Platinum Pigmented Rose Red - May 2015 Ink Drop
Pen: Pilot Metropolitan M
Paper: Rhodia Dotpad 80gsm
Shading: low to moderate
Saturation: low
Flow: medium
Dry Time: 15 seconds

The next ink in the Goulet Ink Drop this month unfortunately didn't appeal to me much in terms of color. If you know me personally you know that I'm not a fan of pink, and despite it being called "Rose Red," the ink is definitely pink rather than red. Platinum's Pigmented series of inks were created to be a fountain-pen friendly ink that is water-resistant. Vintage pigmented inks were not meant for use in fountain pens as they typically cause clogging. As I understand it, they contain "particles" which would cause clogging issues in the feed system. According to their website, Platinum's pigmented inks have "ultra-fine" particles, so that isn't an issue.

Pigmented inks are highly favored by the artist community for ink washing since they are waterproof. So if you are an artist, you should definitely check out this line. Platinum markets their pigmented inks as "quick-drying" but I just didn't find that to be the case. With my medium nib, it took 15 seconds to try, so if you're ink washing that might be a pain for you if you're trying to do things quickly.

Shading was fairly low with my medium nib. The ink isn't highly saturated from my experience, but it does flow nicely, though not extremely wet. As I mentioned the dry time is fairly high at 15 seconds, so it may not be well suited to left-handed writers. I did test the waterproofness and it performed quite well; so if you're looking to do some ink washing, this should do quite nicely for you.

Considering I don't care for pink inks, this one just didn't do it for me - but that doesn't mean it's not for you. Performance-wise it's a nicely behaved ink, and is as advertised. If you'd like to pick up a bottle, you can get 60mL for $20 at Goulet or a similar retailer.