Diamine Inkvent Advent Calendar 2026: 25 exclusive inks, a 30ml finale and a first-ever run of pigment inks
The Diamine Inkvent Advent Calendar 2026, this year in its Burgundy Edition box, hides 25 exclusive inks behind its doors, every one mixed for this calendar and sold nowhere else. Twenty-four come in 12ml bottles, one a day. The 25th, opened on Christmas Day, is a full 30ml bottle. An extra surprise door adds an exclusive Diamine collectible and a set of magic swatch cards, so you can test each colour as you go.
The range covers Standard, Sheen, Extreme Sheen, Shimmer, Chameleon and Pigment inks. What’s genuinely new for 2026 is the arrival of permanent pigment inks, waterproof and light-fast, including Pigment Shimmer and Pigment Chameleon variants that have never appeared in an Inkvent before. This one is squarely aimed at fountain pen users and ink collectors, and it sits at the upper-mid end of the ink calendar market at £99.
What’s inside and what it’s worth
You get 318ml of ink in total: 24 bottles of 12ml plus the 30ml finale, all in shades created for this box. The Burgundy case itself is illustrated by a well-known calligraphy artist, and the extra collectible door is the piece the 2026 edition adds over a plain 25-door layout.
On value, it pays to be straight. Priced as plain writing ink, the 318ml works out at roughly £32; valued at Diamine’s effect-ink rates (the loose Inkvent 50ml bottles resell for about £13 each), it climbs to around £83. Either way the ink itself comes in below the £99 price. Divide the launch price across the 25 inks and each one lands at about £3.96. What you’re paying on top of the liquid is the individual bottling, the exclusive shades, the calendar format and the collectible, not a bargain on ink by the litre.
=> The full door-by-door list of all 25 colours sits in the SPOILER tab.
Teal 2025 to Burgundy 2026: what has actually changed
Last year’s Teal Edition ran the same proven format: 25 inks, 24 small bottles plus one 30ml. The 24-plus-1 structure hasn’t moved, and that’s the part Diamine got right and left alone. Three things are new for 2026. The box is Burgundy rather than teal, illustrated afresh. The line-up brings permanent pigment inks for the first time, the Pigment Shimmer and Pigment Chameleon formulas among them. And there’s an extra surprise door carrying the collectible and the swatch cards, which the Teal edition did not have. Beyond those points, it’s the same idea done again, which is exactly why regulars keep coming back.
Editorial perspective on this 2026 box set
I haven’t had this year’s calendar in hand, the 2026 edition isn’t shipping yet, so treat this as a read on the range, not a bottle-by-bottle test. That said, what convinces first is the honesty of the format: 25 brand-new inks, no filler, no repeats padding the count. The pigment inks are the real reason to look twice this year, because a waterproof, light-fast fountain pen ink is something Inkvent buyers have asked about for years.
The other point in its favour is that none of it goes to waste after December. Unlike a chocolate calendar, 318ml of ink lasts for years of writing, and the new permanent inks are made for everyday use, letters and labels included. A waterproof ink still earns its place in a drawer long after the last door is open.
Where it wobbles is the maths. The ink alone is worth somewhere between £32 and £83, and the £99 price sits above both. Nobody buying this is buying it by the millilitre, but I’d rather say it plainly than dress the £99 up as a saving. This is a collector’s purchase, paid for the exclusivity and the daily ritual.
Fountain pen people will be delighted to spend December testing a new shade a day, and the swatch cards make that genuinely easy. My honest line: ‘you’re paying for 25 inks you can’t get any other way, and for the fun of finding out which is which, so price it as a treat, not an investment’.
- Not for you if you want the cheapest way to fill a pen: bottled Diamine standard ink is far better value by volume.
- Worth it if you collect Inkvent shades, want the new pigment inks, or love the daily reveal.
Versions of this calendar:
Diamine, a Liverpool ink house since 1864
Diamine has been mixing fountain pen ink in Liverpool since 1864, and it holds one of the widest colour ranges of any ink maker, all water-based and non-toxic. That breadth is the whole point of an Inkvent: the calendar is really a tasting menu of what Diamine can do with sheen, shimmer and chameleon effects in one box.
For 2026, adding permanent pigment inks to that repertoire is the most technical thing the house has put in an Inkvent, and it’s the clearest sign of why people trust the name for both traditional and experimental colours.
Where to buy the Diamine Inkvent 2026
The Diamine Inkvent 2026 is available at Cult Pens, with delivery expected in October 2026. Compare the live offers at the top of this page.
- Retailer: Cult Pens (product code DM00015)
- Delivery: FREE Royal Mail Standard on orders over £100, otherwise £3.95
- Discount Code: none available at the moment
Discount Code
There is no discount code for the Diamine Inkvent 2026 at the time of writing. If one goes live, it’ll show up in the deals at the top of the page.
