This ink battle is between Diamine One More Sleep and Diamine x Cult Pens Platinum Jubilee. The inks weren’t in any pens, but I did use a Sailor Hocoro dip pen with an F nib. The paper is Canson recycled bristol.
For those unfamiliar with these inks, One More Sleep is an ink from Diamine’s Inkvent Green edition (2022). Platinum Jubilee is a Cult Pens exclusive developed for — as the name implies — Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee in 2022. It has shimmer, but Diamine shimmers settle completely, which I let happen for this battle so I can just compare the colors.
Today’s ink battle is definitely also an ink dupe. So, I decided to have fun with another battle inspired by Azizah‘s Inky Messes and Candace‘s Doodling with Fountain Pens classes.
Ink Battles Explained
Between myself and Jim buying inks, we own far too many. This means I have some inks that are incredibly similar in color. And, because of that, I need to figure out which inks to keep and which to dispose of. Sometimes, I have samples of two or more similar inks that I'm trying to decide which to buy, or if I should buy one ink when I already own a bottle of a similar one.
Enter ink battles. I put the similar inks into pens with the same nibs (two Jowo #6 M, two TWSBI F, etc.), or I create ink splats and doodles, to test them out to see which I like better. Or, I may find out that they’re sufficiently different to keep.
You can assume I have no problems with any ink that appears in an ink battle. I may find, when using the inks side-by-side, that there are performance differences, but the point of the battle is to choose a favorite ink, a "winner". These choices are often subjective, and you may disagree with me.
An ink battle — unlike ink dupes — is between inks I like. I enjoy using them enough to have them in my "for use" ink collection — as opposed to my repository of inks for testing dupes. If an ink performed poorly or caused problems, I wouldn’t keep it. And, if that were the case, an ink battle would be unnecessary.
Reminder: You can find all of the ink battle posts on the tag page.
I need to note that, while I did my best to edit these photos to true-to-life on my screen, I wasn’t completely successful. The colors are still a bit too vibrant and/or too saturated. The close-up photos are more true-to-life.
Without the shimmer, it would be nearly impossible to tell these two inks apart, especially when writing. They’re both quintessential blurples (blue-purples), although significantly desaturated. They’re medium-dark inks, a lovely blend of dark enough to read easily and light enough to appreciate the color.

Both One More Sleep and Platinum Jubilee have some complexity revealing pinks and blues in the water tests. They also both have decent shading.






Scorecard
Since these are dupes, the scorecard seems superfluous. But, Platinum Jubilee just wins for its shimmer that settles completely.
Trait | One More Sleep | Platinum Jubilee |
---|---|---|
Hue | 10 | 10 |
Saturation | 10 | 10 |
Lightness | 10 | 10 |
Complexity | 10 | 10 |
Bonus Points | 0 | 1 |
That said, if you hate shimmer and would never use it, get One More Sleep. It’s more easily available and $5.50 USD cheaper.
Do you prefer this type of battle, or should I go back to the written version? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
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