De Atramentis Oriental Red
Fountain Pen Ink
Handwritten Review
Pen: Pilot Vanishing Point – Binderized Medium Nib
Ink: De Atramentis Oriental Red
Paper: Rhodia DotPad, No. 16
Notes: I’m going to start by saying that I’m not the biggest fan of De Atramentis inks. I’ve tried a bunch of them, and they constantly fall flat for me for one reason or another. Oriental Red is no exception. On the Kyokuto paper that I was supposed to be switching to for good, this ink was HORRIBLE. Feathering, bleed through, you name it. I had to use up the last two pages in my Rhodia DotPad. The ink writes smooth on Rhodia and there’s some shading. This red isn’t too vibrant, and has a dull, muted look to it. There are a ton of other red inks that both look and perform a lot better than this one. The muted red reminds me of Diamine Monaco Red. If you like the shade, I would suggest going with the Diamine instead, it was much, much better behaved than this one. After writing the review, I flushed it out. No reason to keep using it, really. The only good thing I can say about the ink was that it cleaned out pretty easily, especially because some red inks can be tricky. They can’t all be winners…
Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures!
Pros:
- Nothing, really.
Cons:
- Super feathery, even on good paper
- Not well behaved
- Rhodia was the only paper that the ink worked well on
Gallery:
Related Reading:
edjelley.com - Fountain Pen, Ink, and Stationery Reviews 
I didn’t like this one, either. It just looks flat and boring. I didn’t have the bleed-through that you did, though. I reviewed on Rhodia, though. I don’t remember how much I used this ink otherwise.
Yeah, it was just blah. It was fine on Rhodia, everything else was awful haha. Not a big De Atramentis fan.
Such a shame. I have yet to find a red ink I like. I was going to try a sample of this, but your review has made me doubt. Oh well. Back to the drawing board…..
There are definitely much better out there. If you like the shade, try out Diamine Monaco Red or Rohrer and Klingner Morinda Red. Both are similar but with much better performance!