Tono & Lims Dear Bear is a beautiful shader in delicious light and medium browns. It’s part of their Friendship series. The label shows a cute, stuffed toy bear, and the ink matches these pleasant shades perfectly. I really like this friendly, extremely useable ink.

Dear Bear is a lovely, warm blend of honey caramels and coffee browns, with a clear influence of sunshine yellow underneath. On coated premiums, the top halves of strokes show a beautiful butterscotch, while the lower halves bring out the deeper ambers. The splatter reveals a rich, blackened edge, and a powdery sheen. In writing, the edge becomes a mild stroke halo on premiums. This is a very pleasing, very attractive ink.

As a writing ink, it was flawless. It flowed comfortably, and strokes were sharp on all six test papers. I preferred coated premiums, as they showed the greatest variety in shading, and the strongest halo, but it’s great on office copy, too! Drying was fast at 10 seconds on most premiums, and under 5 seconds on office copy.

This is a beautiful ink, and a versatile, very comfortable writer. It’s a crowded market, in terms of color profile, with lots of good competition. However, Tono & Lims makes fantastic inks, and this is a great alternative to some of the more common browns. I could easily use Dear Bear as a daily ink. Enjoy!