Paul & Joe Pouches

I finally received my copies of the October issues of Spring and Biteki magazines which came with Paul & Joe pouches. The Spring pouch turned out to be surprisingly roomy and well-constructed with slots for brushes under the lid. The material is also pretty decent, not too thin and flimsy as is typical of magazine freebies. This was actually designed in collaboration with Paul & Joe Sister, which is the secondary clothing line by P&J. Paul & Joe Sister debuted in Japan in early September.



As you can see from the pic, the pouch can fit quite a number of makeup items, definitely enough to store all the makeup you need for one day or for touch-ups on the go.



The Biteki silky pouch is cute too, but the material is thinner and looks like it may snag easily if one is not careful. But it's also quite roomy and can fit a number of small makeup items. Biteki also included a 1g sample of the new Creamy Powder Compact Foundation SPF15 PA+ (5250yen) in shade #30 and two sachets of the Moisturising Foundation Primer (3675yen, 30ml) in #1 and #3.




There is also a small booklet showing how to apply the foundation and primer for a flawless, glowy finish, featuring model Maya, who frequently models for Japanese beauty magazines.






The Creamy Powder Compact Foundation is a cream to powder foundation with a creamy soft texture similar to that of raw chocolate. With silicon powders coated in emollients for deep moisturising benefits, it is meant for dry skin types or use in fall/winter when skin dryness is a common problem. It is supposed to give the look of healthy, bare skin with an inner glow thanks to the inclusion of champagne gold pearl in the formula.

I tried it out today and as I expected, cream-to-powder foundations are just not suitable for oily, acne-prone skintypes like mine. The foundation applied quite smoothly, with good coverage and blended easily to a natural finish without streaking. The problem was that after just one hour, my skin was already desperately in need of blotting. It also did not reduce the appearance of my pores, which for me is an important aspect of any good foundation. So I'll be sticking to powder foundations in the future but this may still be a good option to consider if you have dry skin and are not prone to acne. My worry with cream foundations is always the fear that they will clog my pores due to the heavier texture. I suspect that cream foundations tend to look good only on people with near perfect skin, who probably don't need foundation in the first place!

The Moisturising Foundation Primer has greater moisturising power compared to the previous version with #1 meant for making skin appear lighter toned, #2 for a healthy glow and #3 for a more translucent finish. I tried #3 today as well but it did nothing special for me. The primer has a light texture that absorbs easily without feeling sticky but it does not provide any coverage so if you have skin imperfections, you'll need a separate concealer or a foundation with medium to heavy coverage to use with this .