Ink Review: Scarlet Red by Camel

This should have been a Valentine post, but I am uncomfortable with that idea, so I postponed it for the day after V Day. And so here is my red ink for this season: a very red Scarlet Red by Camel of India.*

Camel Scarlet Red fountain pen ink has been on my collection for almost a year now. A friend of a friend from India came to visit the country for business, and kindly brought us this bottle of ink, along with a Hero 329, Hero 360 and boxes of tea. :)

Scarlet Red and other Camel fountain pen inks are made by the same manufacturers of Camlin fountain pens in India. Production of the Camel fountain pen ink began as early as 1931 in Bombay, as an alternative to the Western ink brands available in India at that time. Camel fountain pen inks are dye-based inks and contains Camli-Sol 100, which Camel claims to clean the pen as the ink flows through it. Available in black, royal blue, green, violet and red, Camel fountain pen inks also claim to write consistently and to have good storage life, which is true because for a couple of months, my bottle of Scarlet Red was on my study table which was near a big window, but the heat and light coming through it did not alter the ink's consistency, color and brightness. The only downside to this product is the ink bottle's cap. It would have been better if the cap was made of plastic rather than metal, which is what's on it now.

Camel Scarlet Red reminds me so much of the cherry and strawberry-flavored red snow cones that we used to have in my grandmother's house during summer vacations. Back then, we called them 'snow-balls', and they were served on Lola's peanut butter and jelly glasses. :) My cousins and I would run to the big mirror in the grand room and look at each other's pouting red lips. :)

Camel Scarlet Red's color is also similar to Kool-Aid's cherry and strawberry flavors, and to the unforgettable red Kool-Aid man. Who could forget him and his red, happy face? On the non-food scale, Camel's Scarlet Red is very, very similar to Pilot G2's red gel ink (see my comparison of the two ink colors in the photos below).

This side of the box has the Hindi translation of the English text written on the other side.

In the previous photos, the color of the ink inside the bottle is hard to tell - it looks black! So I placed the bottle directly in front of a lamp and here it is looking every bit red. :) The bright light also revealed the words etched on the bottom of the bottle, which says, "60ml Camel".

Here is another exposure with the bottle tilted down to reveal the redness of the ink inside.

Oh, I feel so red. :) Here is the bottle of Camel Scarlet Red ink on top of my red Scribe notebook together with my fine-nibbed Pelikano Junior. I'm so red. :)

Camel Scarlet Red is an excellent ink from Camlin. It has great flow, and made the previously dry writing Pelikano Junior a wet writer. The color is also great, perhaps not the perfect red, but an excellent red that is perfect to use for highlighting and writing short notes. Shading is not very clear in these photos, but Camel Scarlet Red has minor shading especially when used on wide italic nibs.

Camel Scarlet Red stands out as a bright red on the white Rhodia paper. There is no feathering and bleed on this paper. (My apologies for the wrong spelling of the word 'quotation' in this photo and on the next one.)

On Scribe's ivory-colored paper, the red looked a little subdued and not as bright as how it appeared on white paper. There is also feathering and bleed on this notebook.

Here is the back page of Scribe paper showing minor bleed when I used the fine-nibbed Pelikano Junior.

Camel Scarlet Red is the first ink that got me thinking, if not worried, about its drying time. I wouldn't want to smear whatever I've written using red ink, and thankfully, it dries faster than most of my wet inks at less than 15 seconds.

Camel Scarlet Red ink is not yet available in the US, from what I have heard and read, but it's not available here in the Philippines, either. The Camlin website says the inks are available in 500ml and 60ml bottles, for 56INR and 12INR, respectively.

Now for the *: I looked hard enough for appropriate quotes to go with this ink review, but my efforts failed. *Sigh*. No red, Valentine, or even love quote seemed appropriate, so I am publishing this review without a quote.

Christmas in September

My first Rhodia: Rhodia No. 10, from Exaclair's Bastille Day inks offer. Oh, sure, it's that small, and that's a regular teacup. :)

September has been another hectic and trying month for me. A lot of things went on at the same time, and all equally required the same attention and care from me. Ondoy and Pepeng came and went, we got flooded, and yet, there is so much for all of us to be thankful for. And here's my share.

