You might have wondered why I ordered a pencil from Cult Pens last week. And that would be because I was ordering a few other things that were 100% exclusive to Cult Pens so I threw the pencil in with the rest of the order, because why not? I was already paying shipping and tariffs so, in for a penny, in for a pound sterling, right?
Wha compelled me to brave tariffs and fees and international shipping, you might ask? That would be the Diamine Deadly Nightshade ink (£13.00 GBP for 50ml bottle) that was exclusive to Cult Pens. What’s so special about this ink?
I probably would have purchased it for the name alone but it is a purple sheener ink with silver shimmer in it as well. And… insert dramatic dirge music here… floating skulls in the bottle to act as mixing beads!
You read that correctly. Floating skulls. There was a great photo on the CultPens site. I did my best to get my skulls floating upright and visible but in the end, they look more like two teeth. Which is equally creepy so I’m going to go with it.
The ink color is a pinky purple with a clear green sheen. And the shimmer adds a little sparkly moonlight. Yes, I really do want everyday to be Halloween.
I tested the ink with a variety of pen tools. The sheening is definitely more visible in wider nibs. There is not a ton of shimmer which I don’t mind. If I see a little shimmer that’s cool but there is so much sheen that I think it would be distracting if there was a a crap ton of glitter too.
I compared the Deadly Nightshade to the purples currently in my collection first. I needed to compare it to Monteverde Birthday Cake (one of my favorite inks) which is not a sheener and quite a bit bluer violet than the Deadly Nightshade. Colorverse Delicious Sleep is closest to the color in my stash but also not a sheener. So if you like the color but don’t want sheen or shimmer, I’d recommend it as an alternative.
I tried to compare the Deadly Nightshade to other sheener or shimmer purple inks. I think the Taccia Murasaki Purple is the closest to the Deadly Nightshade base color. The Bungubox L’Amant reminds me of the lighter, finer writing samples above. Neither of these are sheen or shimmer inks.
The Kuretake Art Nouveau Perkin Mauve is the only other sheener purple that was similar but the sheen is darker making the ink feel like a purble black.
In the shimmer inks, Diamine’s Purple Pazzazz has a gold shimmer, Esterbrook Shimmer Lilac is lighter than Purple Pazzazz and has a lighter gold shimmer. Jacques Herbin 1789 Amethyst de L’Oural has a silver shimmer and finally Robert Oster Barossa Grape has a gilver shimmer which gives the ink a different feel altogether. None of the shimmers in my library were also a sheener so if you like the idea of purple but not sheen consider one of these options instead.
Final Verdict:
I do think I prefer the Deadly Nightshade in a finer nib as I can see more of the color of the ink and a hint of the sheen. The shimmer is cool but not a make a break for me. Diamine’s shimmer particles are fine enough now that I don’t worry much about it clogging.
YES! I love the addition of themed mix beads like little plastic skulls in an ink called Deadly Nightshade. This is a great way to plus up an ink and make it more fun to use. I want to see more of this! But, Diamine and Cult Pens, could you make it a little easier for US customers to get a bottle? Let’s collab! I have ideas!
Now, for the really big news…
Giveaway:
I didn’t just buy one bottle of this ink. I bought another bottle of Deadly Nightshade to give away to ONE lucky reader.
TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me what other POISON inks you’d like to see. Or what floaters you think should be added to ink bottles. Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.
If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give themonkeys some time.
FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Saturday, June 6, 2026 at 10pm Central. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.mom, not Instagram, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 5 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.
I would love to see a blue sheening ink based on the Bobtail Squid. You could theme the beads after octopi or even seaweed if available.
How about a green ink called Arsenic and Old Lace with a lacy design on the bottle? Arsenic was used in green dyes during the Victorian era.
That’s an awesome ink!
My idea for a poison ink would be poison apple: A green ink with gold sheening, with apples floating in it.
Oh man, the floaters are definitely a good gimmick.
I feel like there’s definitely a market for some soot sprites in a Spirited Away ink. What color would the ink be- maybe a pink-persimmon-orange, like Chiharu’s clothing?
