It wasn't too long ago that I covered Emerald of Chivor, but here's a little background anyway. The J. Herbin Anniversary inks—which started with Rouge Hematite—are a celebration of J. Herbin's nearly 350 years in existence. J. Herbin 1670 Anniversary Stormy Grey continues in that tradition.
Stormy Grey comes packaged in a 50 ml glass bottle with a wax seal on the front bearing the 1670 logo. The cap is also dipped in wax, though it's supple enough that it won't crack. There's also a silver thread tied around the neck of the bottle and fastened under the wax seal. The opening is quite small, so thicker pens will have trouble fitting. However, it's a beautiful bottle. It seems fair to want to display it.
Stormy Grey is the color of graphite, a neutral gray that is quite dark. It has a hefty amount of golden glitter as well.
Stormy Grey takes a while to dry; longer than 15 seconds, and closer to 45. It has a little bit of water resistance, but I certainly wouldn't go around boldly dunking my notebook in bowls of water.
The ink doesn't shade very much. There's a hint of it, but not enough for me to call it a shading ink.
Most importantly here is that Stormy Grey has a hefty serving of gold glitter in it. I think the glitter stands out quite well against the somewhat dark gray of the ink. However, even when it's not too vibrant, it's a very curious and fascinating thing to glance at. I'm definitely a fan.
I think the scan is quite close to what the ink looks like in reality, but I wanted to show off the look of the glitter. I think it's probably one of the more subtle 1670 anniversary inks—Emerald of Chivor sheens wildly, and it seems to my eye to make the glitter stand out more—but I think Stormy Grey is usable in more situations. I probably wouldn't use this ink to take notes at work, but maybe I would if I was feeling fancy.
I had this ink in my Lamy Al-Star with a 1.1mm nib for a while. You can't take the feed out of the Al-Star, but I it's quite easy to clean Lamy pens, in my experience. I imagine that even if you did leave glitter in the feed, the amount would be practically infinitesimal, easily flushed out with the words of your next fill of ink—and maybe it's quite nice, you know. Just to have some glitter somewhere you don't expect.
Where to buy
- Goulet Pens: sample / bottle
- JetPens: sample / bottle
- Pen Chalet: sample / bottle
- Wonder Pens: sample and bottle
J. Herbin is in the process of rebranding. As far as I know, their inks will be named Herbin from now on. They have released a new glitter ink line with silver glitter called Jacques Herbin 1798. From what I understand, the 1670 line will be called either Herbin 1670 or simply 1670. Information is a bit scant on this, but essentially they're dropping the J. part of their name.
Glitter ink? I must try that. Thanks for the review!
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