Hustle Co Notebook Review
Confession
I’m addicted to buying and trying new notebooks. In search of the perfect notebook that will withstand my heavy-handed marker blending and watercoloring (find out how I use markers to watercolor here!), I decided to buy a notebook that advertised thick pages. Spoiler: I’m still searching for my perfect notebook and late setting up my January bullet journal!
This particular notebook is by Hustle Co & the pages are very thick and smooth but do not have any coating on them, so any blending or heavy use with markers bleeds through. I can see the markers or the water soaking into the pages on the first stroke.
Test Page Result
You can see on my test page, all the markers bled through. Crayola markers, Tombow Dual Brush Pens, and water pens all have a significant bleed. That’s a deal killer for me.
Other Features – is it all BAD?
The Hustle Co Notebook has 160 numbered pages. The one I purchased is A5 with a 5mm dot grid pattern. The grid is 26 spaces wide by 39 spaces tall per page. (I call spaces the middle parts between the dots). For a spread, it is 52 spaces wide.
The pen loop is on the spine of the book, which I think is really innovative. There is one bookmark, an elastic band to close the book. On the back cover, there’s a pocket for keeping loose papers. Mine came with a plastic ruler with centimeters & inches. The texture of the cover almost feels rubbery, the spine is dark blue and the front and back covers are matte black. The pages are off-white, just a shade darker than the Scribbles That Matter notebooks, but about the same color as a Leuchtturm.
The pages are very thick and it feels like a great notebook! It did withstand the Dr. Ph Martin’s Copperplate Gold I painted on the key and there was no bleed with the ink on the reverse of the key page.
What Didn’t Bleed
Papermate Flair pens, Pigma Micron pens & Tombow Fudenosuke pens did not bleed and there was minimal ghosting with the thickest lines from the Fudenosuke pens. I think it can’t handle anything water-based with a lot of ink flow.
I inked a couple of fountain pens with Noodler’s purple ink (a Lamy Fine point & a medium nib Konrad Flex Demo). The fine nib didn’t bleed, the medium nib wanted to bleed, but didn’t. I think it would bleed if you applied any more thin-ink to the page.
I also tried gel pens & some new Bic Roller Glide pens I found one day (which bled through horribly in all my other notebooks). Both the gel pens and the roller glide pens were great!
In Summary:
I really wish this notebook didn’t bleed! Since this notebook won’t work for my daily needs, I’ll have to postpone my January Bullet Journal set up. I thought I found a gem when I bought it because of the advertised thick pages. If you don’t blend Tombow Markers or use multiple layers when coloring with Crayola Markers, the price is very good for the thickness of the paper and might work wonderfully for you.
I decided to turn it into a book-reading log instead of wasting the notebook and will be very careful when I watercolor on pages and skip a page between if needed. I’ll post a video set up of the reading log this week – which I am very excited to share with you.
Oh Well…On to the next notebook to try!
What notebook do you use? Do you love it or does it flop? I’m on a search to find the perfect notebook that withstands Tombow Marker blending, light watercoloring with water pens. Leave a comment with your suggestions. I’d love to check them out!