Ink Of The Month – June ‘20 – Lamy Ruby

For this month I have chosen Lamy Ruby to be Ink Of The Month; I thought it would be nice to have a bright warm colour to mark the arrival of summer.

Ruby is part of the Lamy Crystal range of inks and the 30ml bottles come packaged like an expensive cosmetic product. The ink nestles in a high-quality box surrounded by bespoke inserts that ensure it stays perfectly still in transit and you receive the ink exactly as Lamy intended. The glass bottle is not a generic that has been pressed into service but again it is a bespoke bottle and cap whose design reminds me of the lotions and potions you find on the cosmetics counters of expensive department stores.

Whilst this potion won’t make hollow promises to you about eternal youth it will keep its promise to you and make your handwriting more beautiful.

Ruby is a red with pink undertones; these undertones show up when doing a Q-Tip test but when loaded in a pen I got a nice even red text with no real hints of pink. The ink does not seem to have any real sheen to speak of; heavy application of ink with the Q-Tip only managed to produce a slight dark bronze border and nothing when using a pen.

A bottle of Ruby currently costs approximately £9.50GBP which may seem like quite a lot for 30ml of ink when you can get significantly more ink for less from other manufacturers. 

However, Lamy have gone to a lot of trouble not only to produce a good quality ink but to package it in such a way that it is something special. It’s one of those things whether you are buying for yourself or as a gift this is an ink that will not disappoint.

As you will have gathered, I like this ink and I’m happy to recommend it; and I do think it’s good value for your pennies. 

So far, I’ve tried three inks from the Crystal range (Azurite, Obsidian & Ruby) and not one of them has disappointed me.

Disclaimer: The ink was 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.