Ink Review: Diplomat inks

Diplomat inks just became available through Vanness Pens, so of course I grabbed samples of each. But this is not a small lineup of inks. 15 inks actually.

I’ve broken the inks into groups of five so the colors can be compared to each other and to already familiar inks.

The first group is Black, Sepia Black, Pine Tree, Caramel, and Orange.

Diplomat Black is much more accurately called a blue-black ink.

Sepia Black is very close to Kobe Antique Sepia but has more shading.

Diplomat Caramel is quite close to the ever-popular KWZ Meet Me In St. Louis from 2019 – Butterscotch. the colors are nearly identical but Caramel has great shading.

Diplomat Pine Tree was actually tough to match. Not only is it a strange-ish color but also looks different in every light. Bungubox Nostalgia was the closest I could find that is similar in more lighting.

Diplomat Orange is just like Bungubox Fresh Oranges. Orange is a good option since it is cheaper, not to mention the fact that Fresh Oranges is currently not produced!

The second set of inks includes Diplomat Moss Green, Deep Green, Caribbean, Royal Blue, and Deep Blue.

Diplomat Moss Green has a base color identical to Diamine Ultra Green but the shading and sheen are close to Monteverde Green.

Diplomat Deep Green has a base color just like that of Monteverde California Teal with shading and sheen similar to Lamy Crystal Peridot.

Diplomat Caribbean is a touch darker than Kobe #48 Water Source Marche.

Diplomat Royal Blue and Deep Blue have the same base color which is close to Monteverde Blue (now called Malibu Blue). Royal Blue is closer to a washable blue while Deep Blue is what I would call a Royal Blue.

The final set of Diplomat inks contains Red, Burgundy, Orchid, Purple, and Lilac.

Diplomat Red is a slightly more saturated version of Diamine Classic Red. A bit on the pink side of a true red.

I believe Diplomat Burgundy is closer to true red than Diplomat Red. Diamine Red Dragon is a close match.

Diplomat Orchid would be better named Hot Pink. It is nearly identical to Bungubox Sweet Love Pink, complete with gold halo sheen.

Diplomat Purple is a bit less saturated than Manyo Akebi but has a hint of the same sheen.

Diplomat Lilac is a wonderful purple similar to Papier Plume Violet although a touch less blue.

So that concludes the overview of all 15 Diplomat inks. I swatched each ink in both Tomoe River 52 gsm Paper and Cosmo Air Light 83 gsm paper to give you an idea of the colors on each paper type.

I covered up one swatch which made it into these pages but isn’t part of the Diplomat ink line. Oops!

Finally, here are all 15 Diplomat ink swatch cards. In my opinion, Lilac and Orchid are absolutely the best inks in the line, with Sepia Black and Pine Tree being the most original colors. Other than disputing the color names, I have nothing bad to say about the new Diplomat inks! As I use them further, I’ll post other reviews diving deeper into individual colors and their performance in a pen. Hopefully, though, this helps when browsing for a new ink!

• Swatch Cards: Col-o-ring cards (100 for $10)
• Paper: Musubi Tomoe River Folio and Musubi Cosmo Air Light Folio (Approximately $35 for 384 pages and $25 for 208 pages)
• Ink: Diplomat inks ($11 for 30mL each or $2.60 for 4mL sample)

DISCLAIMER:  The inks in this review were provided at a discount by Vanness Pens for the purpose of this review.  All other items in this review were purchased by me.  Please see the About page for more details.