Private Reserve - Neon Green
Private Reserve - Neon Green - Ink Drop
Private Reserve’s Neon Green is a fun and interesting ink! It’s also more complex. more useful, and more usable than I anticipated. This is one of six inks in the Neon series that Private Reserve released in early 2022. The series also includes neons in yellow, blue, orange, pink, and fuschia. They come in 60 ml bottles, and you can find them at popular online retailers for US$12 to $15.
Private Reserve - Neon Green - UV Fluorescent Ink
Neon Green is very UV fluorescent! I’ve used a number of other UV fluorescent inks, such as Tono & Lims’ Kaleidoscope series inks, but the property generally faded in a short amount of time. With Neon Green, it’s nearly as bright several days later, as it is when it first hits the page. (These images were taken two to three days after the ink dried.)
Private Reserve - Neon Green - on Cosmo Air Light
Neon Green also works very well as a highlighter ink. I tried writing over several other standard inks and didn’t find any smudging or spreading. The bottom text stayed as visible as with a normal highlighter. Felt-tip highlighter pens always eventually seem to smear the words they cover, but there was none of that here. (I think highlighting with a fountain pen actually solves the problem.) That makes this an excellent ink for editing. You can write comments normally or use it to highlight.
Private Reserve - Neon Green - Color Range
This is a slightly dry ink in writing, but flow was consistent and reliable. It didn’t cause any problems, but I’d recommend using it in wetter pens for best results. Drying time was very fast on uncoated papers and average on coated papers.
Private Reserve - Neon Green - on Rhodia
Writing performance was pretty good. On many papers, strokes were fairly clean, but in some cases I did find a bit of feathering. On standard card stock, it sometimes feathered badly (see the swatch card image below), and Mnemosyne showed more than I would like. On uncoated papers, there’s a bit of spread, but it’s not enough to be a problem for normal writing. In an ink like this, I think that’s acceptable, and for highlighting it may even be a plus.
Private Reserve - Neon Green - on HP Copy Paper
Private Reserve Neon Green is quite a lot more than I expected. For writing, I think the increased shading with the hint of minty blue, and the vividness of the neon made the good, HP copy paper my surprising favorite!
Private Reserve - Neon Green - Writing Samples
I recommend trying it on a few different papers to find the pairing that pleases you most. (The HP BrightWhite 24 image, and the four-paper writing sample image included here were made using a Jowo medium nib. The writing on the ink drop, and the ink swatches were made using a dip pen.) As you can see, there’s a lot of variation based on the paper style and color, and the pen that you use.
Private Reserve - Neon Green - Ink Swatch Card
Special thanks to Private Reserve and Yafa Brands for sending this ink, and several others over to try. As always, my reviews reflect my honest opinions. I only review pens and inks that I enjoy and have used extensively, and I always include both the positives and the negatives that I find.
Private Reserve - Neon Green - Comparisons
Private Reserve - Neon Green - 60 ml Bottle