Ink Review: Antigua’s Blue Night fountain pen ink

Antigua's Blue Night fountain pen ink review — **Antigua’s -** **Blue Night** - **Ink drop**

Antigua’s Blue Night is one of three blue inks (four if you include a teal) offered by Spanish brand Antigua’s. As the name suggests, it’s the darkest of the three, but it’s on the lighter end of the dark blue category.

Antigua's Blue Night fountain pen ink color variations — **Antigua’s - Blue Night - Color Range**

In color, it first brings to mind Iroshizuku’s Shin-kai, but it’s somewhere in the middle between Shin-kai and Iroshizuku Asa-gao. In the comparison image, it matches closely with Pelikan Royal Blue, but I think Blue Night has a friendlier personality. In some of the swatches, there’s a subtle hint of lavender in the lightest areas, and you can see why from the chromatography.

Antigua's Blue Night fountain pen ink on Cosmo Air Light paper — **Shading and Depth on Cosmo Air Light**

This isn’t a particularly strong shading ink on uncoated papers, but there’s enough variation to add highlights to stroke ends. Coated papers definitely provide more dramatic shading, which I prefer. As usual, I really like the results on Cosmo Air Snow paper (it’s hard to get, but it really shows off the best in almost any ink.)

Antigua's Blue Night fountain pen ink on Tomoe River paper — **Hits of Sheen on Tomoe River**

I didn’t have any problems with feathering other than a hint on Mnemosyne, but that was very minor. On cheap copy paper, it performed well, but in my juicy, medium nibbed TWSBI Vac700 there was notable show-through. Use a drier or finer nib on cheap papers if that’s a concern. Drying times were average of better on all papers.

This is a good-looking blue, and it performs well overall. It would make a nice choice for an everyday work ink. Antigua’s inks come in the 50 ml bottles most people will recognize from Pelikan’s Edelstein line. At EUR11.99 a bottle, Antigua’s inks are really attractively priced. You can find them at www.antiguas.es. (And good news! Starting in January 2024, full international shipping will be available!)

Antigua's Blue Night fountain pen ink writing samples — **Antigua’s -** **Blue Night - Writing Samples**

Special thanks to Miguel Angel at Antigua’s for providing the ink, and to Maria at www.inksinspiration.com for sending them as a surprise! Check out both of their websites!

Antigua's Blue Night fountain pen ink swatch card — **Antigua’s -** **Blue Night - Swatch Card**

Antigua's Blue Night fountain pen ink swatch comparisons — **Antigua’s -** **Blue Night - Comparisons**

Antigua's Blue Night fountain pen ink 50 ml bottle — **50 ml Bottle - (Image from www.antiguas.es)**

Antigua’s - Blue Night

Antigua’s - Moss Green

Antigua’s - Toffee