

Rikyucha - Tea Green Brown - is a strange green brown motor oil-type color that shades well and looks fantastic in a wide, wet nib like a Pilot Parallel. I have so few colors like this. Come to think of it, this is the only ink I have in this color family, which would be ... green? Brown? Breen? I guess Tea Green Brown is an apt name.

Okuyama - Remote Mountain - is a red-brown-magenta-bordeaux? I'm really not good at describing colors but I am very good at being thrilled by them. Last but not least, Sakuramori caught my eye because it just looks like a sweet, happy little pink. It is Cherry Blossom Pink, which does not surprise me in the least because by now, I know what sakura is, and it also looks like a pink cherry blossom. I'm expecting a nice soft pink. I have obviously not swatched all these new ones and I happened to have a smear of Rikyucha but I obviously was not ready to pop these bad boys in a pen. 

The best part about these is I think they are a superb gift idea! The back of the box has a little picture on how to use the cartridge and I feel like these are just easier to understand than if you give a newbie a fountain pen, converter, and a bottle of ink. The cartridge is more convenient to travel with and everything. Of course, Sailor cartridges are not a new thing but up to now, it has just been the standard range of colors - black, blue - useful but not thrilling for me. FINALLY! Some fun Sailor cartridges!