The Monthly Report - Girlfriend Magazine December issue - Beauty Section

Remember when I told you about my beauty heroes and rattled on about Sarah Tarca? If you have no idea what I am talking about, read it here and then come back!

Right, now we've got past that, we can continue with the story. I recently received my Girlfriend magazine for December 2011 in the letter box, and I thought I might do a review on the beauty section.

However, before I comment on that I must warn you that the cover is absolutely hideous. Sorry Girlfriend magazine team, but I honestly do not know what on earth you were thinking. I absolutely adored the cover of the November issue (dare I say that it may have been my favourite EVER!) but the December cover, my gosh. It was awful. Never mind, you can never judge a book by its cover, can you?!

Let's begin. Page 101 is where our beauty adventures begin featuring makeup titled "bright on baby! - It's loud. It's bright. It's neon. Forget subtle shades of liner, laquer and lippie, coz this month it's all about bright orange, neon blue, electric yellow and ultraviolet. Paint it on and rock it - we dare you!"

Hmm, not my most favourite makeup look of all time, but there you go. It pictures two model shots - one with who I think is Abbey Lee Kershaw wearing fluorescent lippie, and one with two models wearing fluoro clothes and plain, neutral makeup. Wait, what?! Yes, I said it, their makeup couldn't be any more neutral at all.

Turn the page and you shall find a page of pretty things, and new items in the beauty land. Ahhhh, I drooled over this page for a while. I've decided I also want the Kit Lip-loving Kit containing a wild strawberry lip balm and a "super shiny pink lipgloss." Sounds exciting! Is it me or does adding 'wild' to the flavour strawberry make it so much more enticing? Anyway,Cassy age 14 asks, "What shade of eyeshadow should I use for school that's subtle but pretty? And how can I make my eyes look bigger?" Laurel Brown from Rimmel London responds with an answer something like "A subtle option would be a soft mushroom colour on your eyelid with a slightly darker shade either brown or grey on the lash line." Next we hear that Christmas is the season to wear pretty, shimmery gold makeup. We hear a little about Taylor Swifts new fragrance (a sample is included on one of the pages in the magazine) and we discover that a European makeup line has made its way into Target here in Australia - Essence cosmetics. Never heard of it, but Girlfriend recommends it for people who love brights! Turning the page once again we have a repeat of page 101 - it just showcases loud, crazy makeup.

On page 106 we have a beauty school page, helping us learn how to apply fake tan. I personally am not a big fan of the fake tan (hey, that rhymes!) so I just continued on...

Page 108 and 109 tells you how to deal with all your summer hair dilemmas - Split ends, frizz, oily hair, dry hair, dull hair and bleached hair is covered thoroughly. No more hair problems for you!

Then on page 110...*drum roll please*....The new Beauty guru has arrived!!! Her name is Lauren (or LC) and she introduces herself as "a hopeless romantic who tends to fall down stairs and flat surfaces a lot." She also likes bright lippies and thinks her job is amazing because she can paint her nails at her desk and her boss is totally cool with it. I think I will have to wait for a couple issues until I can make my mind up about the new beauty guru. She has big shoes to fill and I hope she can manage! Under her boss' guidance (Sarah Tarca) I'm sure she will be wonderful!

So, that pretty much sums up the beauty section for this month. Was it amazing? No. Was it good, mmmm, Girlfriend has done much better. Still, without a beauty editor, how were they supposed to have a million quality pages of beauty? I think that now that they have a new beauty buff, things will start picking up. I didn't really learn all that much or become that inspired with the beauty pages this month, but being the Girlfriend magazine fan that I am, I am SURE that it will only get better. I'm so looking forward to next month because it is the January issue, and I truly believe that every January issue of Girlfriend magazine is amazing. Usually the best for the whole year. True story!

Let me know what you thought of this post! What magazines do you turn to for your beauty?