Caran d'Ache Vibrant Green

This ink sample was provided, free of charge, by Anderson Pens.

I'm slow to get on the Chromatics train. These inks came out a while ago, and I'd always meant to try them but I'd never gotten around to it. I've heard that some people were upset that they cancelled the previous line of inks, but I never got to try those, so I can't comment.

I think that it was the high per-bottle price tag that kept me away. It's fairly steep. A 50 ml bottle goes for $36 at Anderson Pens. That's $.72 per ml. That's more than the Graf von Faber-Castell inks I just reviewed, and more than Iroshizuku. It's also more than Montblanc's limited edition inks. So, these reviews are likely to be...colored...by that fact. Ya gotta expect a lot from an ink with that price tag.

Here's the bottle-shape:

I linked this picture from FPquest.com, which is an excellent blog, if you don't know it already. 

I only have samples of these inks, so I don't have a bottle for them. The bottle and the box are really neat. The bottle is angled at the bottom which should let you get more fills out of the bottle before you have to start to use a syringe. It also looks cool, so there's that. The box has a corresponding angle, so it looks like it's sitting up straight when it's in the box. I'm sure that has something to contribute to the prices.

Alrighty, enough with the packaging and price. How about the ink?

The Ink

I'm a fan of this green. It's bright and it's really, really green. I do love green inks. This one feels great on the paper, and the color is good. It shades a bit on good paper, but don't expect to see that on average papers. As I mention above, Vibrant Green does tend to bleed just a little. It's not a huge deal, but it's enough that I have to mention it. There's not really any feathering or spreading, so that's good.

Also, this ink isn't the best at resisting water. You can see that in action on the video at the end of the review, but you can see the damage above. Sorry for the spoiler, folks.

Close-ups!

Chromatography

You can see the really faint line at the right-hand side of the paper below, and that's where the ink started. You can also see that it's almost entirely gone. Not going to be much left once water hits this ink on a page. At the top, though are some really nice color bands. It's green tempered by blue. Again, give me that blue! What is this blue ink that so many of these manufacturers start out with?

Average Paper Test

 Not much bleed through, but there is some. 

Water Drop Test and Video Review

The Conclusion

So, do I recommend this ink? Sorta. I like the color, and I like the behavior. As far as true greens go, this is a darn good one. I've found that a good green is kinda hard to find, and they're often not cheap. This particular one reminds me of Noodler's Hunter green (I should really re-do that review, it's really showing its age!) and the Franklin-Christoph ink that I just showed off with the Christoph nib. The Noodler's ink is a little over half the price, and for the F-C ink I don't know the price per ml. 

If you have a place to display cool bottles, then this is a very cool addition. If the price tag doesn't worry you, then this is a good ink. There are cheaper alternatives, though, so maybe check them out. Certainly get a sample of this one, though. 

The ink for this review was provided free of charge by Anderson Pens. The review was all mine, however.