LAMY darkish lilac is Once more!

LAMY darkish lilac ink (2024 mannequin) on Tomoe River 52gsm paper, a purple ink with a inexperienced sheen

The fountain pen world was rocked in 2016 with the discharge of LAMY darkish lilac, a selected model ink matching the safari fountain pen for the 12 months. It was terribly frequent, and loads of missed out. It even broke our site when it launched! This ink turned the stuff of legends; it was wished at pen reveals, and all through the online. Sadly, it was an particularly restricted launch and as quickly because it was gone, it was gone.

As we converse we’re excited to announce that LAMY is bringing once more darkish lilac. There have been whispers of this re-release on the net for days, so we wanted to confirm to share the official information as we have it.

LAMY understood the demand to ship once more this cult fundamental, and decided to make it a eternal part of their T52 ink assortment. Nonetheless, ensuing from modifications in coloration pigments and manufacturing limitations, replicating the exact shade turned an issue.

Our Quick Comparability – 2024 vs 2016

We’re calling it a “re-imagined” coloration. To our eye, it’s pretty comparable in coloration when written in a pen, though you may even see the color variance additional in a carefully saturated swab. Primarily essentially the most noticeable distinction is that the sheen is stronger and leans additional inexperienced than gold.

The vibrancy of the purple is barely lowered throughout the new ink as compared with the distinctive, which will be most noticeable on very ink-resistant, vibrant white paper. The purple coloration leans a tad additional brown the place the distinctive leaned a bit additional magenta.

These variations are fairly refined nonetheless worth noting given the coveted nature of the distinctive ink. We gained’t try and say it’s exactly the similar, nonetheless it’s a wonderful faith effort to homage the distinctive coloration and for a lot of who’re truly into heavy sheening inks (which seems to be a bit additional en vogue as of late) you could possibly even identical to the 2024 ink increased.

Scroll on proper right down to see our full ink overview and comparisons within the course of the highest of this weblog put up!

Why the Change?

One in every of many key pigment parts important for the distinctive darkish lilac ink has been discontinued, making it unattainable to recreate the exact coloration. No matter efforts to match the distinctive shade, there is a slight variation throughout the new formulation.

Whatever the color variation, LAMY has decided to keep up the title “darkish lilac” as a technical coloration indication all through the T52 ink family. This willpower ensures that followers of the distinctive ink can nonetheless have the benefit of the identical hue, even when it is not an precise duplicate.

LAMY darkish lilac ink (2024 mannequin) on Tomoe River paper, a purple ink with a inexperienced sheen

Assertion & FAQs from LAMY

As LAMY continues to innovate and adapt to modifications throughout the enterprise, the evolution of their ink colors will be an ongoing course of. Whereas some beloved shades may bear modifications, the dedication to top quality and excellence stays on the core of LAMY’s mission.

That is the official assertion from LAMY along with their FAQs:

“After the worldwide success of the cult favorite T52 darkish lilac in 2016, It was essential for LAMY to revive this distinctive ink and make it fully accessible to most of the people. Given the character of coloration pigments and manufacturing modifications, we had been unable to exactly replicate the beloved ink. Whereas we tried to breed the similar shade of ink, the manufacturing for one among many key pigment parts has been stopped. Although there is a slight coloration variation and by no means an precise duplicate of the distinctive, we have decided to keep up the title as it is a purely technical coloration indication like all inks all through the LAMY T52 family.”- LAMY Germany

(Q) Is the 2024 darkish lilac the similar coloration formulation as a result of the 2016 darkish lilac?

(A) The shade is predominantly the similar, nonetheless the parts differ. The elements and coloration pigments such as a result of the pink dye required for this ink should not accessible, giving the ink a barely fully completely different colored sheen.

(Q) What is the distinction between the 2016 darkish lilac and the 2024 darkish lilac?

(A) Offered that the pink dye used throughout the distinctive manufacturing was not used, the precept distinction between the 2016 and 2024 manufacturing is the sheen which dries inexperienced barely than gold as throughout the distinctive manufacturing.

(Q) Why is the 2024 darkish lilac named after the 2016 ink?

(A) Our intent was to ship once more a beloved and cult favorite. Although there is a sligh coloration variation and by no means an precise duplicate of the distinctive, we have deccide dot protect the title as it is a purely technical coloration indication like all inks all through the LAMY T52 family.

(Q) Will the 2024 darkish lilac be a worldwide regular product or a restricted model?

(A) It is part of the standard assortment, accessible worldwide.

So that’s the backstory, thanks for hanging in there. Normally there’s not this rather a lot pleasure spherical one coloration of ink, nonetheless that’s pretty specific.

Ink Evaluation

Gives Used:

Smear Examine (Dry Time):

• 10-15 seconds – That’s reasonably quick; quicker than I might need thought with ink this darkish and with this rather a lot sheen.

Drip Examine (Water Resistance):

• Medium – This ink isn’t considerably waterproof, nonetheless nonetheless readable if it can get moist. It seems as if the model new ink is a little bit of pinker and releases a bit additional ink when moist than the distinctive LAMY darkish lilac. I really feel for anyone doing ink washing or using inks for watercolor, you’d just like the model new ink increased.

