“bottled light” x8 | Dominant Industry Ink Reviews

When we think about writing fluids, there are certain names that come to mind, and I bet a lot of them originate from either Japan or the old continent. However, for the past few years we are seeing the rise of korean ink makers, and they are definitely on to something.

I reached out to Dominant Industry and they kindly sent these 8 gorgeous bottles to me free of charge, thus these opinions here will be my own, without any monetary compensation.

The packaging

The 8 bottles came well packed within small cardboard boxes printed with additional company contact information and user instructions in both Korean and English. The label is neatly stickered on with the color number on top for ease of sorting and storage - opening it reveals a plastic pipette, a small dust bag containing the droplet shaped ink bottle. This bottle shape is a lovely design choice by Dominant Industry, as you could clearly see the shimmer sparkles under a light, thus the particles would not get caught in the corners of a typical squared ink bottle - oh, by the way, a gentle shake before using any of their pearl colors is recommended.

Dominant Industry strives to create something called "bottled light" - and from the naming as well as coloring of the ink, they would certainly make a cult following in the years to come.

Winter Wood

The most tamed color out of the 8 bottles - Winter Wood is a dark brown that has streaks of gold amidst the ink pool. It's a keeper for me and I'd look forward to Dominant Industry making larger bottles of their Standard line.

Autumn Forest

This one is also a brown, but with a catch - at first glance, it might seem like a really pale mossy green with no personality whatsoever, somewhat similar to a rotting leaf - yet under bright light its shimmery red sparkles shine through and this reminds me of a good old walk in Dalat pine forest in a September afternoon.

Sunset

Sunset is also another one that got my attention the first time I scrolled through Dominant Industry's instagram. The color was not something I look for in a writing ink, but as a solo color, this one gets the color of a glorious sunset down to the teeth - a pinkish blue that almost purple in some angle, complimented by a good amount of pink shimmers to brighten up the sunset theme, I'll stick a picture of a recent sunset I'd witnessed so you could be the judge.

Maple

This highlighter red is probably making me relate to my canadian audience - the red is plain but not so simple to the point of being boring. There is also an orange undertone to further brighten up the whole maple leaf theme, and they got it pretty much on point.

Lake

The color really does remind me of a good blue lagoon during a hot summer day - the name “Lake” might be a bit off but overall, this one might be a more interesting blue to use for your daily writer to the usual navy color inks in your collection.

Leaf Green

A different shade of green to the ones I’ve tried out and I must say the little bit of warmth tone makes it one of my favorite greens so far. A disadvantage of green inks is that they come a bit short in terms of legibility but Leaf Green fixes that issue with good saturation and darker shading in large pool, and it’s a lovely shade at that too with a finer nib.

Winter Night

When you feel like being a sparkly human being but have to keep it professional at work, this deep purple-ish blue black is probably the way to go. Winter Night has a good amount of dark shades for legibility, while the subtle shimmers only come out under stronger lights and in ink pools. Nonetheless, for those who would like to dip their toes into shimmery inks, I think this is a pretty decent first choice.

Romania Red

Last of the bunch sent to me by Dominant Ink and this one does not disappoint either: a gorgeous deep red with a rich purple undertone and gold sheen. At first glance I pretty much skipped it since the red pool didn’t show a lot of the characters of the ink, but after a while, the dried out pool of ink caught me by surprise. Quite an enjoyable red to use and one that I would keep for myself.

Once again, I would like to thank Mr.Lee from the Dominant Industry team for kindly sending these lovely bottles for a review. Dominant Industry clearly knows what they are doing with their inks and I’m eager to see what kind of project they would come up with in the future. What are your favorite colors from Dominant Industry and what would be the best color-shimmer combination you would like to see from them? While we wait, how about checking out the other ink reviews. Thank you for reading and I’ll catch you in the next one.