As someone who also wants it to be Halloween year round, some pumpkin floaters in a dark green would also look pretty cool. (Maybe a Great Pumpkin tie-in?)
As for poison inks- Amanita mushrooms are an obvious one. Red pigment but could you make an inclusion that causes white speckling? Poison ivy is another one, although I think it would take some very clever marketing to sell. I would be most interested in hellebore. I think the flower has some very lovely shades, including darker tones that look good in goth gardens.
Arsenic would make a great ink. A yellow-green shade, similar to the dyed dresses of the 1800’s. Floaters could be tiny rats as it was used as rat poison as well.
Nonono, the plural of octopus is octopuses. Seriously. I know this stuff. Any ink that’s a sky-theme could have both crescent shaking-things and multi-color sparkles in it. Anything else that’s floral but not too specific could have flower-shaped disruptors. Spherical disruptors could be a color with contrasting dots, to represent holes, like in bowling balls. Call the ink Ebonite. Get it? Have you seen, or seen pictures of the prize-winning pen that Dave Dollar made with the floating sea objects suspended in fluid? Similar little critters, like tiny fish and seahorses and snail shells, would work as disruptors in ink that has a color consistent with the ocean. How about disruptors shaped like teensy cars, trucks, motorcycles? I am on a roll! Stop me before I hurt myself. Thank you for your attention, and give my love to the monkeys.
If it anything like the Noodler’s Nightshade it’s probably phenomenal.
“Black Widow” Ink (because, I, too wish everyday was Halloween): dark, dark red with black or bronze shimmer with black spider floaters! Make it so!
My dad has a set of six highball glasses that say Pick Your Poison on them and then have the name of various poisons. Arsenic, hemlock, belladonna, curate, cyanide, strychnine. (Yes, I have called dibs on the set when he cleans out the bar.) Most of those are boring colors (gray, white), I bet a murky green hemlock could be lovely…gold or bronze shimmer maybe?
I think all shimmer inks should come with agitators, but I get it’s probably too expensive to manufacture ramune-like ink bottles. A poison ink I’d like to see an interpretation of is… this is going to be really long-winded so I apologize in advance… isn’t actually a poison but it was an oil in an episode of Xena which made her gradually get blind unless she got the cure within 24 hours. So maybe like a disappearing-reappearing ink like from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Or maybe something sheeny b/c I think the original use of the oil was to make clothing pretty or something (it’s been a while since I did a rewatch of the series).
This is such a cool shade of ink. I would also love a black that shows multiple sheening colors. I never use black, but that would be cool, and it could contain mini black cat heads for mixing beds.
I’d love something like digitalis (continue the potentially poisonous plant theme) with a magenta ink and black sparkle. Maybe throw in an anatomically correct heart as a mixer!
Here’s my suggestion: Arsenic and old lace. In the movie, the “sweet old ladies” used elderberry wine laced with arsenic. So a rich backberry/plum base color with a gray metallic sheen (gray is the most common color of arsenic). The beads would be white with an embossed lace pattern.
Thanks for a great review. I love purple inks and will have to add this to my wishlist. As for my pick for a POISON ink, how about a Black Widow black ink with a red sheen and plastic red heats as a mixing bead.
Blue-ringed Octopus. A metallic bluish grey. It doesn’t get much more poisonous (well, venomous) than that.
oh man, all these ideas are fantastic! Hm. Perhaps a hemlock-themed ink, white-sheened over dark browny-green, with floaters that look like little chickens (very simple cartoony ones, so as to be rounder) since apparently some of Socrates’ last words were about owing a rooster to someone and asking someone to pay that debt for him? Or possibly just little cups, like the ones the Greeks used to poison prisoners that are still extant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conium_maculatum).
I love the look of this ink SO MUCH, thanks for the opportunity!
Aconite, or Wolfsbane! IT’s a highly toxic flowering plant. I’d like it as a bright purple-blue with a silvery sheen! Little wolf heads as beads 8D
That is a lovely color. It would make a lovely wash
Portuguese Man O’ War – it’s so dangerous, but it’s blues are so enchanting.
