Hello everyone and welcome back to my channel! I did take a break from my YouTube channel, and for all of you who reached out to me, thank you so much. I really appreciate you guys, and I will talk more about the future of this channel at the end of the video. So, if you’re interested, stick around till the end. But for all of you here for the Moleskine video and about the quality and the issues I have with it, let’s get started.
A Little Backstory
I have been using Moleskine notebooks for over 20 years. It’s the first notebook brand that actually made me fall in love with notebooks. About eight years ago, at the very beginning of my channel, I made a video on the Moleskine quality. I had purchased a little soft cover pocket Moleskine that had atrocious paper in it, and it was just really bad quality. It fell apart very quickly, and that inspired me to make the video to rant about it.
For those who asked back then if that was a genuine Moleskine notebook, yes, it was purchased from an authorized Moleskine retailer. It was real. The brand had quality issues at the time. In recent years, I noticed that the quality was more consistent again. The paper quality was consistent, and the covers and binding held up okay, so I was happy with the brand. Until now.
Why I Use Moleskine Notebooks
For all of you who say there are better quality notebooks out there, which is true, here are four main reasons why I personally use Moleskine notebooks:
- The Size: To me, Moleskine is slightly more narrow than an A5, and this is the perfect size to still be portable yet do all the journaling that I want to do and have enough room for it. I absolutely love the Moleskine size.
- The Cover Alignment: I love how the paper lines up with the cover. I do not like when notebooks have a lot of overhang with the cover. To me, that looks cheap, and Moleskine does it perfectly right.
- The Paper: Yes, you heard me right. I do like the Moleskine paper. I know it is not fountain pen friendly, and if you do not want to make a huge mess with bleed-through and ghosting, essentially all you can use is a pencil or ballpoint pen. But I absolutely love the feel of this paper. To me, it feels really soft, like velvet. It is 70 gram paper, which to me is the perfect weight. I like paper between 70-90 grams. Over 100 grams, I don’t like when paper is too stiff. So, for me, this is perfect paper in terms of the weight. Also, it is ivory cream-colored, and I don’t like really white paper. So, I do like Moleskine paper.
- The Covers: At least up until now, the covers were absolutely perfect. The leather soft cover had a real leather feel to it. It just felt so beautiful to hold and was super smooth. Sadly, that has changed now.
The Quality Issue
I want to show you a comparison. I know this is really hard to show in a video, but this is a 10-year-old Moleskine soft cover notebook. There is a softness and a smoothness to this cover, and you can see how it picks up the light really well.
This is the new one, which came out. This is a 400-page Moleskine expanded notebook that I recently purchased and will probably return. Here you can see it doesn’t catch the light as well anymore. It just doesn’t feel as good. It’s not as smooth, slightly more textured, and it is a little bit more flimsy than the old ones. It just doesn’t feel the same and doesn’t look as premium as the old one. It feels a little cheaper.
You can also see here, it just feels really thin and kind of flimsy. It feels like it might not hold up that well. I haven’t used it yet, so I can’t really tell, but it just doesn’t look as premium. The cover is a lot thicker on the old one, so it held up really well. I don’t know if the camera picks this up, as I said, it’s really hard to show this on camera, but this is not as nice as the old one, and I’m really disappointed.
In recent years, the quality used to be there again. Now, this is another blow in my opinion. So, yeah, I’m not happy about this. I might return this one and try to find an older one because I know they’ve been making these for a while. Maybe I can find one that was manufactured a while back and get an old one. I already ordered a replacement for this, and it had the same issue with the cover. It just is not as nice as the old ones in my opinion. I know it’s not a drastic difference, but it just feels slightly cheaper, and I’m not happy about it.
Conclusion
Have you noticed any differences? I’m curious to know. Please feel free to leave me a comment below. For all of you who are here for the Moleskine quality issue, thank you so much for watching.
Future of My Channel
To my long-term subscribers, you probably noticed that I haven’t been posting in a while. The honest reason is that I’m just not passionate about making these videos anymore. I have lost my motivation for them. I only made this because I’m upset over this and wanted to let a lot of people know.
I’ve been making videos for almost 10 years now, and quite frankly, the only reason that kept me going for this long was you guys. I love interacting with you, my fellow journal addicts, and sharing our opinions on our passion for journaling. That was always my favorite part about these videos, not actually shooting them, but getting to interact with you after the video is posted.
I really, really appreciate you guys for all the support that you’ve given me and this channel. Thank you so much. I might still sporadically make a video here and there, but please do not expect regular content anymore. As I said, I don’t feel motivated to do so anymore. Maybe that’ll change in the future, maybe it won’t. I don’t know yet. Again, thank you so much for all your support. Please give this video some thumbs up, feel free to leave me a comment, and thank you so much for watching.