This ink battle is between Wearingeul Pinocchio and Anderillium Luna Moth Green. Both inks are in a Pilot Kakuno fitted with a medium nib. The paper is Maruman Giuris with grid ruling.
Today’s ink battle was another bout of bottle versus sample. It determined if my sample of Pinocchio got to stay in use, or got relegated to the “for dupes” baskets. Were I to keep it in use and go through the whole sample, then I’d likely buy a bottle.
For those unfamiliar with these inks, Pinocchio contains gold shimmer. While Wearingeul shimmers typically settle completely, I shook the sample before inking my pen.
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 or buy a bottle of the sample.
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,” based on the color properties, not the way the ink functions. 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, and I have a page dedicated to my ink comparisons.
These two inks look more different in photos than they do in person. Part of that is probably how the gold shimmer in Pinocchio catches the light, since it looks lighter in most photos. In reality, Pinocchio and Luna Moth are close enough to consider dupes.
Pinocchio is a tiny bit less vibrant than Luna Moth, and may be a bit less saturated, but that could also be the influence of the shimmer. They are roughly the same value.
I was really hoping that these two inks would be more different, as I was thinking about getting Pinocchio at the DC Pen Show.
Unfortunately for me — because I really like Pinocchio (the ink) — these are simple too similar to justify owning both. And, since I already have a bottle of Luna Moth Green, my sample of Pinocchio has been relegated to the “for dupes” bins. At least I can mix Luna Moth with some gold shimmer additive.
Scorecard
Being so close, these inks are tied at a perfect 30 each. If you don’t own either ink, I would point you toward Pinocchio since you can use it with or without shimmer.
| Trait | Pinocchio | Luna Moth |
|---|---|---|
| Hue | 10 | 10 |
| Saturation | 9 | 10 |
| Lightness | 10 | 10 |
| Bonus Points | 1 | 0 |
What do you think? Which ink is your favorite? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
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