Tag: 25 Days of Dupes 2025

Welcome to the third post of 25 Days of Dupes 2025. Below you’ll find the inks for days 12-18. If you have a suggestion for a possible dupe for any of these inks, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it to the wrap up post.

View Reminders

• You can click the images to view them larger.
• I swatched each ink with a small (#2) paintbrush and wrote with a F Sailor Compass Hocoro Dip Pen.
• The dilution pages show the sheening inks diluted with water in single-part steps. I started with just the ink, then 1:1 ink to water, then 1:2, etc.
• While I try to edit the images so they look as close to real life as possible, I can’t guarantee that the color you see on your screen will be true to life. However, with all the dupes on the same page, you’ll see how the colors look in relation to each other, which is the main point of these posts.
• I can’t fairly call any ink a perfect color match, as I’m not comparing them scientifically, I’m just using my eyes. Therefore, I won’t be going any further than calling an ink a “near-perfect color match.”
• I’m not attempting to dupe the special properties of the inks — sheen, shimmer, scent — only the base color.

Enjoy, and happy inking!

Welcome to the second post of 25 Days of Dupes 2025. Below you’ll find the inks for days 5-11. If you have a suggestion for a possible dupe for any of these inks, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it to the wrap up post.

HEAD’S UP: An ink sample arrived a couple of days after posting week 1 that better matches Energy. Check out the update.

View Reminders

• You can click the images to view them larger.
• I swatched each ink with a small (#2) paintbrush and wrote with a F Sailor Compass Hocoro Dip Pen.
• The dilution pages show the sheening inks diluted with water in single-part steps. I started with just the ink, then 1:1 ink to water, then 1:2, etc.
• While I try to edit the images so they look as close to real life as possible, I can’t guarantee that the color you see on your screen will be true to life. However, with all the dupes on the same page, you’ll see how the colors look in relation to each other, which is the main point of these posts.
• I can’t fairly call any ink a perfect color match, as I’m not comparing them scientifically, I’m just using my eyes. Therefore, I won’t be going any further than calling an ink a “near-perfect color match.”
• I’m not attempting to dupe the special properties of the inks — sheen, shimmer, scent — only the base color.

Enjoy, and happy inking!

Welcome to the first post of 25 Days of Dupes 2025. Below you’ll find the inks for days 1-4. If you have a suggestion for a possible dupe for any of these inks, let me know in the comments, and I’ll add it to the wrap up post.

View Reminders

• You can click the images to view them larger.
• I swatched each ink with a small (#2) paintbrush and wrote with a F Sailor Compass Hocoro Dip Pen.
• The dilution pages show the sheening inks diluted with water in single-part steps. I started with just the ink, then 1:1 ink to water, then 1:2, etc.
• While I try to edit the images so they look as close to real life as possible, I can’t guarantee that the color you see on your screen will be true to life. However, with all the dupes on the same page, you’ll see how the colors look in relation to each other, which is the main point of these posts.
• I can’t fairly call any ink a perfect color match, as I’m not comparing them scientifically, I’m just using my eyes. Therefore, I won’t be going any further than calling an ink a “near-perfect color match.”
• I’m not attempting to dupe the special properties of the inks — sheen, shimmer, scent — only the base color.

Enjoy, and happy inking!

We’re back to the Diamine Inkvent calendar for this year’s 25 Days of Dupes. While I love Colorverse inks, the Colorvent calendar just didn’t do it for me last year. The biggest letdown was how dark and muted many of the colors were, especially given how bright regular Colorverse inks often are. The bottle shape was also a consideration. The Colorverse bottles are easily double the size of the Inkvent bottles, but only contain 3ml more ink. I just don’t have space for them. Last year’s Colorvent is still in its box. And, finally, the price difference matters to me. If anyone reading this is in the Washington, DC area and would be willing to let me borrow their 2025 Colorvent, I can dupe it around February next year. Just let me know in the comments.

What’s the Plan?

Per usual, I’ll be posting once a week with all of the inks from that week, with the day based on Christmas. Since Christmas is on Thursday, my posts will be on Friday this year. My first dupe post will be on the 5th, with the inks from December 1-4. My final dupe post will be on the 26th, with inks from December 19-25. And I’ll have a wrap-up/reference post on the 29th linking to the 4 dupe posts and listing the best dupe for each ink.

I’m also sticking with the Sailor Compass Hocoro Dip Pen. I used the F nib this year, since the finer nib seemed to be appreciated in my Inktober posts.

I enjoyed the Muji A5 loose leaf paper I used last year — it really is fantastic paper — but I’m trying to use up my stock of Kokuyo loose leaf paper, so this year I used that instead.