Illuminate Collection - Dot Grid

Bought this because I was looking for a nice notebook to keep recipes in after I saw a friend doing the same. I picked this one because I liked the grid-style pages and the elastic closure. The only con that I can see with this notebook is that it's not as super sturdy as I would expect - if I press on the front cover there's a little bit of rippling, so it seems to me like the cover is not attached as fully to the cardboard core as I would like. That doesn't really affect my use of it though. When I open it to any specific page, the left side doesn't stay totally flat unless I've spent a while pressing it down to write, but it also doesn't try to close itself like a lot of others do. If you open closer to the middle pages, like around page 62, it stays open much better.The page thickness and quality seems nice, and I really like the grid style because it makes it so much neater to write in. I've attached pictures of the outside of the journal and two examples of pages, one unwritten and the other with writing in two different inks. The dots of the grid aren't overwhelming to me and don't distract from what's written. A lot of y'all here in the comment sections of the journals care a lot about page quality and how it's affected by writing utensils. I don't know what the gsm is but I can tell you about writing on it. I used a sakura gelly roll pen for the blue ink in my picture, and I was careful to let it dry for a couple seconds while I switched pens so had no smearing. The black ink is a easy-glide ballpoint pen which usually doesn't smear on even regular school-quality notebook paper. I noticed after writing for a while with the ballpoint I had ink smears on the side of my hand, but none on the paper itself.Overall I recommend this journal; might update in the future with any changes because I've had it for less than a week now.EDIT: A day or two after this review was first posted, Jumping Fox customer service contacted me to let me know that the issue I had with rippling is being looked over in their factories to make sure it doesn't get past quality control, so I don't think that'll be an issue for buyers in the future. Customer service was very responsive and very nice, and I will be buying again from them when I need a new notebook. Also wanted to update that now that I've written more in the journal, I've had no problems with pages lying flat after they've been written on.

The journal was perfect for me from the moment I saw it. And once I saw it in real life, it became even better. The purple satin is beautiful. I love the unique color choices. They are truly special and the feel of the book is something I haven't felt in other notebooks before.I had it in my cart and as I refreshed my page, my journal was GONE. My beautiful journal was just GONE. Like it never even existed, but was an illusion. After searching for it again, the listing was simply GONE. Not "out of stock" but GONE. I luckily remembered the name of the company and found their website and immediately emailed them to find out what was happening. It seems I notified them of a serious issue with Amazon that took down all of their listings. After a few days, they replied again saying the journal was back up and thanked me for telling them.As soon as I returned it to my cart, it was on its way to me. It WAS real. It wasn't just an illusion!Also, reviews are the lifeblood of small online businesses still trying to get steady on their feet. Reviews help them to be seen. Please spend a few minutes to share your own thoughts so that they can keep these beautiful journals in stock for us notebook-aholics. It's a women created business, which after seeing all the details, doesn't surprise me at all.The quality of the pages..... I'm not skilled with all the pens and inks, etc. I am going to say I'm using it for collage journaling and it's perfect for me. It also seems PERFECT for bullet journaling. The pages are definitely substantial for the normal journaling. But you can refer to others for more pen details if that is something you need to know.It's such a beautiful journal that it could just lay on the table/desk completely empty and add something to the aesthetics of the space. It's that beautiful.Thank you for something beautiful in this 2020 year of ugly.

This journal is truly lovely. The cover is a hard cover. I received mine in purple. It has a slight shimmer to it and the fox logo is embossed with the same material, just a silver color. I have not tried to put a decal on it yet. It is very slightly textured. The journal also comes with a matching elastic, which is very standard and two ribbon page markers. This journal has a pink and ivory one, adding to the soft color scheme of this version. The page ends are also shiny silver which is an nice touch. The pages are nice and thick (140 gsm I believe) with a smooth, though not glossy feel. It seems to take to gel pens, ball point pens, Tombows, markers, and highlighters fairly well. I had a little pilling with one of my brush markers, but I layered one too many times I think. They ghost with some color put down, but very minimal if no bleed through. I have a heavy hand, so this is a nice feature for me. The page color is soft, buttery ivory, though not yellow, and the dots are soft gray- dark enough to see for page design, light enough to fade away unless you're looking for them. Pages are also numbered in the same gray color. The first few pages (not numbered) is an index and the last 6 sheets are perforated if you need to remove them. There is a pocket at the back of the journal that is slightly expandable. Pages lay relatively flat and binding is mostly not visible. It has yet to be seen how the book handles items being added to pages to make it chunkier. So far, I am very pleased with my purchase!

I love the design of this journal. The dusty rose is beautiful, the little jumping fox is super cute.The issue I have with this notebook is the paper; it is nice and thick, doesn’t bleed through. But I use fountains pens… my Lamy safari with black ink smudges like crazy and my kaküno with Herbin ink smudges even more. Blotting with Visconti paper somehow doesn’t help…Pen and pencil are fine so I will put my inks away for this one! I’m just disappointed that I cannot use my favorite tools with it