Paul & Joe Mook

If you're interested in Paul & Joe clothes, you may want to pick up a copy of its Autumn/Winter '09 Mook (for "magazine book") which was published in Japan on 3 October. It's available on Amazon.co.jp for 1380yen (excludes shipping) and comes with a tote bag with the same cat print that is being featured in the Christmas makeup collection.




I'm still trying to make up my mind whether to get it. Problem is I'm seriously running out of closet space! I came this *close* to coming home with the trolley bag GWP today but sadly, couldn't find anything that I actually wanted from P&J. The trolley bag is quite well-made. The front of the bag, with the poppy print, is made of a plastic material which makes it easy to clean and more stain-resistant than fabric. I really liked it but just couldn't justify spending $180 on makeup that I did not want in the first place.

Another thing that caught my eye was the new Chanel Joues Contraste blush in In Love, which was a pretty shimmery peach coral with good color payoff. The other new Joues Contraste, Tea Rose, was much less impressive as I could hardly get it to show up. It's a boring matte pale pink that is suitable only for ladies with very fair skintones. The new tweed blushes were in too, but the different colours making up the tweed effect disappears after a few brushes of the surface, so that was a disappointment. The shades were nice, with a fair bit of shimmer, but I had just retrieved my stash of Nars blushes from storage (after a year!) this morning so I passed on the Chanel for now. Anyway, both the new Joues Contraste and tweed blushes are permanent, so I can take my time thinking whether they are really worth the S$63 price tag.

And speaking of Nars blushes, the rubber packaging is seriously the worst I've ever encountered among prestige makeup brands. Aside from the fact that it's a pain to clean and attracts powder particles easily, it turns into a horrid sticky mess in tropical climates! I had read elsewhere another blogger complaining that her Nars blush compact actually melted and she had pictures to prove it. Today, when I unwrapped my Nars blushes of their bubble wrap, the compacts had developed a nasty sticky texture. So basically I'll have to try to use these babies up quickly before they melt!