Sunday 13 May 2012

Paul & Joe Midsummer Nights Haul and Swatches

Last weekend, I found the Paul & Joe Midsummer Nights summer collection at Fenwick in London. The collection is now also available on ASOS.com and Beautyhabit.com.

The packaging for this collection is a refreshing cool mint. The boxes have a lovely watercolor-like effect with swirls of creamy white. I do not usually keep the boxes of my products but these are just too pretty to discard.

I was delighted to see this lovely pouch being offered as the gift with a £30 purchase. The same print is featured on the packaging of the limited edition Blotting Paper 2012 that will be released in June. The mirror is the gift with a £50 purchase.


The Shimmering Pressed Powder G 001 Midsummer Nights (£22/US$40) is a luminious highlighting powder that is supposed to provide a moonlit, iridescent effect, like moonlight on a fairy's wings.

The Face Color G 001 Nymph (£15/US$24) is a sweet shimmery candy pink.

Below are swatches of Nymph (extreme left) and the three shades of the Shimmering Pressed Powder. The pressed powder has a soft luminous sheen without any frostiness or chunky glitter.

Of the three lipglosses, I picked up Lipgloss G 002 Fairie Kisses and 003 Dream A Little Dream (£15/US$22). Fairie Kisses is a shimmery tranlucent pale green with a green apple and vanilla scent while Dream A Little Dream is a coral pink with a creamy orange and vanilla scent. These are supposed to be flavoured as well but I found the scent to be much more noticeable than the flavour. Both are very sheer and glossy when applied on the lips and last about 2-3 hours on my lips.

My camera makes Dream A Little Dream appear more orange-toned than it actually is.


The three lipglosses from last summer's L'Horizon Bleu collection are more shimmery in comparison.


In the pic below, I'm wearing Dream A Little Dream which add just a sheer tint of pink to my lips. I skipped 001 Love Potion as it was even more sheer than Dream A Little Dream.

The Nail Enamel (£10.50/US$14) in 028 Fairie Queen is a holographic flakie that seems to have a thicker formula than the regular P&J polishes. When tapping the bottle against my palm, the two metal balls don't make the usual sound as they move through the thick enamel with a glacial pace.

030 Pixie contains silver glitter bits with a holographic effect in a clear base.

The Shimmering Body Lotion G (£24/US$40) is a cooling body lotion with a green floral scent and filled with holographic green glitter.

While I like the soft green scent, the glitter bits are quite obvious on the skin. The lotion feels refreshing and dries down to a smooth, non-greasy finish. It is not that hydrating, with alcohol being the second ingredient on the list.




After leaving Fenwick, I was surprised to discover that the SA had included a generous bag of samples, literally two sachets of almost every skincare and base makeup product that P&J makes.

With each seasonal collection, P&J also issues a newsletter to showcase the collection. It is also a useful reference of the current permanent line-up, which changes quite often.

My current collection of P&J face powders.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Haru,
Thanks for posting your P&J haul!
Would you be swatching the nail colors anytime?
I'm contemplating on buying Fairie Queen!

THANK YOU!

Haru said...

hi,
My nails are in a horrible state at the moment, so I'll perhaps do a swatch post using a nail wheel.

Tracy said...

Ohh! Your collection of face powders is lovely!! It's always so hard to throw away the boxes. Everything from Paul & Joe is so delicate and pretty!

Citrine said...

Omg, the blush is prettier than what I have imagined. Do you remember if the peachy one (Nubile)has any shimmer, like the pink one?

Anyway, a small part of this collection is actually available at Urban Outfitters and they currently have a 10% off deal...Now I just need to make the decision before the 20th.

Unknown said...

Love your collection of P&J face powders! They all look so pretty!!! Do you use them or you keep them more as collector's items?

Haru said...

Hi Citrine,
The other two blushes in this collection were matte and quite sheer. They didn't seem to swatch well so I passed on them.

Haru said...

hi Miaka,
I do use the face powders frequently, just that I have so many so it takes me a long time to hit pan on anything. I don't keep makeup untouched just for my collection as they will eventually expire.