l really like the Limelife Planner so was keen to try the dot grid notebook (there aren’t many coil bound medium size bullet journal notebooks – especially personalised ones!)
Quick facts
- Size: 7″ wide x 9″ high (B6, A5, and US letter size also available)
- Laminated cardstock cover
- Coil binding
- Multiple cover designs to choose from
- Cover personalisation (free)
- 50 double sided pages (you can add more for extra cost – $3.50 USD per extra 25 double sided pages)
- Choose between dot grid, lined, graph or checklist pages
- Choose between just dot grid, or dot grid pages with a pattern printed at the top
- No index, future log etc – dot grid pages only
Price: Depends on the number of pages you choose. I opted for the smallest size (50 pages) which was $16 USD. I paid $14.40 by purchasing during their Black Friday sale (they rarely have sales and when they do, it’s not by much).
Let’s take a closer look!
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The Cover
The cover is cardstock with heavy duty laminate. I purchased a Limelife Planner a few years back and after reviewing many planners since then, I think Limelife has some of the strongest laminated covers.
There are quite a few different covers to choose from but a lot of them have words / quotes on the cover which just isn’t me. It was tempting to choose the same rainbow polka dot I have for my Limelife Planner or a simple pattern like stripes, but I opted for something different and got this leaf pattern. I thought it would be more teal / mint but it’s more mint / green. You can pick your pattern from their selections but you can’t change the colors of that pattern.
You can personalise the cover with any text you like, I opted to just add bullet journal (love the cursive font!)
I added the minimum number of sheets because shipping to Australia is expensive and more paper = more weight = higher shipping costs.
For 50 sheets, the notebook is only 8mm thick (i’m not sure what that is in inches sorry!)
Dot grid pages
I’m really disappointed with these dot grid pages. The dots are so big and dark grey – they’re too ‘in your face’. Usually when you write on the page or rule up a weekly spread, the dots will sort of ‘fade’ into the background but these dots are so big they’re still clearly visible (you’ll see what I mean when you scroll down to the pen test later in this post).
Pen Testing
The paper is smooth and nice to write on, but it is prone to a bit of ghosting…
…And some bleed through for the MAMBI stamps.
The pens that had the least ghosting were the papermate (inkjoy gel, ballpoint and the flair), zebra sarasa clip, Muji gel and the Sharpe Art Pen.
Pros of the Limelife Planners Notebook
- Personalised cover
- Multiple cover designs to choose from
- Bright white paper
- Coil bound (pages lay flat and can be turned back on themselves)
- Multiple page sizes to choose from including less common dot grid notebook page sizes (B5, 7 x 9″ and US letter)
Cons of the Limelife Planners Notebook
- No index, future log etc – dot grid pages only
- Some pens had ghosting and bleed through
- More of a personal preference – there weren’t many cover design that were my style
- The dots on the dot grid are too big and too dark
- No pocket folder
Would I use this notebook?
Overall, I’m a bit disappointed with this notebook. I really love the Limelife Planner but the dot grid notebook fell short of my expectations.
The colors on the cover look a bit different to their website and the dots on the dot grid are too big and too dark (they should be a light grey, not dark grey). For this reason, I don’t think I’ll be using this notebook very often and wouldn’t recommended it.
If you’re just after a personalised lined notebook this could be a good option, but I wouldn’t recommend this notebook for bullet journaling.
This notebook is comparable to Erin Condren’s personalised notebook however the E.C. notebook has 80 pages for the same price and more cover options so I’d go with that unless you want a B6 or A5 size which only Limelife Planners does.
Related post: Erin Condren Personalised Notebook Review
More personalised notebooks for bullet journaling
- Pretty dot grid notebooks for bullet journaling (roundup)
- My Favorite Dot Grid Notebooks for Bullet Journaling
- Bullet Journal Planner by Letter Love Designs
Bullet journaling tips
- 7 Tips to keep your bullet journal neat
- 7 Reasons why I don’t use stitched notebooks for bullet journaling
- Lined, dot grid, graph or blank: what paper type is right for your bullet journal?
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Rachael,
Thank you for being a resource to someone brand new to the planner world, and especially the discbound world. I just purchased a Martha Stewart letter-sized discbound notebook and am awaiting in the mail. I’m off to order the ARC holepunch as well, however I’m curious if the 20lb paper limit will not work for the 32lb paper I was reading about. I’m curious if larger discs, metallic preferably, will fit the Martha Stewart system well. I read reviews that her own larger discs cause the paper not to move smoothly. Do you have a suggestion of a disc brand for gold metallic discs as well?
I also am curious what kind of paper weight and brand is best and most sturdy for papers to be moved around. I read there’s a way to put papers in and out of the binder. Thank you so much for all of the information you are putting out there. So very very helpful.
Hi Abby,
I’m located in Australia so I don’t have access to the Martha Stewart discbound version but I do have the ARC and a few others. I did a comparison of which brands are compatible in this post: https://allaboutplanners.com.au/discbound-planners-notebooks-brands-that-are-compatible/
Happy Planner have some gold metal discs https://carefullycrafted.com.au/me-and-my-big-ideas-the-happy-planner-metal-classic-medium-discs-gold/ Levenger have them too.
I use normal copy paper which works fine. After about a year the pages along the binding side do get a bit tattered. After a year the information is usually outdated by then anyway though, so I update and re-print the page
Wow thanks for taking the time to go through and test all of your pens and stamps on these page. You even showed the bleed through on the opposite page. This is the type of reviews that us bullet journalers are really looking for. Very cool, I look forward to seeing more.