Iroshizuku Kosumosu

Looking back through my posts, it appears that I've only reviewed 4 Iroshizuku inks to this point, and the last one was a couple of years back. Weird, right? I think it might just be that I haven't had great experiences with Iroshizuku inks, so I've unconsciously avoided them. Well, no longer! I know these inks are really popular, so they're getting mixed in with the rest of them.

This is a bright pink (obviously) that's named after the Cosmos flower. Oddly enough, I was watching a reality show last night (Ink Masters), and one of the artists was talking about a Cosmos flower. Then I was at the plant store today, and I saw this same plant. I didn't buy any, but I might. Kismet!

It's a really cheery pink, but it's not great for the paper-grading (for which I was going to use it) because it's not great on low-end papers. It tends to feather, spread, and bleed. Not ideal. So this one should stay on the good paper. If you're looking for a pink ink to use on higher end papers, this could be the one for you.

Check it out below and let me know what you think.

Thanks for giving me this sample for review, Anderson Pens!


The Written Review

 

Close-Ups?

Okay, so it says that there's no sheen, but you might see  a little bit of sheen if you lay it down heavily on good papers. I see just a smidge of sheen  where I smeared it. See if you can see it in the picture below.

Sheen?

Maybe just a little at the edges. I don't know, though...

Color Comparisons

Copy Paper Test

 Yeah, it comes right through. Sure, it could be worse. It's not great performance, though.

Chromatography
I think I see a little more sheen near the top of this chromatography strip than I do in the smear above. 

Video Review and Water Test

In the end, I'm not totally sold on this ink. It's a nice color, and it'll work well on nice paper, but keep it away from the cheap stuff. It just won't work all that well there.

You can find it in many places, including the Anderson Pens site where it goes for $28 for 50ml bottles or $2.50 for a 3ml sample.

(These links go to Anderson Pens, and they provided the ink for review, but they're not affiliate links. They give me ink, I write honest reviews. That's the deal.)