Paul & Joe Mirror

Remember I was thinking about getting a mirror for the summer day ? ( since the black Anna Sui ones look a bit gloomy now that everything is bright and colorful) ...and from the very limited pool of candidate, I decided to go for Paul & Joe for the delicate and vintage looking design.



The mirror came with a square suede pouch. One thing that excites me a tad bit was that the mirror is marked Made in Japan.

While most of my pretty Anna Sui mirror, powder compact are made in Thailand (black rose mirror), Taiwan (hand mirror) and China (black butterfly, white protective foundation case). My top two favorite rose powder cases are both made in Japan. So I felt like this would be something as special as those two cute cases of mine. Silly thoughts, really.


The Paul & Joe beauty mirror looks kind of nice with the nice creamy color, round shape (rounds cases are my favorite) and the chrysanthemum pattern. The plastic looks pretty tough. But not as substantial as the how Anna Sui feel on my hand.

And one more note about the shape, I do like the round mirrors in general because the way its shape minimized the reflective brushed on layer would be less likely to fall of inside the glass since there is no harsh edge.

Now comes the disappointment. The supporting flab of the mirror (if you were to stand it up) although is has a nice elaborated pattern (the same as what's on the lip gloss, blushers and powder case) it's not made of metal as I guessed. Judging from the weight. It's a flab of light/ flimsy plastic coated with a metallic paint then coated again with another sheer champagne colored paint.

I am not complain about how it looks. It's just that everybody should have a common sense that if you are making something that stands up, should the base be at least as heavy (if not heavier ) as the top?

The mirror barely balance when I put it on my balm and it looks like it can be easily tipped over, if you keep it stood up on your desk. (plus it doesn't look good when the creamy floral pattern is facing (probably the wall) and the other bold pattern is facing down the table...


The back has nothing but that Paul & Joe marking, so I decided to spice thing up a bit. Those stickers are all I have at the moment. I used up my stock for this...*need to stock up*

On the bright side, the other side is reflective enough that you can actually use it as a mirror. Like one of those bad skin day you are not ready to face your real face, this gives a lower resolution image...Decent enough to check your teeth as least.

Here is my biggest complain about this and what's really bothering me:


Just from the pictures and their website description: "large enough to see your whole face...perfect for makeup application and carrying with you"


I have no problem seeing my whole face with an average palm sized mirror or putting on mascara, blusher, lip glosses with that...And from the two pictures (beach and picnic) I assumed that this Paul & Joe, is the standard mirror size that you can carry in your makeup bag...

But no...this shit is huge. It's the same radius as my Anna Sui loose powder...Only it looks a lot bigger because of the white color and the radially outward pattern.

Am I missing something ? Who in the world would carry a mirror same size as loose powder with her!? Sophie Albou, thanks you. I can not only see my face, I can see the top of my head all the way down to my collar bone with this...

So in short, it does indeed look good in picture (I could never use "photo doesn't do it justice" on this since it doesn't look good in person) and on your dresser (closed, on top of something soft so it won't get scratched)but the mirror is in no way portable and this piece of shit cost 28 dollars...

Sophie Albou, gimme my money back, Arghhhhhhh.

Now I realized that Anna Sui does a much better job at making a mirror.


1. The whole thing is intricately design, every corner is adorned. And it has that most dreamy pink lilac sheen allover the casting. (which I didn't capture, click here you will see a pinkish lilac sheen if your monitor is good enough.)

2.It's $22 bucks and most of them are really tough and low maintnance.

3.At least the supporting flab is thick as a ot sturdier than the flimsy piece of plastic.

4. The length is the same as the diameter of paul & joe, much more reasonable sizing.

5. IMO, Anna Sui's clothes totally rocks. Unlike Paul & Joe's bland peasant apparel design...(No offense) or Jill Stuart 's ultimate princess that doesn't have any characters. (Come on, if you want to go for that Princess route Chloe is so much cuter.)


Pretty eh? This one is long discountinued though...

P.S. Paul & Joe, you've pissed me off once with your lip gloss, then this...One more piece of garbage and I will swear you off like how I swore off Maybeline...