Ink recommendations for stamping - what are your must haves?

Even though I use stamps quite a bit I tend to stick to only a couple of basic inks (black versafine, versamark, distress oxides are what I use all the time).

But I've been intrigued by what Justine Hovey has to say about Catherine Pooler inks for stamping large solid shapes. This was the blog post/video that made me think I might need to buy these inks. Those solid teardrop shapes would be so hard to stamp well with most inks but they came out beautifully with the CP inks. And the colors look gorgeous.
She has a lot more posts using the Catherine Pooler inks on her blog too. I've never heard of CP besides there.

I actually tend to get Catherine Pooler and Gina K mixed up. I believe Gina K. also has some gorgeous ink colors and they seem like great inks.

I'm also interested to try the Versafine Clair inks. There's a discussion on the stamping/card board about them.

I have used oxide inks for stamping bolder images (big scripty sentiments) but only with a stamping tool. I don't trust the image will come out right on the first try. I almost always use versafine for anything small, detailed or which needs to be precise (ie almost all of the words I stamp).

I didn't like the shadow inks very much (I used them a long time ago and maybe I didn't use them for the right techniques).
I had Kelly Purkey branded Hero Arts hybrid cubes and didn't like them at all. A bunch were dried up or maybe they just weren't very juicy. I got rid of them after trying a few times and having terrible results. (first time I ever bought a big set of something, so that left a sour taste in my mouth).

If I was branching out I'd buy a couple of favorite colors to try out before I invested in more. I think the best inks for each person are really dependent on what you stamp, on what, and how.

You are right about the difference between pigment and dye, btw. Dye will dye the fibers of the paper, pigment sits on top. If you need to prevent bleeding, or need the ink to stay wet a while (eg. to heat emboss), pigment is best. You can also stamp light colors on dark papers with pigment inks. If you want something that will dry fast without heat setting, or will fill a solid image better, dye is the way to go, because it soaks in and spreads out a bit. Hybrid inks (incl distress oxides) have aspects of both.

I like the Altenew crisp dye inks for stamping - particularly good for layering. My go to black ink is Versafine onyx black except when I use copics. I've herd really good things about Gina K amalgam ink - all purpose black and would like to try that next.

I've recently got some distress oxides for backgrounds and would also like to try them for ordinary stamping after having seen one of Jennifer McGuire's videos.

I've heard of CP but haven't seen much about her inks so was interested to see Justine Hovey's post.

I have some of Catherine Pooler’s inks and I love them! They do stamp solid images beautifully. I’m saving up to buy the rest of the colours available.

I have the HA shadow inks but they always remain blotchy regardless of what cardstock I use. I use versamark and versafine but i am in love with my Versafine Clair black pad for very finely detailed stamps. It’s darker than versafine and gives a much better image.

I have all the inks mentioned here so far except Catherine Pooler and Gina K. I also have all the Papertrey ink cubes. Nothing special about those except the cubes are cheap and they come in a lot of colors. I like the Versafine Clair inks and will probably get more of those. I mostly use them for sentiments because they are so crisp. The colors are intense.

Having a stamp positioner really makes it less important which ink formulas I buy now. I haven't been overly impressed with Altenew. I've bought quite a few of the cube sets and it seems like at least one of the cubes in each set is a really hideous color that doesn't work with multi-layering at all, usually the darkest one in a set. I probably won't add any more of those. I have some Archival Inks but only in colors I really like because they came along after I already had a lot of inks. I also like the WPlus9 inks but if you don't like shadow inks you wouldn't want those because I think the formula is the same. Same goes for LawnFawn. They do have refills though and that is important to me. I agree that the Distress Oxides are great for stamping too. I finally added them into my color chart binder just so I would remember to use them for stamping and not just blending. There is nothing wrong with the Memento inks either. They have been around a long time but they work if you like the colors.

The biggest problem in building a set from multiple brands is finding real life color charts so you don't duplicate. I really prefer to just buy the colors I like but I have way too many dead ringer color matches in different brands. At least if you stick to one brand with a lot of colors you won't duplicate.

I honestly have not tried my Copics with my Archival inks. I haven't use my Copics in several years. Oooops. But they do take a bit longer to dry so that might be it. Since they are waterproof, I would think it would be fine. Try heat setting first. I bet that would work. If I remember, I will give it a try later today.