J. Herbin is a a French company that has existed since 1670. They claim on their about page that their standard line, La Perle de Encres, has been made since 1700! The company also makes sealing wax and accessories.
In 2010, J. Herbin released the first of what would become a fountain pen community darling: Rouge Hematite. I'm not sure if Rouge Hematite was the first sparkling fountain pen ink, but I certainly think it spawned an obsession that has only recently started to taper off a bit. Sheening inks have been the go-to "fad," but there's still plenty of glittery inks that are pretty recent releases.
J. Herbin 1670 Emerald of Chivor is part of the 1670 line, which celebrates the company's anniversary. It comes in a chunky, square 50ml bottle. It's a beautiful piece of glass, boldly sitting on your desk for you to fawn over. The cap is covered in a teal wax, matched by the seal in front. The bottle opening is quite narrow: you're gonna have trouble fitting your wider pens in it. A TWSBI makes it, but just barely.
Emerald of Chivor was released in 2015, and it immediately became a massively popular ink. I'm a little biased, but I totally think this hype was warranted. It's a teal that leans green in the darker parts of its shading, but turquoise in the lighter parts. And, of course, it has a healthy dose of gold-colored shimmer.
Emerald of Chivor takes forever to dry. It's a very wet ink. I haven't really used this ink in a nib that isn't ridiculously broad or wet, so I can't say for sure how long it takes in normal use. But if you're using this ink in anything finer than a broad nib, you're totally missing out!
The ink has no waterproof resistance at all, happily melting into a turquoise puddle at the very first touch of water. It's quite a strong color though; perhaps it would be interesting to use this ink in a watercolor application?
Emerald of Chivor also has quite a bit of red sheen, even in the finer nibs used in the scan. It isn't anywhere close to the sheen monsters that have come out lately, like in the Krishna line of inks, but I think it's a lovely effect.
And, of course, the shimmer. This ink is full of very fine gold glitter. This certainly leads to a couple of precautions that you should take: before you fill a pen with this ink, make sure you give it a good shake to suspend the shimmer in the liquid. Immediately uncap the ink and fill your pen: you don't want to give the shimmer any time to settle. When you pick up the pen after an extended amount of time, roll it in your palms to get the particles floating again; if you're writing for an extended period of time, be sure to do this a few times.
I personally would suggest laying your pen flat rather than upright for storage, so the shimmer doesn't settle directly into the feed. I don't know if this is helpful, but to my brain, it seems logical! The gold particles don't worry me very much, but some people err on the side of caution and there's nothing wrong with that. I definitely wouldn't put this ink in a pen I couldn't completely take apart. However, if you take cake care of your pens well, shimmery inks shouldn't cause any clogs or issues.
You might be wondering why I saved this ink for so long: I filled this pen last month, and it was probably the second or third time I've actually used it despite having it for about two years. I struggle with wanting to hoard the nice things I have, because I think, "If I use it now, I won't have it for later." I'm trying to pull myself out of that kind of thinking.
The idea of saving something for a rainy day implies that you have to do something extraordinary to treat yourself. Doing nice things for yourself isn't a reward: it's the backbone of your self-care. So fill that pen with a special ink, or use that face mask, or spend a little time writing a journal entry. Take care of yourself.
Where to buy
I bought this ink from Plain Stationery in Taipei, but here are some other retailers I shop at that carry it.
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