Whether you shake the bottle to agitate the shimmer or treat it more gently when you ink a pen, this is a beautiful ink. Monkeyhead Nebula is one of three inks released in early 2023 from the Vol. 6 Nebula Special series. They’re available individually in the nice, 65 ml teardrop bottles.

Monkeyhead Nebula is an elegant slate grey-blue. It’s more saturated than Cat’s Eye Nebula, but the two share the same pink-peach shimmer. The shimmer is of a very fine particle, and it hasn’t caused any clogging problems, even after leaving a pen untouched for several days.

This is a nice shading ink with good variation on both coated and uncoated papers. You also get a strong, dark stroke edging on coated papers. This gives a three-dimensional pop to strokes and is my preferred choice. With a water brush, you’ll find gorgeous pinks and lavenders bursting from the blues, too.

In writing, this ink performs very well. On six test papers (both coated and uncoated), I didn’t have any problems with feather or spread. It’s wetter than Cat’s Eye Nebula, and the flow is nice. Show-through is more visible on most papers in comparison, but that’s not surprising with its more saturated base color.

Whether it’s for normal writing, or more visually creative uses, Monkeyhead Nebula is a real beauty. This is one of my favorite shimmer inks from Colorverse. Highly recommended!