Octopus Fluids Celestial Shimmer Fountain Pen Inks

Celestial Glitter Inks - Developing a new generation of shimmer inks

With the Celestial Collection, we have developed a shimmer ink that clearly distinguishes itself from existing shimmer inks on the market. Our goal was not to create just another colored ink with glitter pigments, but rather a formulation specifically designed to reduce the typical weaknesses of conventional shimmer inks.

The starting point was well known: many shimmer inks suffer from inconsistent ink flow, rapidly settling glitter pigments, deposits inside fountain pens, or require extensive cleaning. These issues formed the basis for a complete redevelopment from the ground up.

Two Years of Development - From Problem to Solution

Over a period of approximately two years, we fundamentally rethought the formulation. Our focus was not only on the visual appearance on paper, but above all on the technical performance inside fountain pens under real-world conditions and during extended writing sessions.

The result is a water-based, dye-based shimmer ink featuring a specially developed pigment stabilization system that continuously controls the distribution of the pigments within the ink. The shimmer particles remain evenly dispersed over long periods and are reliably kept in suspension, effectively preventing agglomeration. Even after extended storage, a brief and gentle shake is sufficient to fully reactivate the ink.

Controlled Flow Behaviour

A key innovation lies in the ink’s flow behavior. Many shimmer inks are either too thin - leading to sedimentation of the glitter pigments - or too viscous, negatively affecting ink flow.

The inks in our Celestial Collection deliberately combine both requirements. They exhibit thixotropic behavior (“ketchup effect”):

• At rest, the ink has a higher viscosity, keeping the pigments stably suspended.
• Under shear stress, such as during writing or shaking, the viscosity decreases and the ink becomes significantly more fluid.

This results in a clearly noticeable difference during use:

• consistent ink flow, even during extended writing sessions
• uniform shimmer effect without interruptions
• no need to shake or rotate the fountain pen while writing

Clean Writing Appearance - Even After Writing

Another major focus during development was the behavior of the ink on paper. Many shimmer inks lose their effect through abrasion or smudge during use.

The Celestial shimmer inks were specifically designed to produce a permanently stable writing appearance. The shimmer pigments adhere reliably to the paper and remain in place even when touched or during frequent page turning. This makes the inks attractive not only for creative applications, but also for everyday use, such as in planners or notebooks.

Conscious Material Choice

For the shimmer pigments, we use synthetic mica. This mineral pigment offers consistent quality characteristics and provides a microplastic-free alternative to conventional plastic glitter. At the same time, it avoids the well-known ecological and ethical issues associated with