Inkventpocalypse 2025 Day 12

I really don't know what to say. We're basically at halfway with this experiment. I'll just get into the discussion of the three inks (two are sparkly), the watercolour and a very nice decaf basic tea.

First up is the Enigma Stationery Inkvent 2025 Day 12 sample of Robert Oster x The Pen Addict in Fire on Fire on Fire, which is a very warm red orange collaboration ink with orange shimmer between Robert Oster inks and the notoriously orange The Pen Addict himself, Brad Dowdy. The shop description says it's has three types of shimmer (Robert Oster calls their shimmer inks Shake'N'Shimmy), but I only really got an overall difficult to photograph red-orange shimmer. That could just be my sample vial. I did a doodle of lots of fire on fire on fire.

I am not the biggest orange (anything) fan, but thanks to The Pen Addict & longtime community member Keith (@RandomThinks on Instagram) who shares his "#KillWinterWithOrange" challenge (posting daily orange pens, inks, items, all throughout the month of February. 2026 will be the 12th year of #KWWO, I can't believe it!) I have developed a simmering love of all things orange. I will probably pick up a bottle of Fire on Fire on Fire (and the original Fire on Fire) to see if there's more depth to the shimmer and to use during February.

Next up is Diamine Inkvent Teal Edition 2025 Day 12 in Bubbly, the second shimmer of this day. This one is strange. It reads more olive green with gold shimmer than a champagne colour. It's fine, but I don't think I'd drink anything carbonated if it were this colour. The shimmer is a lovely gold, but honestly it's not a huge wowee sort of colour. It does sort have some shading and does remind me of the fancy bronzey labels on froufrou Champagne bottles (Dom Perignon). That is the doodle I attempted from memory.

The last ink swatch is Colorverse Colorvent 2025 Day 12 in Blood Falls. Now. Hrm. This one isn't at all that unpleasant difficult brown red (I know, I know!) it's more of a dark, rich burgundy. Almost a deep royal colour. It has green-gold sheen which is a nice addition. The problematic thing here is that the name is of a really weird, unpleasant-seeming natural phenomena where there's a layer of iron-rich seawater that when it melts from a glacier in Antarctica, it looks like blood. I can't describe it adequately, and it's what I attempted to doodle, so here's the Wikipedia entry on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Falls . I prefer the ink to melting glaciers, any day. The blurb on the door for this ink says, "Beneath Antarctic ice, iron-rich water flows, forming a red cascade known as Blood Falls."

Next up is the watercolour advent from Greenleaf & Blueberry.

The Day 12 shell of the Greenleaf & Blueberry Watercolour Advent Calendar 2025 is Estonian Green Earth, PG23. The doodle suggestion is a pine sapling. The paint in the shell is a dry, dark not very staining green. The dollop of paint looks like it'd be buttery, but on the brush it has a bit of a grainy feel, and it is definitely an earth pigment. It is a strange texture, it granulates and dries with a bit of a milky feeling. It reminds me very much of the colour of the tea for today.

At first it seems very similar to Day 1 (Chromium Oxide Green) but it's a much dustier green, darker and far less staining. It feels mossy, where the Chromium Oxide Green feels swampy, if that's any help.

Last advent up is the Friday Afternoon Tea day 12 Decaf Teavent tea. It's a lovely earthy decaf green tea. I really love the green tea at Japanese restaurants that you are served VERY hot with the meal. I haven't been able to enjoy much green tea lately because of an extreme sensitivity to caffeine that just sort of happened. I usually drink tea later in the evening, so this is a really wonderful option. It does have 3mg of caffeine, so not entirely decaffeinated, but to be honest, it's far less than I was consuming. It's nice to settle the stomach and hydrate you. I have to be honest, I have had a very awful day and this cup of green tea has been just the thing to calm me down and help me focus on finishing this blog up. I'm definitely adding this to the "buy in bulk" list. It's not as tannic or astringent feeling as most green teas I'm used to. It's really quite lovely, without being "grassy".

I hope this was a welcome distraction from the chaos. I've been a bit chattier than I would otherwise have been, but I had a lot to talk about, despite it being so long since my last couple Inkventpocalypse posts.

I enjoyed the tea, the orange sparkly ink and trying to figure out how to describe the difference between the two green watercolours. I'm feeling quite wrung out so I'll forego the engagement questions. I would like to hear from you, if you're feeling like commenting. Oh, I lied, I do want to know what you think about orange - the colour, the citrus, the concept... are you an orange fan? Do you have any daily practices you are a part of in February?

I'm considering re-igniting a VERY old daily practice for February that started on LiveJournal, called "Roll of 28" (film never came in rolls of 28) which was a photo-a-day group challenge for the month of February. I was looking back on my Instagram & Flickr for the past 20 years (it seems it was started in 2006, I joined in 2007) and I miss marking the seasonal changes that happen in February. (I got lost again trying to find links to things, but I think that the LJ Community link is enough.)

Please take care of yourself and your community, it's treacherous - in many ways - out there.

-subgirl the slightly melancholy inkygeek