Today I bring you two very cool journals by Daycraft from the “Skinz” line.  Because the journals are almost the same, I am including both of them in this review and I will highlight the differences when necessary.  A cool thing about these journals is that they both come with a page of temporary tattoos (pictured below)!

Cover: The covers are made from “fine Italian PU.”  “PU” is polyurethane, which for this journal is like synthetic leather.  One journal has a cream colored base with some artwork featuring guns and the slogan “Make My Day.”  The other journal features the same slogan with a silver cover and artwork of a skull with roses.  I prefer the silver skull cover, as the silver has a metallic sheen making it actually silver and not grey.

Size: Both journals are the same size at 102mm x 146 mm (that’s about 4″ x 5.74″ for those of us that use the imperial system).

Paper: The paper in these journals is 100gsm, printed with 6.5mm spaced lines.  The “gun” journal has ivory paper and the “skull” journal has white paper.  Both are fountain pen friendly without feathering except when using the wettest inks.  Normal flow inks were fine and performed well.  There was also minimal show-through, allowing for writing on both sides of the pages.  I preferred the white paper because I found the inks to be a little drier on the ivory paper.  The white paper also really allowed the several inks I used to show their true color brightness, shading, and potential, whereas the ivory paper muted the colors a bit.  However, many people prefer ivory paper so that is a personal preference.  All the paper is printed with a tribal tattoo-type artwork at the top of each page.  The “guns” journal also had red edging on the paper and one sheet of red at the front and the back of the journal and inside the cover.  The “skull” journal had grey paper inside the cover and no edging on the white paper.

Other Considerations:  Both journals did a great job of staying open and lying flat when writing – a definite plus.  The only thing I would have added is a little ribbon strip to mark my current page.  Since these journals didn’t have an attached ribbon, I used the tattoo sheet to hold my place.

Overall: Because of the smaller size and 128 pages, I did fill up these journals faster than the larger sized journals I normally use.   However, I really liked them and would definitely use them again.  Visit Daycraft’s website at http://www.daycraft.com.hk to see more.  The journals run HK$ 149.00, which is just over $19 USD.

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