Starry Ink - Ankaa Tail
Starry Ink Ankaa Tail - Ink drop
Ankaa is the Arabic word for “the phoenix”, and as you look through my images, you’ll probably find the naming fitting. Ankaa Tail is part of part of the Mood Tail series from Starry Ink. These inks are some of the brand’s most interesting and most innovative. They wildly change color based on temperature and humidity. In addition, each of the inks in the series comes with a vial of shimmer to add as you wish. The shimmer that comes with Ankaa Tail is gold.
Ink Swatches on Cosmo Air Light and Tomoe River
Ankaa Tail shows many of the colors that you might imagine of a bird rising from the flames. From a gentle apricot yellow base, the color develops slowly to reveal oranges and pinks, browns and reds, and stroke edges that approach black. The effects are more pronounced on some papers compared to others, but they are always there to some degree. Wetter pens seem to bring out deeper color variations, as well. It’s really quite stunning.
Ink Swatches on Iroful and Bank papers
This is a pretty wet ink. I try not to add too much shimmer when the choice is my own, and I didn’t have any problems with flow or clogging in a TWSBI Eco (my normal test pen for shimmer inks). Strokes were consistently sharp, too. I didn’t find any instances of feathering or spreading, and ghosting or bleed were never an issue at all. This is a very clean writing ink, and the creative potential is enormous!
Writing sample on Cosmo Air Snow paper
Ankaa Tail is quite unusual and very attractive. I particularly like the ink when the darkest and widest variations appear. I think a lot of people will enjoy this ink. You can find this and the other two inks in the series in round, 40 ml, eye-dropper capped bottles. The bottles are well and nicely packaged, too. Check out Starry Ink’s new website (www.starryink.com) for more information and international shipping.
Starry Ink Ankaa Tail - Swatch Card
Special thanks to Starry Ink for sending this and several other inks over to try! (As usual, if I accept inks or pens to try, it is always with the clear understanding that I may or may not ever review them, and that if I do, I will always include all of both the negatives and positives that I find.)
Starry Ink Ankaa Tail - Swatch Comparisons
Starry Ink Ankaa Tail - 40 ml Bottle