....but not in my shopping basket (InStyle)

Name: vintage_laurie

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Product:	InStyle
Date:	18/09/05 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good free gifts, good photography

Disadvantages: No real content, too much fawning nonsense

Instyle is one of those magazines I buy every so often and quickly regret. it costs about £3 an issue, so is comparable with similar monthly glossies such as Vogue and Elle. It usually attracts my attention by having a free gift; lots of bags, toiletry rolls, sample sizes of products, books and so on. It usually looks quite thick and substantial - more on that later...

After you've flicked past the hundreds of adverts and had a wodge of leaflets fall out onto your lap, you reach the opening pages. These consist of several pages of photos of celebrities and models with captions saying 'Celeb X in dress by Designer Z', with a vague theme running through - i.e. 3 pages of women in green dresses, then 3 pages with women in sparkly sandals. After that, theres usually a a load of pages of new products and clothes currently available, in themes such as 'work wear', 'autumn', anti-ageing'.

After that, you'll reach the main feature, usually an inerview with the celebrity on the cover. If, like me, you read US magazines, chances are you'll recognise the interview; instyle do tend to borrow from US publications. Even when you haven't read it before, it tends to be a puff piece, with lots of chat about their take on fashion, but nothing challenging.

Then there are the fashion pages - basically, there are 20-30 full pages of captioned fashion photos - they're glossy and often very pretty, but basically, just photos.

After that, there are lots of brief sections, including books, films and music. These tend to consist of descriptive one paragraph reviews (which are useless) and a 'feature' of a half page interview with a musician/actor.

The make-up section is the largest section after fashion. There's lots about new products, and usually a quite good review of several similar products. Then there's a step by step of how to achieve different make up looks; these usually take up a full page of which products to achieve it/how to apply it, and a full page photo of a models face wearing that look. It doesn't really appeal to me, and there's much too much space dedicated to it.

There's also a 'society' section, with several pages of photos of celebrities/models/royalty at parties and events.

Lastly, there are sections on home decor (lots more photos of new products), an ok food section with recipies and a travel piece, with lots more glossy photos.

Interspersed between every item seems to be at least one or two adverts; the magazine is full of them. There are usually a couple of sachets of new products attatched within the magazine.

I tend to buy Instyle when I've been travelling a lot - often, I've read all my usual magazines and in a hurry. so I just grab anything. I always regret Instyle though because there is literally nothing to read. It consists of adverts, photos and glorified adverts for new products - it sometimes feels like you're looking through a catalogue. I can often read the actual articles in it within 10 or 15 minutes, which for a 2-300 page magazine is ridiculous.

In summary, I don't like Instyle as there is no real content; I prefer magazines like marie Claire which contain articles and real journalism, instead of just endless photos!!!!

Summary: A glorified catalogue.