28 Jan 2013

smythson diary refills

I am currently still without my Smythson binder due to ring issues, but I am assured that a replacement will be winging its way to me as soon as possible. Having had a problem with my original order too, I was a bit cheeky and asked if they could throw in a set of complimentary diary refills with the replacement binder and they agreed. These actually arrived on Friday, even before the replacement binder was dispatched to me!

On a day where I was feeling quite down and depressed due to all the packing and stuff I have still yet to do in preparation for the house move, the packaging cheered me up no end. Just see for yourself...


They wrapped it in a gift box and tied it with a ribbon. Unfortunately, I undid the original bow (trust me, it was beautiful), so you have just been subjected to a photo with a bow tied by my untrained hands.

Here is the box without the bow and gift card:


Without further ado, I will now move onto the refills. This is the front page - doesn't it just scream luxury? I love the blue hue of the pages (not really captured by my camera!).


On the last page, there is a bit of information about the paper used for these refills. I have taken a picture of this so you can read for yourself.


There is information about the quality of the paper and it does seems to be true. In the past, I have experienced feathering on the Filofax cotton cream paper when I used felt-tip pens, and when I used the same pens on the Smythson diary refills, I noticed there was none of this. In fact, the ink was literally absorbed straight away (no feathering or show-through at all!), which leads me to believe that the same would be true of fountain pen ink - music to your ears if you are a FP user, I'm sure!

I can also definitely vouch for the watermark mentioned in the above picture, and here is the proof for you in the next picture.


Now, onto how the refills look. They are week to view, with all days having equal spaces and also a section for notes in relation to the week on show. This is the most accurate picture I took of the real-life colour of the refills. Although they are quite luxurious, I need colour in my planner pages and I also need to pretty them up just to motivate myself to plan so I'm making no excuses for any decorative pieces I have used even though they may not fit in with the 'elegant' nature of these refills.


Next, I love the gilt-edged detailing. Just see for yourself:


These refills also came with various other bits and pieces, such as important dates for 2013 (including cultural events in London and New York), a contact number page and a tube map with a map of the New York metro system within Manhattan Island on the other side (so cool!).

All in all, I can't wait for my replacement binder to arrive from Smythson. I hope the ring issues are a thing of the past and that there is nothing wrong with it because these inserts will look divine in the binder. At the moment, I'm impressed enough with the paper to shell out the £££ and use these again in 2014, but I won't make the decision about 2014 refills until October/November time.

22 comments

  1. Very interesting - can you just confirm the colour of the paper? Is it cream, blue or grey? My monitor cannot make up it's mind!

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    1. The most accurate representation is the picture of my week spread. It is in fact a blue :-) x

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    2. A pretty blue! How nice!

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    3. Thank you! Looks really lovely - I have planner envy now!

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    4. Hehe, the quality of the paper definitely has me hooked to Smythson. Definitely thinking of using them for 2014 too now, but it is a hefty £££ to plonk down for some refills! x

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  2. Oh god that's beautiful!

    There's something about the blue & gold combination that I love immensely! The Smythson refill definitely looks more elegant and modern!

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    1. I know, right? Blue and gold is definitely a winning combination :) I just love how luxurious they look and feel x

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  3. Oh my, you're making me want these so bad but I've already bought my Filofax ones! Maybe next year... <3

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    1. Hehe, these are a lot more expensive than Filofax ones so although I love them, Filofax CC diary refills are also a worthy alternative (the paper isn't that great but it's not bad compared to others, if you get my gist :) ) x

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  4. I love your week pictures! They are so pretty and creative!

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    1. Aw thank you! That's next week's so I'm sure it will fill up quickly by the end of the week when I post my week hehe x

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  5. Ooooooohhh can I afford these for 2014.. so beautiful! I love having notes on the second page rather than first .. ah so pretty!

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    1. I really like the colour of these refills, and I think they will contrast nicely with the pink-ness of my Smythson binder (once the replacement arrives) so I'm leaning towards shelling out for these next year. After all, I'll be using these everyday for a year so might as well have something more luxurious, right? x

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  6. Oooo-la-la.......very nice....

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  7. I'm jealous of all the planner options available to you overseas. So pretty!

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    1. Hehe, they do ship within the US too! They have a store in New York, so you could order from the store? :) x

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  8. OMG, The Smythson products are gorgeous! Thought my ultimate dream would be a Mulberry agenda but the Smythson Dukes Organiser is beyond nice...

    Do all of the inserts fiction the Filofax?

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    1. They are beautiful! If I had the money, all of my refills would come from Smythson.

      As far as I know, the Smythson inserts do in fact fit a Filofax binder. The Bond Street size correlates to Filofax personal, Bijou is pocket and the Duke Organiser takes A5 Filofax refills and vice versa.

      Hope this helps! x

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  9. I like the font on these pages and the spacing at the top between the month and year and the week number. I have the Kate Spade weekly inserts and the layout is similar. The Smythson paper looks smooth. Is the ink blue or black? What a nice present to get in the mail!

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    1. Oh, I love the Kate Spade inserts. I had some 2012 ones that came with a KS agenda I bought off eBay and I loved the paper quality. I think next year, I will choose either be KS or Smythson inserts as my refills :-) The paper is very smooth and of a high quality (no feathering with any ink that I've used thus far! Shame the same can't be said for Filofax cotton cream). The ink is a dark blue :) x

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  10. Oh, those inserts are absolutely DELICIOUS! I love them!

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