J. Herbin is a French company with rich history and a great set of core inks (since 1700 with all-natural dyes, they boast). I’m sure the formulation has changed a bit over time, but they’re very well-behaved. In 2024 J. Herbin debuted their Les couleurs de Paris collection, which are priced the same as the La Perle des Ecres (standard) collection and come in the same bottles. These inks are very competitively priced in the EU: 4.5 Euros for 10ml or 9.5 Euros for 30ml including VAT. In East Asia they are about $12/30ml plus tax. In the US they are more: $7/10ml or $15/30ml plus sales tax. I bought a 10ml bottle from Stilo e Stile in late 2024.
Similar inks I’ve tried include
- Diamine Delamere Green
- Monteverde California Teal
- Yoseka Origin No. 1 by Ink Institute
Herbin inks can sometimes feel a little dry to me, so I used Vert Metropolitain in a Pelikan M200 Medium. It was a wet noodle, in a good way! Took a while to dry, which is unusual for a Herbin ink in my experience.
I misattributed the color in several of these writing samples.
It took more than 20s to dry on Iroful.
Vert Métropolitain is a blue-green that shades to dark green, one of my new favorite greens. The feeling of writing with it in a Pelikan was smooth and luscious. Dry time was on the slow side, but I was laying down a lot of the ink with the Pelikan nib. I’ll try this color in drier pen for more data.
I look forward to trying Vert Métropolitain in other pens: perhaps it will dry in a more timely fashion. I anticipate finishing this small bottle myself (not giving away any samples) and then ordering a 30ml one someday.