Oh washi tapes! How I love to collect you – and rarely use you (stationery addict confession time). The truth is there are so many beautiful washi tapes out there but my neutral, minimalist heart has a lot of trouble making good use of them. Still, I’ve found a few phenomenal ones for any fellow minimalists out there. Plus, a quad of tapes that, sadly, I suggest steering clear of.

Let’s start with my favorites.

MT Patterns Washi Tape (dot gold) MT is just the gold standard (pardon the pun) of washi tape to me! I got my first set of pastel colors at the MoMA Design Store way back before Muji even had an outpost in the storied museum shop. When I learned of a magical craft tape you could actually reuse and move without tearing up your paper, I was astounded. They really work! I’m a big gold accent fan, if you haven’t been able to tell from this blog so far, and this subtle gold dot is a lovely gateway into washi tape.

MT Solids Washi Tape (pastel grey) A great pale grey. Still too dark compared to my favorite palest-of-pale grey Tombow Dual Brush Pens, so I don’t use it as much.

BGM Washi Tape (light grey) I was thrilled to discover that BGM tapes are just as good as MT! I love that this slim grey is exactly 5mm tall so they work beautifully in bullet journals.

BGM Washi Tape (check rainbow) If you follow my Instagram you know how obsessed I am with this tape. They’re so gorgeous, a lovely watercolored box rather than a solid color. And of course they’re also 5x5mm so they work great as accents in bullet journals.

And now onto the ones that I just never reach for and, in fact, wouldn’t recommend…

Paper Source Shimmery Gold Washi Tape This is a lovely washi tape but not a true washi; it’s not particularly repositionable. That said, it isn’t as big of an offender as the Russell + Hazel tapes below. If you need a matte, shimmer gold tape that’s opaque, this is a good one, but just be wary of trying to move it around your pages.

Russell + Hazel SmartDate To Do List Rolls I LOVE Russel + Hazel so much – their mini planner binders were my gateway drug into customizable planners! But these washi tapes were a huge miss for me. First, they aren’t true washi (which they don’t seem to claim on their site, in their defense, although I could’ve sworn I saw them use that language when they released these months ago). These are decidedly NOT repositionable – at all. Second, while the design is 1,000% up my alley, they aren’t on a 5mm grid (alas! and they did imply in their marketing that these are for bullet journallers, too). I was so excited to roll out those lovely perfect circles but as you can see in the photo below they just don’t align.

Russell + Hazel SmartDate Calendar Rolls Again, the font/text styling is top-notch but they don’t match the grid. Perhaps they match their proprietary binders, but those are preprinted, so I’m not sure why you’d necessarily need timed tape for those. Either way, the adhesive on the tape was significantly stickier than washi tape adhesive, so I found myself tugging a bit more to get the tape to come off in order to snip off a time or date. Too much fuss. I’m sorry Russell + Hazel: I love you, but not these tapes!

And there you have it! Reviews of all my favorite, and least favorite, washi tapes. Do you have any favorites, or have you tried any novelty washi? I have my eye on some of the wood-grain or marble (of course) variety and I’d love some recommendations!