First is this package of heavenly goodies from Exaclair. In July, I read from the Quo Vadis blog that Exaclair is offering J. Herbin blue and red inks as part of their Bastille Day offer. Though hesitant, I still signed up for the offer, but added that I'm in the Philippines and if they won't ship the items here, that's no problem. To my surprise, Exaclair's VP for Marketing, Karen Doherty, replied to me a few days later, saying that she has already sent me the inks and notebooks and that I should receive the package soon. I have to admit that I almost fell off my chair when I read that message. I got excited to see the notebooks, but more than excited to get my hands on the inks I requested: Bleu Pervenche and Rouge Opera. Oh, who wouldn't be?

J. Herbin inks from Exaclair: Rouge Opera and Bleu Pervenche.

And after the excitement came the painful wait. July went to mid-August. Then August ended. By early September, I lost hope and convinced myself to never trust the postal system again. It's simple: the package got lost or stolen along the way. And I was so embarrassed when I told Karen about it. Then again, she said that she will send me another set of goodies. Oh, wow.

Towards the end of September, I got a big surprise when our mailroom guy called me up even if it was after 5pm already, to let me know I got a package from Exaclair. Hurray!

Aside from the Rhodia No. 10 pad and the inks, Karen also sent me these wonderful notebooks. From left: Rhodia Pad No. 16, reporter-style Clairefontaine Basic pad, and wirebound Clairefontaine Basic. It's a surprise that all these goodies came intact...

... when this is where they all came from!

It's obvious that the package got wet somewhere, and it's a miracle the items inside were not destroyed, if for some minor damage on the notebook covers. But the J. Herbin catalog did not survive the water that seeped through the envelope. (Photo below.)

A week later, the second package was delivered to me.

This time, the envelope is intact, and all the notebooks inside are in pristine condition, including the inks and their boxes. I got a black 5x5 No. 10 Rhodia pad, a black 6x8¼ clothbound Clairefontaine Basics, Rhodia No. 16, a large Quo Vadis Habana notebook, and the same two J. Herbin ink colors I requested before. Great! I can't wait to tear the plastic off the Habana and try writing on all the notebooks. So far I've tried the No. 16 and it's just great! My reviews will trickle in beginning next week. :) Oh, the toy is one of my Tomica ChoroQs. :)


And then...

Right after the 2nd Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper was published, I sent an email to Marian Ong of Scribe Writing Essentials to inform her that my blogpost about the red Scribe journal I recently got made it to the top editor's choice. A few days later, a bag was delivered to me all the way from our Makati Office and here, behold, are the contents: all pure notebook goodness in red and black. The pen on top, is my Rotring Core Rubidium. I'll use the red large notebook for my fountain ink tests, the black one as a spare to follow my current journal. The Pocket notebooks will be used for my GTD stuff. But more on that later. :)

But the Christmasy feeling doesn't end there. In between the packages from Scribe and Exaclair, there is definitely more! :)

Sailor Kenshin, a fellow member of Fountain Pen Network was giving away some of his pens. I emailed him to ask for a burgundy Hero 616 and a Stypen. He sent the pens free of shipping charges, and suprised me when he included a mini Daiso fountain pen. Great guy. Cool gifts. When I emailed him to say thank you, I inquired about the pens he wanted to trade away. I don't know if I'm just lucky or what, but he said he'll send the two pens to me. So I got myself a clear/white Waterman Kultur and a red Pelikano Junior. What he doesn't know is that he gave me my first Waterman and my first Pelikan pens.

My Hero 616 with the Chinese Terracota Army

The Stypen with American Indians on the battlefield.

The mini Daiso fountain pen in Angkor Wat.

The Waterman Kultur in Anatolia, Turkey's Çatal Höyük

And the Pelikano Junior on an Aztec temple.

I'm overwhelmed! How can I fully say thank you to Karen, Marian, and Sailor Kenshin for all the goodies they sent me? My reviews of all these stuff will come next week, and I'm hoping that somehow, someday, I'll be able to return their kind gesture...