For a long time now I have been wanting to try out Krishna Inks and they have been very hard to come by but now Pure Pens are carrying them that just got a whole lot easier. A quick glance at the Krishna Inks page on the Pure Pens site shows you around forty-five different inks so there should be something for everyone.
Krishna Inks is the creation of Dr Sreekumar who started making inks in 2010 and this has grown to a world-wide enterprise with over fifty different colours.
So for this month’s ‘Ink Of The Month’ I ordered After Dark and Sindhoor. These come in small 20ml glass bottles in cardboard boxes and cost £4.99GBP. The one thing I would say is be careful when opening the bottles, once you’ve cracked the safety seal take it easy my bottle of Sindhoor was full to the brim.
Having managed not to spill it I decided to test Sindhoor first and as you can see from the swab and test text it is a very nice orange, not overly saturated but still a good colour and ideal for Autumn and Hallowe’en; and this is where I have a problem with it.
All the labelling and images show a nice deep red, but this is definitely an orange; and it’s near a perfect match for Diamine Sunset. I suspect this is nothing more than an issue with the dye batch and as I like orange inks, I’m not worried but I appreciate not everyone would be quite so happy about this.
On the other hand, After Dark lives up to its name and is a really nice deep blue ink that reminds me of the night sky just as the light is fading and the stars are starting to show themselves.
After Dark is a rich saturated ink that behaves really well even when doing a dip and scribble test, I found it very smooth to use providing a consistent colour and flow.
So, would I recommend them?
Whilst compared to other inks, like Diamine, they do not offer the same cost per ml I wouldn’t let that put you off trying them; however, of the two I own I would recommend After Dark.
Disclaimer: The inks were purchased with my own funds at retail price. The opinions expressed in this review are my own; and I am not connected with either the retailers or manufacturers in any way.