Continuing my series of Tessa-talks-about-the-thing-everyone-is-talking-about-but-a-few-months-afterwards, I’ve had a play around with the much-hyped Fire & Ice Ink by Robert Oster. I’ve called this a mini review, because I’m no ink expert and I can’t give you much more insight other than how it looks and a little bit about how it behaves. If you’re looking for a more thorough insight, I can recommend Susan’s super in depth testing on Pen Addict, and Ana’s review on Well Appointed Desk.


Robert Oster is an Australian ink brand that I hadn’t actually heard of before Fire and Ice came out. The packaging is very simple, but does the job, and I guess the fact that the ink comes in a plastic bottle reduces postage costs. And I also think it has a bit more of a small business vibe, which I like.


The ink itself is really quite incredible and for me has two really interesting characteristics. The first is the depth of colour, which to me seems like magic somehow. I don’t understand how it can switch from the deep turquoise colour to a light, almost sky blue, at the flick of a nib, but I like it!


And the second characteristic is that red sheen. Mmmmm, it’s so good! I seem to always have bad luck getting the sheen to come out in inks. I see other people’s review pictures and wonder what on earth I’m doing wrong, but in the case of Fire & Ice, I had no such problem, that sheen is out all over the place!


I like Fire & Ice because it’s a”normal” enough colour that I could use it every day, but with a little twist to keep things interesting. I’ve only played around with it with a dip pen so far, but plan to ink up a flex nib fountain pen to use it some more. I used it here with the paper that I test all inks on – Clairefontaine Triomphe – and it was perfect, no bleeding, no feathering.

I got mine from Bureau Direct for £14.95 as soon as I saw they had it in stock. I see it’s now sold out though – you’ve got to be quick with this one! iZods seem to have it in stock though.