I’m always a sucker for a nice leather notebook— there is something so seductive about the patina on well-broken in leather, and the way it starts to form to the shape of its contents. It’s what made me love the Filofax notebooks I’ve used in the past, and it’s what made me buy a passport size Travelers Notebook. I ended up not enjoying using the TN enough to ever break it in the way I’d seen other people do. But now I’ve found the Louise Carmen pocket notebook, and this time I think I’m in it for the long haul.
I first came across the Louise Carmen notebook brand on Instagram. I checked out a few photos, thought they looked nice, sent myself an email with a link to follow up on later, and then forgot all about it. Months later, I rediscovered the email and for some reason, this time I fell in lust. Their before/after shots of broken-in notebooks were especially to blame!
Louise Carmen is based in Paris, with a retail shop in the 2nd arrondissement. Their leather notebook covers, which come in various colors and sizes, are made in France, and from what I could see at first, sold only in France and via their website. But as it turned out, I was able to buy a Louise Carmen notebook elsewhere. I’ll tell you more about where to buy one in Part 2 of this review, but in the meantime let’s check out the notebook itself!
Louise Carmen notebooks are designed in a style quite similar to Travelers Notebooks, but with some important differences. Most importantly for me, their pocket notebooks are sized to hold a standard 3.5 x 5.5″ refill. Louise Carmen makes their own refills in plain and dot-grid formats, but you can use Field Notes, Moleskine Cahiers or any other slim notebook in this size, and depending on what else you have in there, it will probably hold two refills. The Louise Carmen website also notes that Moleskine’s soft cover 12-month weekly planners will fit inside.
I know there are other “fauxdori” travelers notebooks out there that are sized to hold Field Notes/Cahier sized inserts, but from what I’ve seen, the covers always have a lot of overhang. What I love about the Louise Carmen design is that the cover size is pretty close to the same height as the notebook.
The other clever thing they’ve done is to design the notebook with a wrap-around flap: this allows the notebook to expand in thickness, and a little bit in width, all while still maintaining its shape as a tidy, enclosed bundle. The flap is meant to be tucked under the front cover, which gives the closed notebook a cleaner look than leaving the flap on the top. But you could put the flap on the outside if you prefer– it looks fine that way too.
The natural leather I chose is very thick and sturdy with a smooth surface. Over time, it should darken and soften and develop that lovely patina. I’ve been using mine for a few months and you can already see the exterior breaking in, with a noticeable difference on the parts of the leather that aren’t exposed and haven’t darkened and scuffed as much. I tried to get shots of the notebook “before” and “after” but couldn’t quite get matching lighting for a true comparison– but I do think the change is noticeable!
In addition to the wonderful color and feel, the leather smells great. This natural leather is one of the choices for the Louise Carmen Pocket Heritage notebook line, which features vegetable tanned leather in gorgeous colors. There is also a less expensive “Colors” line that has a lighter weight leather in different textures, including metallic colors. (From what I’ve seen of the other Heritage colors, they don’t necessarily have the exact same texture and smell as the natural leather.)
An elastic closure is anchored on the back cover, just like a Travelers Notebook. I find this closure more awkward than the vertical elastic on Moleskine-style notebooks, but it does keep things secure inside.
When you open the notebook, there is a tuck pocket in the front, with the stamped Louise Carmen logo and a cute ribbon loop in the colors of the French flag. There are two elastics for holding notebooks, which are tidily threaded through grommets in the spine. Inside the back cover, there are pockets for two credit cards, with a space in between that can hold a mini pen. There is a larger pocket behind.
All these pockets got me thinking about how I might use the Louise Carmen notebook as a wallet. I tried that with my passport size Travelers Notebook, using some accessories to hold cards and cash and even coins in a zippered pocket. But I found it awkward and fat and heavy, somehow. And because the size wasn’t really my preferred proportions in the first place, I didn’t love it enough to want to make it work. With the Louise Carmen, the love is there!
My life in the past few years has changed the way I even use a wallet. I rarely use cash anymore. Most of the time, I could probably get away with only carrying my drivers license and a credit card. But there are also health insurance cards and a vaccine card I sometimes need, an ATM card, and a few other odds and ends. They were too much to just shove in the tuck pocket, so I found a plastic insert that holds 12 cards and fits perfectly. (Available here, or search for “hipster wallet card holder insert” and get one that is top-opening. It will have an extra plastic flap that is what holds it into other types of wallets but you can cut that off. It would work fine with a passport size TN too.) I currently have 10 cards in the holder, plus my COVID vaccination card. There are two additional cards in the back cover slots, and usually some business cards and receipts in the front cover pocket.
For cash, I started off keeping a few bills in the cardstock pocket I’d bought for my Travelers Notebook. I also threw in a Chic Sparrow plastic folder– it wasn’t really necessary but was a good place to stash the vaccination card and could also hold stamps or photos. And finally, I found that I could just put my coins in the large back pocket. If I had too much change it might get awkward, but the small amount I’m usually carrying is fine, not too lumpy. I opted not to use my old Travelers Notebook zippered pocket as I didn’t like the bump of the zipper itself. After a month or two, I decided to ditch the plastic and cardstock folders– for a while I just tucked my cash into the elastic, but I recently decided to bring back the cardstock folder, as it was a little less cumbersome. I’m still a little on the fence about whether to just carry a separate small coin purse for cash and change, but for the moment, I’m sticking with keeping them in the Louise Carmen– I use cash so rarely, it hardly seems to matter.
With all these items turning my Louise Carmen notebook into a wallet, you’ll notice that I left out the actual notebook! I’m always using so many other notebooks, I really don’t need one in my wallet, but I suppose I could rearrange things a bit to add a notebook if needed. If I ever manage to travel internationally again, I will also be able to insert my passport. This all makes a bulkier and larger wallet than I’ve used in decades, but so far, I don’t mind. I love the shape and feel of it, and it’s great being able to carry everything I need. And if more cards start to support Apple Wallet, I might be able to slim it down even more.
But to get back to the notebooks… The Louise Carmen branded inserts are attractive– a pretty minimalist black card stock cover, with just “notes” and the Louise Carmen brand stamped on the front, and the Louise Carmen website stamped on the back. 60 pages are stitched in a single signature, similar to Moleskine Cahiers, rather than the staple-bound Field Notes. Dotted and plain versions are available. The dotted version has numbered pages, and a header with a space for the date. It bothers me a little that on one side, the word “date” is on the left, and on the facing page, it’s in the middle. Why?? The numbering of the pages was also sometimes slightly cut off by the rounded corners. All the pages are perforated.
The paper is ok, but not great. It has a slight texture to it, and doesn’t feel as smooth as the silkier Moleskine and Nolty paper I’m used to. Some fountain pens bled through a little bit, at least on the dot-grid paper, but gel ink pens worked fine, and showed through perhaps a little less than average. My tests on the plain paper were better– Sailor Seaweed Indigo ink seemed to feather a bit, but nothing bled through, and the ink colors looked nice and vibrant. Some people may be fine with this paper, but since there are so many other options for refills in this size, it’s not like you’re stuck with it!
To sum up, I love this notebook/wallet. For me, it solves most of the problems that made me not love my Travelers Notebook. The wrap-around horizontal elastic will never be my favorite closure, but the overall design and quality of this notebook cover make it something I want to hold and fondle and use. It wasn’t cheap, but it’s versatile and durable enough that it should be useful for a very long time.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this review tomorrow, where I’ll discuss options for purchasing a Louise Carmen notebook.