On Friday I visited an amazing bookshop in Bebington called Paper and Word. It’s purely a fantasy bookshop, so as a huge fantasy fan, I was in my element! I obviously came out with a book (The Strength of the Few by James Islington) and some bookish goodies, but also, with this gorgeous pen:

I’ll be the first to say I bought this pen purely for aesthetic reasons! I’d never heard of the brand The Quirky Cup Collective, and so didn’t necessarily have any huge expectations about the performance of the pen, it just looked cute. But now I’ve been using it for a couple of days, I’m actually really impressed with it! 

From a little research it seems that The Quirky Cup Collective is an Australian company that primarily sells bookish themed items, including some stationery, such as reading journals and these pens. Paper and Word stocked many different designs of this pen, but this blue, gold and white celestial pattern was the one that really spoke to me. This design is called Daydreamer, which is inscribed on the clip. And I like the added touch of the star on the finial!

It is quite a slim pen, and the grip especially is quite narrow, which might not be to everyone’s taste, but for such a slim pen it is comfortably weighty. The cap posts securely on the notch at the end of the pen, and it does feel a lot more balanced when posted. It does take a little more force than you expect to get the cap back on the pen when you’ve finished writing, but it isn’t a huge problem.

This is a 0.5mm gel rollerball pen, and I was really impressed with the writing experience. It’s lovely and smooth, and the ink itself is a very deep, saturated black. The packaging advertises it as smudgeproof, which I can confirm, and waterproof, although I haven’t tested that! 

The rollerball refill inside it does seem to be a bit shorter than in a lot of my other pens, so I haven’t yet found one that is interchangeable. But refills were available to buy at Paper and Word, and The Quirky Cup Collective also sell them on their website, so I should be able to get my hands on one when needed.

Overall, I’m incredibly impressed with this pen, for something I bought on a whim whilst on a bookshop spending spree! I love when you find random stationery items in places you don’t expect, and it turns out to be really good! 

So what have been some of your best ‘on-a-whim’ stationery purchases?