Diamine - Red Lustre

Diamine Red Lustre - red and gold ink drop

Diamine Red Lustre has been around longer than I would have guessed. Released in 2015, it was one of the brand’s first ten shimmering inks. Diamine has gone on to offer one of the largest selections of gold and silver shimmer inks on the market. Similar to silver shimmer Firestorm Red, Red Lustre is accented with gold shimmer.

Diamine Red Lustre’s shade edging and shimmer

Visually, Red Lustre is a slightly powdery, cardinal red with a luscious, gold shimmer. The ink is richer in tone on coated premium papers compared with office copy, where there is a subtle, faded quality to the red base color. It goes on with an initial glossiness that is delicious, but ends with a dry, partially faded appearance. There is a moderate, darkened edging on premium papers, which helps to keep stroke profiles crisp and well-defined. There’s also some mild shading, but as with most shimmer inks, the shading never develops real strength or is covered by the shimmer.

Diamine Red Lustre - shades of red

This is a nice writing ink. Strokes were consistently sharp and clear. The ink has a nice, wet flow, but drying remained quick at 10-15 seconds on premium papers, and remarkably fast on office copy paper at under 5 seconds!

Diamine Red Lustre - ink swatch card

Diamine makes a nice ink, and Red Lustre is no exception. It’s very attractive, and it writes very well. This is a great holiday, or special occasion ink, and it seems to write well on all papers. I’d prefer if it retained some of the glossiness that it has when wet, but overall, it’s a very nice ink.

Diamine Red Lustre - dark edging