Come closer! (Closer Magazine)

Member Name: xxfoxyredxx

Product:	Closer Magazine
Date:	29/01/09 (336 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of celebrity and fashion news and it has a handy tv guide within it

Disadvantages: Lots of diet advice, no sex articles (could be an advantage though in your opinion lol)

When it comes to reading magazines filled with celebrity gossip and make overs etc I buy far too many of them to be honest! I love them and love to know who's been where, with who and what they wore! Call me mega nosy, I don't mind lol. I love to see how to copy stars make up and clothes on the cheap for a bit of razzle dazzle!

As soon as I know certain magazines like this and 'Heat' are about to hit the shelves I'm there like a shot. Like my Mother says some people have more money than sense but me, well I just love buying a magazine, grabbing some chocolate, grabbing a cup of tea once I'm back at home and immersing myself in all the latest gossip. One must have magazine is this one.

The Magazine....

This a weekly issue magazine and priced at £1.20 per copy (though you can subscribe to it for about £58.00 a year if you want to). Glossy cover, never really that thick in content and on the front the date of the issue is always displayed as is the price and usually in large white writing we're told it's 'Closer'. To be fair there is never anything that distinctive about the cover of this magazine. There is the usual celebs on the front like either Jordan or Cheryl Cole or someone and on a few occasions I've meant to pick 'Closer' up and picked some other offering up from the magazine shelves, totally by mistake. There is nothing distinctive about it at all and don't get confused this is mainly aimed at people wanting to know about celebrities more than anything else so your never greeted on the cover by a model or someone you don't know.

When you open up the magazine there is the usual guide to what's going on in the magazine so you can see at a glance what's going on in there. Usually on that page there is an editors letter to us giving her low down and opinion on what she classifies as hot news and her general take on things. Then the usual sort of stories really.....

Week by week there is a similar articles in there and a usual theme. Who is feuding with who in celeb world. Actresses who are getting skinnier by the day, someone spilling the beans on their once hot relationship and their broken heart (this week it's Sarah Symonds saying she feels betrayed by Gordon Ramsey ahem but lol), and Anthea Turner trying to prove you don't have to kill yourself to look like Madonna half naked and looking like a bondage queen in some rather raunchy photgraphs (leaves me thinking really lol). There is a who's hot and who's not in the fashion stakes etc.

Along with all that you do get a few real life stories (my husband was once a female prostitute type of thing), people can write in and email and text in with their opinions on past articles and a what's hot in the high street section which is impressive cos it's not at all designer but stuff that people like me can afford (most of the time lol). Lots of information pieces on how to achieve good make up, soft skin, how to copy a celeb look for a fiver (ok I exaggerate but you get my drift lol), what make up a particular celebrity is sporting, and of course loads of information on diets, what's in a celebrity's fridge and a professional verdict on it, then a medical page and sex and relationship page where you can write to and email the 'experts' for advice, competition pages, your weekly stars and a weekly tv guide that is rather comprehensive.

All in all it's a well padded out magazine, though as I said earlier not all that thick in it's size. In my view aimed at women in their 30's in the main. I'm 34 years old and certainly find the topics quite interesting. I like the celebrity gossip but feel you must have an interest in their current affairs and be interested in ripping their clothes off (so to speak lol) and want to dazzle lol.

I like the shopping guides about the clothes and the make up cos as I said earlier it's affordable using stores like Primark and New Look to grab the latest looks opposed to Armani or Prada. It's simply quite a down to earth magazine and you can tell that from the advertising usually used. Again no snobbery here at all. Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, Bold, Maybelline and No 7 (to name just a few) all advertise regularly within this magazine.

In this particular magazine edition I find that their is a lot of emphasise on diets. Not always are Closer guilty of this however. I do normally find that they do a lot of motivational stories about how big is beautiful and stuff like that however I guess it's cos we're just over the Christmas period and they are aiming to the market that people are still worried about any pounds they gained over Christmastime.

Ok I moan about this because I have no interest on how to lose a stone in a month type of thing but if you do Closer may be able to help you in this area lol. It's just sometimes I feel all this looking into celebs fridges and how Arlene Phillips has battled with her weight all her life and whether a detox programme can help you ditch a few pounds... a bit tedious and in every magazine of this type and I get fed up reading it all. However you of course could pick this magazine up and think that the dietary stuff is all very informative but the celeb stuff is unnecessary of course!

Overall....

An interesting enough read. A good mix of everything really where I always feel all the basics are covered. I enjoy the majority of it and love the fact that alot of what is shown I can actually afford so I don't sit reading this magazine dreaming of a different life but I'm given tips on how to improve my existing one! Nice to see make up costing £1.50 from Primark recommended for a bit of glamour to create a celebrity look and things like that. Nice to see a top fashion buy is a cardi from Asda costing £8.00! Nice to see kate Winslet looking amazing in a beautiful black dress worth thousands and a copy displayed from Littlewoods Direct for £79.00 (I ordered mine already as it's almost identical lol). I like the tv guide and all that sort of thing and me, well I wouldn't be without it however value for money I'm not sure? It's seems pricey for the amount of pages you get and it doesn't take long to read the whole thing!

Summary: Not a massive read but what there is, it's interesting enough!