I can’t believe I bought this Herisa notebook on Amazon in July 2020 and am only now getting around to reviewing it! Such is life these days… but let’s take a long overdue look at this notebook.
I would guess that the Herisa notebook is kind of a generic item, perhaps marketed under a variety of brand names on Amazon. It seems to be a pretty typical practice for Chinese manufacturers to offer the same product under multiple brand names and see which one sells best. I’ve definitely seen other notebooks on Amazon that seem quite similar, though most of them seem to be available only in lined format. (See Vanpad, Aisbugur, ZZXT, Deziliao, Feela, LMTNNB, SULDAEFC, and many others.) I’ve also reviewed the very similar Taotree dot-grid notebook. But the Herisa came with unlined pages as an option, which is more rare.
The Herisa notebook has the typical Moleskine-clone characteristics: a black faux-leather cover, elastic closure, ribbon marker, expanding back pocket. It’s pleasantly chunky with a slightly padded cover that reminds me of the Pen & Ink sketchbook or the Scribe notebook I reviewed ages ago. The extras offered by the Herisa notebook are that you get a pen loop (which is quite solidly glued in, but possible to remove by sliding an Xacto knife in carefully on either side of it), a second ribbon marker, and a tuck pocket inside the front cover.
There is no branding information anywhere on the notebook. The ribbon markers are brown, and there are matching head and foot bands, which as far as I can tell are just glued on for decoration rather than being part of the stitching of the signatures and spine. The construction of the notebook seems to be of good quality, with everything nice and square and even overhang on all sides. There is more cover overhang than I’d prefer, but it feels proportional to the rest of the notebook.
Inside, there are a few lines for your contact details, but otherwise, it is totally plain. The notebook opens nice and flat due to a very flexible spine. The paper is a slightly creamy, smooth white. It is said to be 100 GSM, and does feel a bit heavier than average. And it performs quite well!
I tried all my usual pens and found the paper to be better than average for show-through, and had almost no bleed-through. A couple of inks feathered a bit in spots, but even when applying some pressure to flex nibs for line width variation, the paper was generally great. I did find that on another page, I got a few spots of bleeding if I cross-hatched a bit, and using layers of markers will start to loosen the paper fibers and cause some bleeding. I wouldn’t be confident enough in this paper to use it as a sketchbook with a lot of wet media, but for everyday journaling and notes, it should be fine for almost any user. I would just be prepared to try a few different fountain pens and inks to see which ones work.
Bottom line: I haven’t tested the Herisa notebook’s durability in long-term day to day use, but it seems solid enough to hold up well and I think I would buy this notebook again. I didn’t like the pen loop, but it turned out to be easier to remove than it was on the Taotree, and less damaging since there is no stitching going through the cover. There are other things about it that make it less than perfect in relation to my personal preferences, but the value overall makes the Herisa notebook a good choice.
As noted above, I bought this notebook a couple of years ago (with my own money, and I am not receiving any compensation for doing this review). I paid $10.99 for a two-pack, which for this level of quality is a great deal. I figured this price couldn’t possibly be available 2 years later, and when I searched “Herisa Notebook,” at first I didn’t even find this brand. But it’s actually still there, and still available... but not at the same price. It’s now even cheaper, at $9.99! But… and this is a big “but,” the description doesn’t say “100 GSM” anywhere. It says “Weight 150g” but I think they mean the actual weight of the whole notebook, not the paper weight. If the price went down, I would guess they had to reduce the paper quality. But at $9.99 for a two-pack, I think it’s worth a try to see. Recent reviews on Amazon seem to be positive. For those who prefer a larger size, Herisa also sells a lined 5×8″ notebook in blue with 130 GSM paper, currently $6.99 for a two-pack! A black, pocket-sized lined version is also available, but they are much more expensive, at least right now.
