The iPen Box is a monthly subscription box that offers varieties of pens, paper, and inks every month, delivered straight to your door. For only $30.00 per month, you’ll get 6-9 new, unusual, cool, and innovative pens and paper products based on a monthly theme in every box.
This month’s theme was “Carmine”, which is a shade of red. I’m excited to jump into my first iPen box!
Holland Harbor Postcard It feels so wrong not spelling it “harbour” — my Canadian side is cringing. Holland Harbor Lighthouse, aka Big Red, is located in Michigan.
Apica Notebook ($1.75) Wait, it’s not red? LOL! Apica is from Japan, and this little notebook is 52 pages with a nice weighted paper that is ruled. This is the perfect size for a purse or a pocket. I tested my new pens with this notebook and didn’t experience any bleeding through. The cover of the notebook is attached in a way that it doesn’t lie flat on its own — you need to hold it open.
Baoer Fountain Pen ($8) And here we have the star of the package — a beautiful red fountain pen and red ink to match! This is where I was thrown out of my comfort zone, since I know nothing about them. A quick Google search told me how to actually fill the pen with ink (it’s really easy!) so that was one crisis averted!
Diamine Ink Sample “Monaco Red” This is a beautiful bright red shade! I doodled below with all the pens so you can see how it looks, but I found the colour to be absolutely gorgeous. Fountain pen ink definitely has a vibrancy to it on the paper that ballpoint just doesn’t match up to! Oh lord, am I already turning into a pen snob after one box?!
Cross Click Set with Refills ($24.95) This pen set contains 2 black ink refills (one is in the pen already) and 1 blue. The pen itself is a bit slimmer than what I’m used to, and also a smooth texture that I need to get used to as well, because this pen writes beautifully!
The pens come in a giftable box which is a nice bonus. I might take out the insert and use this box to keep my fountain pens and ink samples, if they fit.
Zebra Multi-Color Pen This pen has four ink cartridges. I have a few of these pens already from Japan, that are far cuter, haha! So this one will be going with me to work.
Prismacolor Carmine Red Pencil I haven’t used a pencil since high school! We’re not allowed to use pencil at work. I don’t even have a pencil sharpener! I like that this one has an eraser on the end, since many coloured pencils I’ve collected don’t include one.
Here are some quick doodles I did with the two pens I opened. The fountain pen ink has a bit of a sheen to it which is hard to catch in my lighting. The Cross pen is a gel tip and it writes so, so smoothly. I absolutely love how it writes even if I’m not crazy with the build of the pen itself.
iPens also included a pack of cinnamon gum!
My first iPens box was eye-opening; previously I thought fountain pens were something unobtainable and unaffordable, and also hard to use/refill. But they’re really cool, and write very nicely! Plus I feel all fancy now writing my to-do lists in Monaco red ink. I think the red theme was really fun and they did a great job pulling everything together.
What did you think of The iPen Box?
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