Best Things in Beauty : Sweet x Anna Sui & Marc Jacobs Mook

I stopped by Kinokuniya today to pick up the new October issue of Sweet magazine (S$21.90) which comes with the Anna Sui multi-case.

The magazine itself is a mega whopper at 436 pages as it is the fall fashion issue, I guess equivalent to the September issue of American fashion rags. The Anna Sui case is very well made and of a standard that one would expect of GWPs offered at the makeup counters. The material is polyester but it has a little bit of padding so it does not feel flimsy at all.

It can be used as a passport case, cosmetic case, wallet, camera/portable game case.

I got to Kino (Ngee Ann City) a little just before 1pm as the magazine would be released for sale at 2pm. There was already a queue for Steady (as only 10 copies were brought in to be sold on a first-come-first served basis, no phone reservations this time). Fortunately, the staff told me that there was no need to queue for Sweet, I guess because they brought in quite a large quantity. So I was able to go have lunch before heading back to Kino. There were a couple of other ladies who were also waiting for Sweet but it was a very smooth process of just picking the mag up at the Japanese/Chinese book counter.

I was quite impressed that the Japanese manager actually stood at the counter with the queueing customers for quite a long time, explaining to those who came later that there were no more stock for those not in the queue. Then when 2pm finally rolled around, he walked with the customers to the cashier and handed the magazine to each of them in turn very politely.

Some might think that it did not make much sense to make the customers in the queue wait until 2pm (seems like some had started queueing before 12pm) but it is actually a very Japanese thing to make the rules in advance (e.g. release of the mags only at 2pm and limited to 1 copy per customer, no phone reservations) and to stick to them so as to be fair to everyone. If you wanted a copy, then you just had to get to the store early and queue, instead of just hoping for an easy way out like begging anonymous strangers on Cozycot to help you buy a copy... hello, you think people so free to go queue for you? Get real! Queueing up for stuff is something that happens in Japan all the time, like with the highly sought after limited edition makeup items. So those patient enough to wait got their reward in the end. And for those who got left out, there will be other more easily attainable material goods to satisfy you. The next issue of Steady comes with a Beams (Japanese fashion brand) tote bag.

A pretty good buy is the Marc by Marc Jacobs mook (S$27.50) which Kino currently has tons of stock of. The bag, which is made of cotton and polyester, has a very cute apple and heart print and is incredibly roomy. It is much sturdier and more well-made than the Tsumori Chisato bag that came with Nonno (there are also still some copies of this left).