This ink comes in beautiful packaging – a white textured box with gold and teal foiling that displays images of mermaids, whales and tropical beaches… I don’t think the newer bottles have the same whimsical packaging though. Everything seems to have been updated to a standard more modern grey box.
J. Herbin 1670 Emerald of Chivor Box Back 
J. Herbin 1670 Emerald of Chivor Box Side 
J. Herbin 1670 Emerald of Chivor Box Side 
J. Herbin 1670 Emerald of Chivor Box Design Front
The bottle is glass and beautifully designed, it features a wax dipped cap and a wax seal on the front which gives a lot of character and uniqueness to the overall design.
The opening is small though, so filling a big pen could be a challenge – but I believe the size has been increased with the newer bottles. The wax on the cap also had a tendency to crack, but overall I think the packaging defiantly evokes the old school feeling of traditional ink wells and wax seals that were originally used to send letters.
I have a love hate relationship with this ink. On the one hand, I love this colour – its a stunning dark teal with these beautiful flecks of gold and a red sheen that can sometimes appear as if by magic depending on the paper used.
If the concentration of shimmer is high, it makes parts of the text look lime green, where the shimmer is more sparse it adds a beautiful dusting of dimension that isn’t immediately visible. (Unless you in sunlight obviously)
On the other hand, in my experience this is not a well behaved ink. In anything other then a fine/medium nib it tends to feather on me, and in all wet writing pens it bleeds through Rhodia.
I have the same issue with Diamine Snow Storm. I don’t know why some shimmers perform flawlessly, and others tend to feather and bleed even within the same brand.
My only guesses would be that if the ink contains a higher ratio of shimmer, then maybe the companies make the ink ‘thinner’ as to not block the feed? Or perhaps its just a characteristic of certain pigments?
The really nice thing about this ink is that even if you are using a medium/fine nib the shimmer still flows through easily and I have never had a pen completely block up on me, I’ve also never experienced a hard start. This is true for all my J.Herbin shimmers. On Endless paper the ink doesn’t feather, and only bleeds if the same spot is gone over continually. Endless paper is also where the beautiful red sheen come out to play.
As with all shimmer inks, I would recommend a pen that’s easy to clean out. Besides the shimmer, which always takes more effort to clean – this colour in itself requires more work to get clean. (Similar to Diamine Bilberry)
As always, it can be purchased here:https://writegear.co.za/product/j-herbin-emeraude-de-chivor-ink-bottle-1670-collection-emerald-chivor/
M
This post is not sponsored and all opinions are my own.
stationeryramblings 