Rattlesnake! Dark grey ink with copper sheen and silver shimmer. Is that even possible? Then it could have little Rattler shapes in it. Bonus points sounds like a rattlesnake when you shake. Someone please take my idea, I need more snake inks.
Skulls would have been my first suggestion, so I want this ink! But since I need to make something up… let’s go antivenom. A pink with gold sheen dharma ink with bodhi seed or lotus mixers
How about “Arsenic and old lace”?
I would love to have glow in the dark doo-dads. Or something colour changing, since those properties are hard to have in the ink itself, little things that go off when they’re exposed to light or something. I dunno, it’d probably affect the ink negatively, but might be nice to know if there’s extra light exposure happening?
(I got the Dominant Industry, ink that is UV reactive. That one is COOL (not for fountain pens, dip only)).
Poison related, I think it’d be fun to do a mushroom themed run.
Thanks for the giveaways!
I think someone should add little mummy heads to bottles of dingy arsenic grey ink. Just my two cents (but not for eye use).
I think someone should add little mummy skulls to bottles of dingy arsenic grey ink. Just my two cents (but not for eye use).
OMG, this ink is amazing! Gives me a Nightmare Before Christmas vibe; it even has the same name! Along those same lines, it’d be fun to have a whole line of inks in that theme: frog’s breath, worms wort, etc.
How about a pair of inks: Thallium (the poison) and Prussian Blue (the antidote).
Foxglove or irises for their color! And the beads would be the flowers! Cool
I would love a red and black Dungeon Crawler ink, with a couple of dice to shake up in there. Ooh– also a Magic 8 Ball ink, that answers your questions! Neither is poisonous, but I’d be 100% into the floating fun.
I have no experience with poison inks…
That is an incredibly strong sheen. I’ve been looking at this ink on and off, but I guess I never fully understood just how much it sheens. Fascinating! Thank you for the review!
I think a fun ink would be “Snake Eyes” with beads that looked like snakes’ eyes included as agitators. (And for those of us who don’t like snakes, an alternative version with dice beads!) I don’t really have a specific snake in mind. I guess a red ink with gold shimmer, to mirror the snake rhyme “Red next to yellow, kills the fellow”
I’d love a “Snake Oil” ink, whiskey brown since that was usually the base of patent medicines, with a black-ish sheen and silver shimmer as a nod to the cocaine and opium mix-ins. As for agitators, simple – fake snake heads and/or rattles!
Poison Hemlock. Bright green with maroon sheen and white shimmer. Agitators could be flower clusters like its flowers.
I’d love arsenic green. Skulls are perfect for poison, but there could be hearts for red/pink. Or how cool would it be to have ink the same color as the magic 8 ball liquid with the matching floater!
I absolutely love this color, I’ve been lucky to get a couple of samples along the way. Your comment re moderating comments made me think that if would be hilarious to have little monkey beads in shimmer inks.
How about an Arsenic & Old Lace inspired ink? They put the arsenic in elderberry wine, so a highly saturated, sheening ink in a rich purple, almost black. Floaters of something which looked like lace. Maybe a shimmer in a steel gray which is how it appears in nature.
It would be really cute to have little fish in a ocean colored ink!
This ink has been on my wishlist cuz Purple and Skulls! I thought the floater idea was so cool and I would love to see more inks with them! Everyone has such great ideas, I would love stars or moons in a celestial theme, sea creatures, cauldrons in a bright green ink – any thing really!
I would like to see more ink based on poisonous flowers. Or one based on the blue ringed octopus. I wonder if it’d be hard to make a golden orange that sheens/shimmers blue?
I’d like to see some scorpion love. How about the striped bark scorpion? Some have an interesting blue/brown coloration. The agitators could be tail segments.
Rattlesnake ink, with little rattles as agitators.
Wow – such a cool color! I would love to see “arsenic and old lace” ink – it could be any color (red with silver shimmer), but pieces of lace could be the floaters!
Orange ink with black shimmer called poison dart frog. Little frogs floating in it, of course.