Ehon Karanishiki

[zankoku_zen]

Morning glory petals, blue lilac, white amber, gardenia, peony, bourbon vanilla, and strawberry juice.

[starbrow]

A peep into a springtime garden: a swirl of fresh florals on the breeze and unpicked strawberries, still green on the stem. These are pretty florals! Even the gardenia and lilac play nicely together, lightly heady but gentle and cool; perfect springtime blossoms. I don't notice a lot of bourbon vanilla, but there is a lovely tinge of strawberries that are not yet ripe, not very sweet at all, a huge contrast to many strawberry blends that are uber-sweet-candy-shortcake. 

 

Though light, the throw is kind of perfect for florals like this, just softly wafting around rather than in-your-face. And the strawberry is one of the most unique that I've smelled, almost strawberry-leaf. Florals and strawberries aren't my lovely cup of tea, but for someone who does enjoy them, you can't really go wrong with Ehon Karanishiki.

[Rane.]

First impressions for me are strawberry & Amber. They go so well together. Then I get morning glory enveloping them, followed by the other florals. The vanilla is very faint, but adds to the depth. This will be a Spring favorite for me.

[zankoku_zen]

This one is a sweet gardenia with strawberry. I get gardenia and lilac, and whiffs of strawberry and vanilla. Spring, fruity, gardenia. Good throw and wear length.

[Janis]

Ehon begins with a REALLY strong blast of blended florals and juicy-but-not-overly-sweet strawberry. It was so strong I skipped straight into olfactory fatigue for a while before I could actually review this scent! Apply sparingly - even a very very small dot of oil lasted for a very long time with massive throw.

 

These are cheery, youthful, sun-warmed florals grounded by amber and strawberry. Like my experience with other blends containing vanilla, the vanilla gains strength on drydown as the floral notes calm down. The oil itself seems too concentrated for me to wear directly, but I think it would be lovely diluted in lotion or hair conditioner (etc).

[Leopard403]

Looking at so many floral notes, I was shocked at how juicy this blend turned out to be when it hit my skin. Sadly, that gardenia and white amber quickly take over and this turns into soap. Finely milled expensive French soap, but still. I’ll keep wearing it until my decant is gone, but I don’t need a bottle.

 

Update: OMG this is a morpher. I had to come back and edit because after a while the juicy note (the strawberry, I guess) comes back. Whaaaaaat?

 

And now, several hours later, what is lingering smells like SJP Lovely, (which I once tramped all over NYC to find only to realize it wasn’t considered high market enough to be in any of the super-fancy stores and I ended up purchasing it in the Orlando airport. Also, a warning: Lovely and Elon Karanishiki do not appear to have ANYTHING in common note-wise, so don’t try to make sense of that, mmmkay?). So it has enough nostalgia to it that I might buy more after all.

 

 

Edited April 27, 2020 by Leopard403
I mean whoa...

[galahad]

In the Bottle:
Very floral, most noticeable is the lilac, with a juicy and fruity background.

 

On the Skin:
Jammy strawberry and lilac with a  little vanilla to keep it smooth.  The other florals keep it from being too lilac-centric.  Pretty but heavier than expected.

 

On the Drydown:
This is less a spring floral and more summer.  As it dries it becomes greener under the blanket of pretty floral notes with the strawberry not really asserting much more than a subtle fruitiness.  Nice

[ajansuz]

Not gonna lie, I bought this for the strawberry, and it did not disappoint. This is some seriously juicy, in your face strawberry, like fruit, not candy. On me, no particular floral jumped out at all. They stayed a background to the fruit, and I only smelled vanilla after several hours. This throws like nobody's business. I felt like I was thrown smack dab into early summer. If I hadn't loved the peach so much in Alleviate the Frenzy, this would have won as my favorite Lupercalia offering this year.

[artisjok]

Florals, white and plush, delicate and dewy, are gently pierced by a strawberry, pale red and not-quite-ripe. 
 

This hovers on the edge of a scent I would not be interested in wearing, and a scent that is so intriguing and perfect for a mood that I must have it. It’s a delicious muddled ground for me. 

Edited July 24, 2020 by artisjok

[doomsday_disco]

Ehon Karanishiki is a fruity floral scent, but it is far heavier on the floral component than the fruit one, so if you're wanting the floral notes, but wary of the strawberry, it still would be worth a try. I am not sure what morning glory petals smell like, but I am able to detect the lilac and gardenia here, with the lilac being stronger during the wet phase of the scent. The strawberry juice adds a bit of sweetness to the scent, but the bourbon vanilla never showed up on me. After several hours, the white amber note has emerged, adding a classy perfume-vibe to this floral scent.

 

I'm glad I got to try this one, but I was really hoping for some vanilla with the floral notes.

[VetchVesper]

In the bottle, Ehon Karanishiki strikes a nice balance between a bright, fresh gardenia, and realistic strawberry.  It's quite sweet, but it's a lovely floral sweetness. 

 

On my skin, the lilac bursts out, and I get the same note that is in this year's Hotaru No Yu HG.  As with the HG, the lilac goes slightly synthetic on me (others didn't seem to have this problem) but is still pleasant.  Something is going a little sharp here though, and (I hate to say it) giving me a faint urine vibe when I sniff closely.  The fragrance is becoming less gardenia and more of a balance between the notes.  I can suss out each of the florals and the strawberry, but none of them dominates.  I'm not smelling any vanilla.  Happily, the urine has vanished, but the lilac is still giving this a synthetic edge that I don't care for.  I liked things much better when they were in the bottle!

 

Also, this reminds me of another Shunga from years ago, A Mirror of Spring Pleasures on Kites (2016 v), but that one was deeper and jammier smelling, whereas Ehon is lighter and more floral.  I think this is quite pretty, but my chemistry is spoiling it.  Peony is also not a floral I'm particularly fond of.  If the florals look good for you, especially the lilac, check this one out.  The strawberry is present, and adds to the bouquet, but overall, I say this is spring floral.  

Edited September 10, 2020 by VetchVesper

[biggnerd]

This is a cousin of Strawberry Moon. The sweet, juicy strawberry is there, but it's hanging out in the background adding some sweetness to the blend. It's prominence faded as it aged. 

 

This is a heady, big floral where I can't pick out one flower over the other. It doesn't go soapy or indolic. The strawberry is adding just a kiss of fruity sweetness.