(upbeat music)
- Hello my fellow stationary addicts.
It's Amanda.
Welcome back to my channel and welcome back to
another episode of Stationary Showdown.
Poof (explosion).
If you guys don't know already,
Stationary Showdown is the series on my channel where I put
different stationary products to the test
and compare them to see which one truly comes out on top.
This week we are comparing different notebooks
for bullet journaling.
So for the sake of consistency and my sanity,
I'm only comparing A5 dotted notebooks.
I know when I was looking for a new notebook for 2018,
I was so overwhelmed because there were no many different
new options out there.
And me being the stationary addict / connoisseur /
just neurotic human that I am,
I really just wanted to try them all
and see which one was the best.
So I filmed the results for you
and that's what this video is.
In all seriousness, I really do hope you guys
find this video helpful.
It took me forever to make, just to order all the notebooks
and compare them all.
I think have about 10 different notebooks.
So let's just do this thing.
We have no time to waste.
We have 10 notebooks at bat today,
the first of which is the Leuchtturm 1917.
Then we have the Scribbles That Matter,
Dingbats, Rhodia, Moleskine, Lemome,
Archer and Olive, Bondibook, Mossery Co,
and finally the Midori MD.
The rubric that we're going to be grading
each of these notebooks on are as follows.
We're going to be looking the unique features
of each notebook such as an index or page numbers,
the price, the page color, the dot darkness
which is just the darkness of the dots on the page
and then finally we're gonna do a bleeding
and ghosting test to see
how these books hold up to different pens.
The first notebook in the hot seat is the Leuchtturm 1917.
This is probably the most popular
standard bullet journaling notebook.
So let's go through the features of this notebook.
It includes an elastic covering.
Two bookmarks as well as a back pocket.
It also has an index at the very front,
as well as 249 numbered pages.
The dots on the page are actually, I would say,
medium to light and the page color is a cream, off-white.
So now for the paper test, I tried out
a bunch of different pens so we could see
how the paper holds up with ghosting and bleeding.
The final pen that I used is a Sharpie cause as we know,
Sharpie's eat through paper like no other.
And I would actually have to say the ghosting
was pretty pad on the Leuchtturm as you can see .
It shows through quite a lot.
Not too much actual bleeding which is really good.
The next notebook we're gonna be talking about
is the Scribbles That Matter notebook.
I have the Pearl version, just to clarify.
This notebook actually has a pen loop
which not a lot of them had.
And it also has an elastic holder around the notebook.
Some of the features include a index.
I actually forgot to get a shot of that, sorry about that.
Has two bookmark ribbons as well as a pocket in the back.
The pages are actually a big wider than the Leuchtturm ones
and the dots are just a slightest bit darker.
Not too much of a difference though.
And each of the pages are numbered.
For the pen ghosting and bleeding test,
there was actually a page in the back specifically made
for this purpose, which I really appreciated.
And as you will see shortly,
the ghosting and bleeding was extremely minimal.
This paper did actually really well
and I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out.
The only thing that kind of showed through was the Sharpie.
But all the other pens you could barely tell
from the other side.
So next up we have the Dingbats notebook.
Something to note, this notebook is actually wider
than that previous two that I mentioned.
There is a pen loop and an elastic holder as well.
There's actually only one bookmark in this notebook.
And there isn't a index.
As with most of the notebooks,
there is a pocket in the back,
but the pages are actually not numbered.
I would have to say the page color is pretty much
the same as the Scribbles That Matter,
more of a white, off-white kind of color.
The darkness of the dots is on the medium light side.
Definitely not dark that it's too noticeable,
but you can still see it.
For the pen test, the results were again
very similar to the Scribbles That Matter.
This is probably because they have the same page thickness.
I think it's about 100 GSM.
Very minimal ghosting.
The only thing that showed through was the Sharpie.
Next we have the Rhodia Web notebook.
This notebook goes back down to the standard A5 size.
But there are a little bit less features in this notebook.
There's an elastic holder, but only one bookmark.
There's no index, no page numbers,
only a pocket in the back.
The pages are actually quite yellow.
This notebook probably had the most yellowish pages
out of all of them.
The darkness of the dots was pretty intense.
It was actually one of the notebooks that had
the darkest dots out of all of them.
So that's something to keep in mind
if you don't like your dots to distract your eye.
On to the pen test, the Rhodia notebook,
actually held up pretty well with all of the pens.
Not as good as the Dingbats and the Scribbles That Matter.
There was still definitely some ghosting and bleeding,
especially in the Sharpie.
But for the price and for a standard notebook,
it wasn't that bad at all.
Moleskine notebooks have been around forever,
so of course I had to put their dotted journal to the test.
This one's actually a bit thinner than
some of your more standard A5 journals,
so it's kind of a pocket-size journal.
I would have to say it does come with a bookmark
as well as a pocket in the back.
The pages are an ivory, off-white color
and the dots are actually relatively light.
Personally I prefer lighter dots in my notebooks,
so the Moleskine has the perfect dot darkness for me.
But that's totally up to your personal preference
depending on whether you want more of a guide
or if you want your dots to fade into the background.
