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Duping the Diamine Inkvent Calendar (25 Days of Dupes)

Posted in Ink

Don’t worry, I won’t be sharing spoilers today (or any day, technically).

When the Diamine Inkvent Calendar was first announced, I thought it was a cute idea, but didn’t plan to get it. As more and more photos and mentions of it appeared, I found myself experiencing FOMO to the highest degree. Eventually, coming across it in person at Bertram’s Inkwell, I decided to get one to satisfy my interest and curiosity.

I went home, and, initially, I planned to be good and open it in December like a proper advent calendar. But then I remembered that I won’t be available to open the inks during Christmas week. I considered opening it day-by-day in November instead, but ultimately decided to just open it up and swab them all one Saturday.

An Idea is Born

As I swabbed the different inks, I recognized many of them as dupes for other inks I’ve swabbed or used. And so was born my idea: 25 Days of Dupes. To avoid spoilers — not that there aren’t plenty already — I’ll be publishing each post the day after its ink is opened. Meaning, tomorrow, the 2nd, I’ll share the dupe for Blue Peppermint, today’s ink, and so on.

Because it’s 25 days — and 25 inks — these will be truncated dupes. I won’t include as much information about the inks (e.g. price, size, etc.), nor will I include the variety of comparison methods.

About the Posts

Each swab/writing sample will include a large brush swab and writing sample for the Inkvent ink, and, in cases where I felt that there wasn’t enough “non-shaded” color showing, a thin brush swab with less ink so there’s no shading.

Below the Inkvent swab, I’ve swabbed each Dupe ink heavily (to show shading) on the left, and lightly (no shading) on the right. Above the Inkvent writing, I’ve written with the dupe ink.

All swabs were created with a small paintbrush, and all writing was with a Zebra G dip nib.

Limitations

I don’t think I’m giving anything away by acknowledging that aside from standard inks, there are also sheen and shimmer inks in the Inkvent Calendar. I’m not trying to dupe those “special properties”, I’m focusing on color.

I’ve duped sheen, where possible, but I’m not trying to dupe shimmer at all. In fact, I’ve let the shimmer settle for the swabs so it will show as little as possible. I’ll note that there are several articles online about mixing simmer into existing ink, if you’re a shimmer fanatic.

I’ve done my best to avoid dupes that are difficult to obtain or expensive (I’m looking at you, MontBlanc). However, in the case where such an ink is a perfect dupe for an Inkvent Ink, I’ve included it for those who already own it or are willing to put in the effort or money to obtain it.

For some Inkvent inks, I’ve found several dupes and near dupes. For others, I’ve been lucky to find one. I’ve done my best, however, to find a perfect color dupe for each Inkvent ink.

I’ve mentioned this in past Ink Dupes posts, but I want to remind you that I can’t guarantee that the color you see on your screen will be true to life. However, I’ve put all the dupes on the same page, and scanned/photographed them together. So any differences in color will show equally across all of the inks. You’ll see how the colors look in relation to each other, which is the main point of these posts.

Inkvent Calendar Thoughts

My overall impression of the Inkvent Calendar, though generally positive, is that Diamine’s statement that the inks were “created especially for the Inkvent Calendar” is a bit misleading. Several dupes I found came from Diamine’s line.

I feel like in several cases, Diamine simply increased the dye saturation on or added some shimmer — or a different colored shimmer — to an already existing ink. There were a few inks that were new to me, but I have a feeling that’s because I have only swabbed so many inks. There are MANY inks that I’ve never seen, much less used or swabbed.

The inks are certainly pretty, but you’re likely to enjoy the Inkvent Calendar much more if you’re a shimmer fanatic.

Hopefully, my 25 Days of Dupes will prove useful to those who find a favorite ink within the Inkvent Calendar or who were unable to get one. You may want to subscribe to my blog if you haven’t already so you won’t miss a post. Or, you can bookmark this page that will include each day as it’s posted.

Enjoy, and happy inking!

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