Saturation:

• Extreme – When swabbing all through the online web page quite a lot of cases, it’s possible you’ll’t inform any distinction throughout the coloration. What you may even see is a bit more of the sheen when making use of quite a lot of coats, and that’s additional pronounced with the model new ink than the distinctive. The 2016 darkish lilac and the 2024 darkish lilac are pretty carefully saturated.

Ease of Cleaning:

• Medium – Purple inks often could take a bit of additional work to scrub, notably as soon as they’re this saturated. This one doesn’t cling to the converter nonetheless it does want to go away a greenish sheen coating on the feed. This isn’t exhausting to remove, nonetheless could take some bodily wiping with a towel, cleaning with a Goulet Feed Brush, or using some pen flush to completely eliminate the sheen. On this respect it’s a tad additional work to scrub than the distinctive, nonetheless no more durable than another extraordinarily sheening ink.

Shading:

• Very Low – You’re not going to get rather a lot shading out of this ink on nearly any paper attributable to how darkish it is. As we’ve said sooner than, what you will get is sheen. The heavier you place it down and the additional ink resistant the paper, the additional of that inexperienced sheen will current.

Circulation:

• Low-Medium – The flow into seems pretty fixed between the two inks, the distinctive (2016) felt pretty dry on the net web page to me. The 2024 is just a tiny bit wetter, nonetheless there’s not an unlimited distinction. It’s not a wonderful gushy ink.  I actually really feel desire it leans a bit of additional to the dry side. It wrote persistently nonetheless didn’t actually really feel desire it was dashing out of the pen. If one thing, it felt like I was feeling a bit additional drag from the nib than I do with one other inks.

Comparisons to completely different LAMY purple inks

2024 darkish lilac

• Barely browner than the 2016 ink, appears to be a bit desaturated on some papers on account of heavy sheen, it type of washes out the purple
• Further absorbent paper and finer nibs, it’ll be more durable to tell a variety of a distinction between it and the distinctive, nonetheless everytime you pour additional ink on, that’s when it’s possible you’ll inform
• To my eyes, the model new darkish lilac really falls between the 2016 ink and the model new blackberry. These are all nice colors.

2016 darkish lilac (not accessible)

• Is barely brighter/additional magenta than the model new ink or blackberry, not as vibrant as Azurite
• Slight gold sheen, nonetheless you’ll practically under no circumstances see it, you’ve gotta truly dump it on some ink resistant paper to even see a sheen

blackberry (2024 SE)

• The least vibrant of the 4 inks, leans basically essentially the most brown
• Sheen is additional gold/brown, heavier than OG darkish lilac
• Not as a variety of a night/day distinction with the model new darkish lilac in some lights, nonetheless the fully completely different coloration sheens make it look pretty fully completely different. This ink is specific model and gained’t be spherical ongoing.

azurite

• Most vibrant purple out of the group moreover has the brightest inexperienced sheen, it’s a surprising ink nonetheless stands proud basically essentially the most out of these 4 inks.

Check out our Swab Retailer the place it’s possible you’ll look at our ink colors side-by-side.

LAMY darkish lilac ink (2024 mannequin), a purple ink showcasing a heavy inexperienced sheen

Summary:

I can’t sit proper right here and allow you to know that’s exactly what you’ve been prepared for do you have to missed out on the distinctive ink. To the casual observer, they’re every darkish purple inks. I’m a pen nut myself, you and I every know that these refined variations may make or break an ink for us pen fanatics. We in the intervening time have spherical 120 purple inks accessible on our site, and it’s the refined variations that distinguish them.

2024 darkish lilac is a definite ink than 2016, and we’re merely going to have to easily settle for that. The exact distinctive system of darkish lilac will not be doable. I take into account LAMY as soon as they are saying they did their biggest they often had been attempting to get as close to the distinctive as they might. I don’t fault them for the variance in coloration. I’ve seen it happen with completely different ink producers the place a raw factor modifications or isn’t accessible anymore and the color shifts a bit on a given ink. This isn’t uncommon, it’s merely truly on present proper right here for LAMY with darkish lilac, primarily on account of legendary nature of the distinctive 2016 ink.

To LAMY’s credit score rating, within the occasion that that they had been attempting to capitalize on the legacy and demand of the distinctive darkish lilac, they’d have made an unlimited fanfare and announcement of the ink successfully sooner than the discharge, gotten everyone all overestimated about it, after which downplayed the variance from between the model new and the outdated coloration or just outright denied it. They did the choice; they didn’t have any fanfare the least bit and arguably waited too prolonged to make any public announcement in regards to the re-release. After they did announce it they immediately disclosed the color variance and why it occurred sooner than the ink was globally distributed. They seem actual on this entire endeavor and I acknowledge that.

As I wrap up I want to thank everyone throughout the pen group who has such pleasure and enthusiasm spherical this ink and fountain pens often. After having been on this enterprise for over 14 years, it under no circumstances ceases to amaze me how passionate this group is. It’s my honor to get to be a part of that and to serve you all with content material materials like this.

LAMY darkish lilac is now accessible in 50ml bottles and our 2ml samples.

LAMY darkish lilac ink (2024 mannequin) on Tomoe River paper, a purple ink with a inexperienced sheen

Posted by Brian Goulet