Erin Condren Life Planner Review (2016-2017 Luxe Collection)
To kick off the review, I’m going to start by diving into the planner itself. The planner I purchased is the purple and rose gold from the brand new Luxe Collection. I’ve also chosen a horizontal layout, which was launched in 2015 and is my personal preference. This year, another new customization option is the ability to choose your own colorway. Typically, the Erin Condren Life Planner is very colorful. While that is gorgeous, the company offered the option of a neutral colorway this year. I opted for the neutral simply because I like the idea of being able to use any color stickers I want for any given month. (Although, I don’t go crazy with stickers.) Also, I prefer the font choice that was used in the neutral colorway.
Note: Another new customization option this year includes the ability to choose the color of your coil. You can pick from a platinum, gold, rose gold, or black coil. At the time of this post, the Luxe Collection does not allow you to choose your cover color and coil cover. You either chose a purple and rose gold, turquoise and gold, or gray and platinum.
Well, here she is! I opted for the purple cover simply because I prefer the rose gold coil. I purchased a planner with the rose gold coil in 2015 and was very happy with how it looked, so I wanted to stick with it for this year. The rose gold text on the front cover looks very nice. For me, I’ve never been big on personalization, so not being able to personalize this particular Erin Condren Life Planner was not an issue.
Here are a couple close-up shots of the planner’s cover and the rose gold coil. I was originally worried about how the leather-like cover would hold up, but it seems to be pretty sturdy and well-made. The cover is soft and didn’t have any issues outside of a couple spots that were peeling along the edges. No big deal! I was able to pull those off without any problems.
I’m not sure if any improvements were made to the rose gold coil this year, but I actually think this year’s seems to be a better quality. Last year, my coil was flaking upon the planner’s arrival. This one seems to be much nicer.
When you open the planner, you will notice two main things that I want to address after having seen comments on other reviews. The inside covers of the Luxe Collection planner are not the same as the outside. They do not have the leather-like look that the outside does, however it still seems to be nice and sturdy. I also noticed some people asking about the wet-erase section on the inside covers of this planner since they are new features to the standard Erin Condren Life Planner. The Luxe Collection planners do not have wet-erase sections, as you can see above.
The vellum page shows off the latest Erin Condren design choice with the mid-century circle design. Being that I with with a neutral colorway, you’ll notice my vellum page is black and gray.
Once you get into the planner, you will find the year-at-a-glance pages, followed by the pages shown above. This spread was a new edition to the planner last year, but it got a makeover this time around. These 12 boxes are perfect for writing monthly goals and a variety of other things. Even though this is the neutral planner, you will notice some color throughout.
You will find a lined page and a motivational quote (in true Erin Condren fashion) before each month. Each month has its own color, which you can see on these two pages. The lined pages provide a great space for jotting down extra notes.
The monthly layout features the new font choice (in the neutral colorway only), plus the mid-century circles design. There’s plenty of room to write down important dates and a lined section for recording goals and to-dos. One fault I find with the monthly spread (and I only see this in the monthly spread) is that the text on these pages is a little pixelated looking. I’m not sure if I’m the only one who experienced this or if it’s an issue for everyone. It’s not a huge issue for me, as it’s only really noticeable when looking at the planner up close.
The horizontal layout hasn’t received any changes in this year’s Erin Condren Life Planner. An entire week is spread across two pages, going from Monday to Sunday. Each day features a lined section plus an unlined box on the right. On the bottom of the right-hand page, you will fined a lined section for notes and an unlined box for your “Thankful Thought.”
You will also notice the pop of color on these pages. There’s a small flag at the top that shows the month’s color in a watercolor design. Other than that, the days are separated by bars that go from black to gray. It’s a very simple design, but I quite like it!
After the monthly and weekly spreads, you will find the notes section. There are pages with lines, graph paper, and blank pages that are perfect for doodling. The lined pages and the blank pages feature the colorful watercolor design, which is gorgeous. The graph pages do not have any color, but do have the mid-century circles.
