This is PenBBS No. 179 Serenity. Although Serenity is a lovely ink, this is a difficult review. Before I purchased a sample, I had seen a number of pictures of this ink online, and it looked really soft and serene. The pictures showed a beautiful, muted, lavender-blue multichromatic ink. The sample I received is quite different. It really doesn’t match the earlier images at all. I’ve included a picture of the sample vial to show the liquid ink’s color. This is a review of the ink I received, not the ink I expected.

As you can see from my images, the 179 Serenity I received is a bold, strong aqua-turquoise blue. It looks great on the page, with some shading and a decent stroke halo. There’s a fairly aggressive magenta sheen edging on the splatter, as well, but only hints appear in writing. It’s a very pleasant blue, and it will please a lot of people.

Serenity is also a very nice writing ink. It’s wet and flows comfortably, and it dries quickly, too. The halo makes it very well defined, and it’s easily and comfortably read without tiring your eyes.

Although it’s quite different from what I expected, I like this ink. In fact, I like it more than other similar PenBBS blues in my collection. This is the kind of blue that has a lot of fans, and for good reason! I’m happy to have the sample, but I wonder what would appear if I ordered a bottle.