In part 1 of my review of the Louise Carmen notebook, I cover the qualities of the Louise Carmen Pocket Heritage notebook itself. Now I’ll talk about how I managed to obtain it!
When I discovered Louise Carmen notebooks online, I thought they looked great. Their website, and their Instagram, feature some some pretty mouth-watering imagery, including before and after photos of brand-new and broken-in notebooks in lots of beautiful colors. It did not take long before I was itching to hit the “buy” button, except for a few things: the notebooks are expensive, shipping from France is really expensive, and the colors I liked best were sold out. And without seeing these notebooks in person, I couldn’t quite commit to such a big expense.
Since I really didn’t want to spend a ton of money on a notebook from France sight-unseen, I turned to eBay, without much optimism. But I was amazed to see several listings for Louise Carmen notebooks at bizarrely low prices, apparently due to a super-clearance of some overstock. The colors and leather style were the antithesis of all my personal notebook preferences, but for a total price of about $13 for 2 notebooks, I wasn’t going to quibble about them being metallic fuschia and gold! These were sold at Bloomingdale’s at some point. The metallic leather is still available an option for the lower-priced “Pocket Colors” notebooks on the Louise Carmen website. I bought a lot of two notebooks, just to test-drive the size, shape, and quality before committing to ordering a color I really wanted from France.
The quality of the leather in these metallic “Colors” notebooks was a bit lighter and floppier than I’d expected, but I liked them enough and figured the more expensive Heritage leather would be nicer. I was ready to place an order, but I kept waiting, hoping that the out of stock colors would be available again. In the meantime, I went into Manhattan one day and visited Goods for the Study. I couldn’t believe it when I glanced into a glass display case and saw several Louise Carmen notebooks– the Louise Carmen website makes no mention of any other stockists. Goods for the Study only had the pocket notebooks in natural and black, from the pricier “Pocket Heritage” collection. The natural leather is smooth and much stiffer than the metallic leather. The black notebook at Goods for the Study was a more supple and soft leather, also very nice. (Lots of other gorgeous colors are available on the Louise Carmen website, but it’s hard to tell from the photos which texture each color leather has.) I was really torn about which one to buy, but decided to go with something different (i.e. non-black) for a change. I still kind of want another color in the Heritage leather, as I’m feeling impatient about the natural leather developing a nice patina… but it’s already starting to soften and darken and I’m sure the end result will be rewarding.
Goods for the Study charges $129.95 for the Louise Carmen pocket Heritage notebook cover. I was charged an additional $7.95 for the notebook insert– not sure if that was a mistake, but if I’d realized it wasn’t included, I wouldn’t have bought it. (They stock extra refills in pocket and large sizes.) But the price for the cover is a relative bargain– if I’d ordered it from the Louise Carmen website, the price would have been 129 euros (something like $139, at the moment) plus about $50 for shipping. Ordering direct from Louise Carmen means you get one insert notebook in your choice of plain or dotted pages included for free, plus a little cloth bag to keep your notebook in, plus free gift packaging, if you want it. You can also get a custom color elastic (5 euro extra) and custom stamping of your name or initials (13 euro extra). Larger sizes are also available. They also sell accessories such as extra elastics and a leather care kit.
If you are in the US and you want a Louise Carmen notebook, you could check eBay to see if there’s any bargains to be had. But otherwise, I would try Goods for the Study. They don’t currently do online sales, though their website says online shopping is coming in Spring 2023– if you can’t wait til then, you could call their main store at (212) 674-4400 to place an order.
If you want to order from the Louise Carmen shop in France, you might consider a proxy shipping service, though I’m not sure if that would save you much money. Ordering more than one notebook at a time makes the per-notebook shipping costs more reasonable, so joining forces with a friend could be worthwhile. Best method of all? Book a trip to Paris! I’d love to go to the store in person to see and touch and smell these luscious leather notebooks first hand. I just wish I had known about Louise Carmen notebooks the last time I was there!