It’s been that kind of week: I’m just now getting around to unpacking my bags from last week’s Chicago trip, before I turn around and head out the door again on Tuesday for the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S.! I have a few review posts in the works, but couldn’t help sharing my initial swatches of five different Sailor Inks I picked up at Anderson Pens Chicago. Consistent with my latest obsession, all of these inks are double-shaders that, despite some initial hesitation, appear to be quite legible and might make good everyday writers. Also, look at the color shift in the ink as it dries! (And yes, I know I got the numbering wrong in the writing sample. 242 should be 252.)

Time lapse part 2: Check out the color change as the inks dry, especially on Ink Studio 173 and 280. Sailor Manyo HaHa is one of the prettiest double-shading blues I’ve seen.

I’m becoming a bigger fan of both Sailor Ink Studio and the Sailor Manyo inks, the more I use them. Sailor inks are always well behaved, and the Ink Studio line features dozens of unique colors unlike anything I’ve seen elsewhere. Currently, you can only find these inks at select Sailor retailers, including Anderson Pens which carries the inks online and in their Appleton, Wisconsin and Chicago stores. For the record, the inks featured in this post are as follows: Sailor Manyo Haha (50ml, $19), Sailor Ink Studio 252 (20ml, $18), Sailor Ink Studio 173 (20ml, $18), Sailor Ink Studio 280 (20ml, $18), Sailor Ink Studio 670 (20ml, $18). Look for some more follow-up observations as I get these into rotation and work them through some pens.

This post does not contain affiliate links. I was not compensated for this review, and I purchased the inks with my own funds, though I did receive a slight discount on the purchase. Many thanks to Anderson Pens for making this review possible.

In Japan, Sailor holds "Studio” ink events, where you can have their master ink blenders custom blend a bottle of ink tailored to your preferences. Looking to further capitalize on the ink collecting craze, Sailor released 100 of these blends into the global market, and they hit U.S. retailers in 2019. I confess that I’m not as much of an ink obsessive as I used to be. Don’t get me wrong - I still have more ink than I will ever be able to use in my lifetime, but at some point when I see companies like Sailor and Colorverse releasing dozens of inks at a time, much less hundreds, I sort of throw up my hands and stop trying to keep track.

Some people are frustrated that Sailor moved to a smaller 20ml bottle while keeping the same pricing. Honestly, after thinking on it, the shift doesn’t bother me all that much. I’ve used maybe 3 or 4 full bottles of ink in my lifetime, and it’s prob… — Some people are frustrated that Sailor moved to a smaller 20ml bottle while keeping the same pricing. Honestly, after thinking on it, the shift doesn’t bother me all that much. I’ve used maybe 3 or 4 full bottles of ink in my lifetime, and it’s probably less wasteful to purchase smaller bottles. Bringing this many different colors to market also increases production costs.

That said, the more pictures I saw of some of these Sailor Studio inks, the more they intrigued me, particularly the “double shaders,” a term that refers to inks that exhibit not just shading in terms of different tones of the same color, but different colors entirely. For example, Sailor Ink Studio 140 shown here has lavender undertones that emerge in a swab and when you write with a wetter nib.

You can see the shading, but the double-shading on this particular ink is more subtle and it didn’t photograph well. In person, you will see hints of light purple/lavender (even pink, maybe?) in the darker areas of the swab and handwriting sample.

The best thing about the Ink Studio lineup is that it’s reliable Sailor ink. Adding special properties such as sheen and shading (particularly sheen) can sometimes cause problems with ink failing to dry quickly and smearing. Not so much with Sailor, as I’ve had uniform success using any ink released by the company, and it has long been one of my favorite brands of ink to use in any pen.

The paper used for this ink review is Write Notepads Dot Grid Paper, which holds up beautifully to a wet ink swab and really shows off ink colors well.

Sailor Ink Studio 140, which is the ink pictured in this review, is a sky blue similar to Souten from the Jentle series, but perhaps a touch lighter. I had heard others remarking that some of the double-shading Studio inks can be very light, so I had some concerns that this one would be unusable for me. As it turns out, while No. 140 is light, it’s quite legible, and I had no issues using this for everyday writing, especially in a slightly wet Franklin-Christoph steel flex nib.

Takeaways and Where to Buy

As long as you’re not an “ink completionist” who feels compelled to sample every ink in a lineup, you can have a lot of fun with the Sailor Ink Studio lineup. Personally, I want to try a lot more of these “double shaders” like No. 140. The Studio Inks are sold in Sailor’s smaller, 20ml bottles priced at $18 each, and are available at site sponsor Goldspot, who provided this ink for review. Many thanks to Goldspot for making this review possible!

Disclaimer: This post contains links to paid sponsors and affiliates. Goldspot provided the bottle of ink featured in this review free of charge, for review purposes.