Next, you’ll find the classic Erin Condren Life Planner stickers. The stickers got a bit of an update this year, as they’re flag-shaped instead of rectangles. You will get two pages with stickers that contain things such as: birthday, day off, vacation, doctor’s appointment, etc. There are two pages of blank stickers as well.
(Note: It appears I had an error in my stickers. Typically, the first page of stickers contains an assortment of events, but I didn’t receive that. Instead, I have two full pages of birthday stickers.)
Above you will see this year’s folder, which has the mid-century circles design. Each planner also comes with the Perpetual Calendar for jotting down important dates (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) so you can take it from planner to planner without having to rewrite them.
The back of the folder got an update this year. Instead of featuring the standard pocket like the one above, it has just a horizontal pocket across the bottom. You’ll also see my ruler (which I moved to the back) and the clear zipper pouch. The pouch got two big changes this year. Not only does it feature a pull tab for easy opening and closing, it’s no longer attached to the coil.
Typically, the pouch has been attached to the coil in the back of the planner. This year, each planner comes with a pouch and a coil clip to attach to the pouch. You’ll be able to remove the pouch and move it around as you please. I really like this convenience!
It wouldn’t be an Erin Condren Life Planner without a few freebies, now would it? In this year’s pouch you will find the coil clip for the pouch, three compliment cards, a sample sticker book, and cards with a discount code (not pictured).
I actually haven’t used these compliment cards in the past (some came with last year’s planner), but I do think they’re very cute and I like to have them on hand. You never know when you might need something like this!
Since I know you’re wondering… Here’s a look inside the sample sticker book that comes with your Erin Condren Life Planner. One page contains the designed stickers you will find within the full-size sticker books. The other page contains a sample of the Do It All Dots.
Erin Condren Life Planner Accessories
If I’m buying a new planner I have to snag a few accessories, don’t I? There were quite a few new accessories that were launched this year, so let’s take a look at the one I purchased…
Here’s an overview of all of the accessories I ordered. Most of these things were new launches this year, but a couple things were not new. I picked up two sticker books, a set of Stylized Stickies, a snap-in dashboard, the magnetic page marker, the Sticky Corner Pockets, snap-in bookmarks, rollerball pens, wet erase markers, and elastic bands.
I picked up a set of rollerball pens, plus the wet erase markers. I figured the wet erase markers would be better than my normal Expo markers for writing on my snap-in dashboard. The pens, however, I don’t find to be all that impressive. They are decent pens, but not the best I’ve used.
It may seem like I have an addiction to bookmarks based on the above photo… And I won’t lie, I have no idea how I’ll use each of these different types of bookmarks. Two new editions to Erin Condren this year were the magnetic page marker (top left) and the mini snap-in bookmarks (bottom left). The magnetic page marker comes in a few different colors, but I opted for this peach and rose gold combo. The mini snap-in bookmarks also have another design option, but I went with the watercolor. They come in a set of three (which you can see in the first accessories photo).
On the right side, you will see the snap-in dashboard I purchased. I had one of these last year and found it quite useful. I’m not sure if this particular design was new this time around, but I discovered it on the accessories page and liked it better than the latest design. I thought the to-do list style flags on the front would be helpful. (This is the Productivity style dashboard.)
I also decided to order some new elastic bands because I actually didn’t purchase any new ones last year. I have a set of three from two years ago, but wanted something that would match this year’s planner. I purchased the metallic trio specifically for the rose gold elastic band. This collection isn’t new, but I thought it would be great with my planner. The purple, navy, and pink trio is new this year, so I snagged those to have some colorful options.
Finally, I purchased the new sticker book for this year, plus the monthly sticker book (which has been out for a while). This year’s sticker book (Classic Collection Edition 2) features designed stickers, some of which contain gold, rose gold, and platinum. You can see a preview of these stickers in the top right photo. On the bottom left, you will see the monthly sticker book, which contains stickers that fit the seasons and holidays.
Overall, I’m very pleased with the latest release of the Erin Condren Life Planner and its accessories. The leather-like cover of the Luxe Collection planners is very nice and I think it’ll hold up well with daily use over the next year. I’m excited to start using it and the accessories!
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