Pelikan Edelstein - Star Ruby

Pelikan Edelstein - Star Ruby - 2019 Ink of the Year

This was Pelikan’s Ink of the Year for 2019. It was also part of the gift pack at the 2019 Pelikan Hub. And that Edelstein bottle...chunky, and stunning!

Star Ruby is a very vivid, red-pink in its lighter areas, and deepens considerably to a deep, rich, pink-red in wetter areas. It never becomes a true magenta, and stays more grounded in the pinks and reds. As can be seen in the splatter, a mustard-gold sheen develops at the edges of the wettest areas. The sheen is a somewhat unusual color, and contrasts well with the rich pink-red it surrounds.

Pelikan Edelstein - Moonstone - Ink swatch card

Star Ruby dries quickly, and writing strokes are crisp and well-defined. However, I can’t say that it’s perfectly well-behaved. In fact, it’s given me a little trouble with staining. I’ve used it in four or five different pens. For the most part, it has been fairly easy to completely clean it out of the pens. However, one convertor immediately stained a bright pink-red, and I wasn’t able to remove the stain through normal cleaning methods.

Pelikan Edelstein - Moonstone - Ink bottle and box

I like Star Ruby. I wasn’t sure at first, but it grew on me. After first trying the ink, I left the bottle untouched for several months. However, when I tried it again, I started to appreciate the ink a lot more. It’s a nice candy, almost plastic, pink-red. Since the staining experience, I‘ve been careful and much more cautious in choosing which pens to ink with it, but I really like it now. There are times when it’s just the color I want, and I don’t have anything that absolutely matches. It’s such a happy color! Enjoy it, but use a little caution.