Tono & Lims DEEEP SPACE Star Forming - 4ml Fountain Pen Ink Sample

Hue: A warm tan-to-cocoa brown with a dusty mauve undertone. Tono & Lims describe it as a beige brown shading to pale peach — on my Tomoe River swatches the light end reads khaki-gold rather than peach, with no pink in it, and where the ink pools heavily a distinct plum-mauve separates out that the official description doesn't mention. Written with a dip pen it lays down mid-brown and dries golden-tan as the line thins.

Shading: Strong. There's a wide range between the pale gold of a light stroke and the deep cocoa of a pooled edge, and the swabs show clear chromatic separation — tan base with mauve-plum and dark brown gathering at the edges.

Sheen: None.

Shimmer: None.

Flow: Medium.

The interesting bit: Star Forming is part of the DEEEP SPACE collection (three Es, deliberately), a series built around the cosmos — the void, the glow of stars, the colour of nebulae. A star-forming region is exactly that: a cold cloud of dust and gas collapsing under its own gravity until it ignites, which makes the dusty browns and mauves in this one a more literal piece of naming than it first looks. Tono & Lims is a Japanese brand founded by fountain pen enthusiast Takashi Ono, made in partnership with Lim's Lab in South Korea, and the collection is known for exactly this kind of colour separation.

This is a hand-decanted 4ml sample vial from my own bottle.

Photos are my own swatches on Tomoe River Paper.

I'm a collector and I'm always happy to talk ink, so please message me if you have any questions.