review: organics studio ernest's vintage writing fluid barkley's blue teal

We're looking at a new-to-me ink and brand!

Organics Studio has been around for a while, but went off the market for a couple of years while the founder finished graduate school (congratulations!). They're now back with a bunch of new inks, including some super-sheeners.

The name of this ink is quite a mouthful! Organics Studio has several lines of ink. Barkley's Blue Teal belongs to the Ernest's Vintage Writing Fluid line. According to the official website, the inks in this line were engineered with the Parker Vacumatic in mind, so they shouldn't stain anything and be easy to clean out.

Organics Studio Ernest's Vintage Writing Fluid Barkley's Blue Teal (or Teal Blue, according to the official website) is as its name suggests: it's a dusty teal color that leans more blue than green.

For information on how I do my reviews, please visit my policy page.

Barkley's Blue Teal is somewhat waterproof. Some of the ink lifts off of the page, but there's still enough of the light blue/turquoise left underneath that you can read what's left.

This ink is dry before the 60 second mark. I would say that in finer nibs it takes about 30-45 seconds to dry on papers like Rhodia.

There's no sheen at all.

The shading is much more dramatic on Tomoe River paper. Here, it goes from a dusty light blue to a deep teal. It's much more blue on this white paper.

I have quite a few blues, as you can tell. It's a minor problem. Noodler's Air corp Blue Black seems close, though more blue and a little deeper, but I've found that in practice it's nothing like the swab. De Atramentis Pigeon Blue is also very close, though it's more saturated. Diamine Teal is deeper. Diamine Marine is much more turquoise. Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-ro is more green and has red sheen.

I have this ink my Lamy Safari with a broad nib, and they've been playing very well. My Safari is pretty average for Lamy pens, which is to say quite wet, but that's definitely something that I prefer.

Overall, I quite like the color of Barkley's Blue Teal. I have so many blues and blue-greens that the chances of me picking up a bottle of this are pretty slim, but I'm definitely enjoying it while it's getting used!

Where to buy

I purchased this sample from Pen Chalet.

• Pen Chalet: bottle / sample