The Monthly Report - Girlfriend Magazine January Issue - Beauty Section

A little while ago I reviewed the beauty section of the Girlfriend magazine December issue. It became my fourth most popular post, so I figured a lot of people liked it. I then made the decision to make it something I do every month. I decided to title it 'The Monthly Report.' I enjoy doing these kinds of reviews as they are something interesting and different from my usual beauty product reviews. I love reading magazine reviews and haven't been able to find enough out there on the Internet, so if others can benefit from this it would be wonderful.

I have always loved the magazine issues that come out in Summer. They are so much more interesting than the winter ones. Better fashion, better beauty and better all round articles. The January issues of Girlfriend magazine in 2009, 2012 and 2011 were just incredible, so of course I was looking forward to this one. The January issues prior to 2009 didn't stand out as a highlight so much, but after that it was amazing. I don't know what it is, but there is something about the January issue that just makes it better than all the other issues of the year. What a wonderful way to kick off the new year.

This months cover was much, much better than the December issue. Still, that wouldn't be hard. It featured Nina Dobrev and a purple and lime green colour scheme. I think it looks gorgeous.

The beauty section (called Pretty Girl) began on page 115 and showcased this month's trend..."Freshly squeezed." According to Lauren Carter, the new beauty girl who wrote everything on this page, "This summer, it's all about juicy shades of orange - from tangy tangerine and pretty peach to the punch of pink grapefruit. It's like a dose of vitamin C for your digits, lips, cheeks and eyes -except waaay more fun." Hmmm...what orange stuff do I have? Orange shampoo, orange nail polish...that's about it. At a push I suppose my bronzer could be classed as orange...no, it really couldn't. On that page were lots of pretty pictures, including a gorgeous looking YSLRouge Volupte lipstick in Extreme Coral and Rimmel London Kate Moss Lasting finish lipstick in 12 lipstick (phew, what a mouthful!). A picture of two models wearing bright lippie in a colour that I would call neon orange, and a model wearing an orange dress and neutral makeup. Once again they have done something weird like that. Talking about tangerine makeup picturing a model not wearing that. Hmmm.

Turning the page we come to the two most dangerous pages of the whole magazine... our "Beauty fix," with all the latest and greatest products. Naturally I want them all, hence why they are so dangerous. We have some new "Mozi" lipbalms in six "delish fruity flavours" all for $15.95. We hear of the new BYS false lashes  - more than 50 different styles in the range -, some fake tan that doesn't smell, nail art pens, new mascara, and my personal favourite - scented nail polish. I don't own any scented nail polish, but don't you worry, it won't be long before I do. Cassandra asks "How do I get smooth, silky, shiny, not-a-strand-out-of-place hair? I've tried everything including an (extremely messy) olive oil home-remedy, but nothing seems to work. Help!" To summarise the answer (which is in fact exactly the same amount of words as the question, "Shampoo, conditioner, serum, straightener." Boring.

Page 118 revises the first page of Pretty Girl, with more orange makeup. To be honest, nothing on this page really grabbed me. I'm pretty sure orange makeup is not my thing.

For our beauty school feature this month we have "How to wax your legs." I don't know about you, but I thought this was pretty self explanatory, especially as they were explaining how to use the strips where you peel of the backing to reveal the wax, stick it to your leg, then rip it off. It's not rocket science. Anyhow, I didn't feel it was necessary to go into too much depth about this page...

The major feature for this month was Sunscreen and why it was important, what it does, how much to apply, the importance of SPF, and what to do once you have already burned yourself. To be brutally honest, I found it rather boring. I would much rather hear about cool new hairstyles, new and interesting makeup looks, someone's HG beauty products...anything but sunscreen. I love my sunscreen but I think it is interesting as talking about toilet paper. Essential, but boring as heck.

The last page of Pretty girl is the beauty editor's blog page. Girlfriend's new beauty editor LC titles it this month as, "Burning with Shame." She spends the whole page talking about how she got sunburnt, despite the fact that this month's feature was about the importance of wearing sunscreen. I found this to be an annoying post (would you call it a post?) to read, it just irritated me. if I was her I would have found something else to talk about, something less irritating and more interesting. I probably sound awful, but I'm not going to lie. I'm still trying to warm to this girl but it's not going so well.

So there we have it. A disappointment to say the least. What is going on? These sections of the magazine used to be several pages of amazing gold, but now it's just a couple of pages of nothing really. I hope it gets better I really do, but after two duds it's not looking promising.