I have to say the Moleskine did really disappoint me
for the paper test.
The bleeding and ghosting was really, really bad.
It's not the worst one, but it's definitely
maybe the third worst one because look at how clearly
you can see the pens through the other side of the paper.
The sharpie just ate right through it as well.
The next notebook in the ring is Lemome.
This is actually something that you guys recommended to me.
I had never heard about this and I was pleasantly surprised.
There's a cool pen look that's actually on the spine
as well as an elastic.
With this notebook you get one bookmark,
a pocket in the back, the pages are not numbered,
and you don't get an index.
The pages are again in that off-white, ivory mid tone color.
But the dots are something that really stood out to me.
They are really dark, probably one of the darkest dots
out of all of the notebooks.
Something that I actually noticed about this notebook
is that it lays extremely flat,
so if that's something that you're looking for,
this is definitely the notebook for you.
In terms of the pen test, this paper really impressed me.
As you can see, there's virtually no ghosting.
The only thing that ghosted through a lot was the Sharpie
but it didn't bleed through like other notebooks did.
So if you have issues with your markers,
or what medium is going through your paper,
this notebook is for you.
Next up we have this little guy from Archer and Olive
and I say little because this notebook is noticeably
smaller than some of the other notebooks.
It's just thinner.
This notebook actually has the fewest pages
out of all of them, but that's because
the pages are extremely think.
We're gonna get into that.
But before we do, the notebook has a bookmark and a pocket.
No page numbers and no table of contents.
And as you can probably tell,
the pages are almost a cool white,
leaning more towards the blue side.
Out of all of the notebooks, this notebook has
the darkest dots on the paper.
And for the pen test, this paper is magic.
I don't know what this paper is made out of,
but it held up to even the Sharpie.
As you can see when I flip it over,
there's absolutely nothing on the other side.
You can't even see it.
If you're looking for a notebook that can face
any time of medium, this is your guy.
Next up we have the Bondibook.
This one is very similar to the Leuchtturm,
probably the most similar out of all of them.
It's the same size, it has page numbers,
it has the index, two ribbon book marks,
as well as a pocket in the back.
The pages are actually the exact same color warmth
as the Leuchtturm.
I compared them so I know.
It's that cream color, definitely a bit more yellow
than some of the other ones.
And the only thing that is a bit different
is that the dots are a tiny bit darker.
Moving on to the pen test.
I couldn't really tell a difference between this one
and the Leuchtturm.
This one maybe had the slight bit more ghosting
and bleeding than the Leuchtturm.
But pretty much the same.
It's pretty clear on the other side of the paper.
The second last notebook we're gonna be talking about
is the Mossery and Co notebook.
This one's probably the most unique out of all of them.
As you can see, you can personalize the front.
Opening it up, you'll see that this notebook has
a ton of pre-printed pages in the front.
So it has some inspiration pages.
There's some gridded pages as well as
some monthly layouts, some yearly overview pages,
some goals pages, and these are only in the front
because in the back you have your standard dot grid pages.
So if you're looking for more of a preset planner
with a bullet journal integrated, this is for you.
There's a pocket and a bookmark in the back.
And the pages aren't numbered.
The pages are pure white and the dots are extremely light.
You can almost not even tell that they're on the page.
The only issue with this is that the paper is so thin
and it did not hold up to the pen test very well.
As you can see when I flip over the pages,
pretty much everything bled or ghosted through.
If I were to use this, I would only be able to use pencil
or only write on one side of the paper.
The very last notebook we're gonna be talking about
is the Midori MD notebook.
This notebook is probably the most simple, purest notebook.
There's not a lot of things and bells and whistles.
There's no page numbers, no index, no pocket in the back.
There is a bookmark and the pages are pretty
yellow, cream colored.
And as you can see, the dots are brown,
but on the medium to light side.
The paper didn't really hold up to any of the pens t0o well.
It wasn't as bad as the last one,
but you can definitely see quite a bit
of ghosting and bleeding on the other side.
I did forget to mention that these pages are
kind of the only ones that are squared.
All of the other ones were rounded.
So, that's something that is interesting.
Just to note.
We made it through all of them.
Here is the final overview.
I did make a chart comparing all of them,
breaking it all down.
This is just a preview, smaller version of the chart.
The full version will be down below,
linked in the description box.
And now, of course, the moment you've all been waiting for.
I need to pick my winners for this Stationary Showdown.
I did narrow it down to a top three.
So those three are,
the Scribbles That Matter, the Dingbats,
as well as the Lemome notebook.
So you can't really go wrong with any of these.
All right everyone, so I hope you enjoyed this installment
of Stationary Showdown.
Hopefully it will help you out when you are looking
to purchase a new notebook.
If you wanna check out my previous stationary Showdown
where I compare fine liners, I'm going to link that.
As usual, subscribe for new videos
and check out my Instagram, @AmandaRachdoodles,
for more art and doodle inspiration.
But I think that's it, so I'm gonna sign-off for today.
Keep doodling and I will talk to you in my next video.
Bye everyone.
(upbeat music)