Private Reserve Avacado - June 2015 Ink Drop
Pen: Lamy Al Star (F)
Paper: Rhodia Dotpad 80gsm
Shading: high
Saturation: high
Flow: wet
Dry Time: 14 seconds

The final ink in this month's Ink Drop is Private Reserve Avacado. I've actually had a bottle of this ink for a while now, but just hadn't gotten around to writing up a review. I forget where I first learned of this ink - I want to say it was SBREBrown's Inkcyclopedia, but I'm not certain. What drew me to it was its very unique color. It is a nice deep green, but rather than being a flat dark green, it has a distinct yellow undertone in lighter areas. It gives some cool color patterns in the ink and sets it apart from all other dark greens I've used.

You may notice that the ink's name "Avacado" is spelled incorrectly. I've not found a story on why this is the case, but I suspect it was an accidental misspelling. Private Reserve's website now spells the word correctly (Avocado), but it seems they haven't gotten around to changing the labels (or I just happened to get one of the older ones). I'm kinda glad I got a bottle of the old label, just so I have it.

The ink is very well behaved on my Rhodia pad. No feathering or bleedthrough. Luckily the ink has no noticeable spread either, and despite it's high saturation level, it does have some great shading. Very unique.

The chromatography was neat as well. Yellow and orange is the main component, with a tiny touch of red and blue.

As unique as this ink is, it doesn't compare to anything I've seen. The closest I've used so far is KWZI Foggy Green, which is darker with more blue undertones.

One thing I have noticed with this ink is that it tends to crust up under the cap of the bottle. I'm assuming this is a result of the cap letting tiny bits of air inside, as I've had this ink loaded in a pen for a while and luckily haven't had any crusting issues. Each time I open the bottle I have to take a paper towel and scrape the ink crust off the edges of the top of the glass - kind of a pain, but at least it's not ruining my pens.

I highly recommend you try this ink out if you're a fan of greens. It's got a very unique color and the shading is awesome. You can pick up a 66ml bottle for $11.

Thanks for reading!
Lori