This Month In Allure October 2008 : Yes, Yes, YES!

September 28, 2008

If you have any interest in makeup, any at all, you will want to know that each October, Allure publishes their Best of Beauty issue. This is the best one ever, with Ellen Pompeo (who looks like a cross between Lindsay Lohan and Kate Hudson) on the cover.

For awhile, it seemed the same products were being recycled year after year. This year’s seems fresher, like they started at the beginning again.

Letter From The Editor

The editor-in-chief is a woman named Linda Wells. I would like this woman (though after The Devil Wears Prada, who knows?). She writes the only Letter From The Editor that I consistently read in any magazine. She seems more indulgent of the stardust and glitz than mesmerized by it.

Linda Wells

It’s never a speech promising how great the issue is going to be. She lets you work that out for yourself. It’s just about a point of view, something she thought about or noticed. Though she travels in entirely different circles, the experience is always one you can relate to. There’s no gushing or raving or taking it all too seriously. She seems more genuine than primped to the teeth.

The issues I NEVER buy

Readers Choice Awards issue are futile. The products never seem to evolve. Why is anyone still buying Great Lash mascara (unless you want a no-mascara look), or Clinique DDML (you could be getting so much more!) ? I don’t even want to talk about NARS Orgasm blush (for 80% of women, there are better choices!). The scents are never interesting, the brands names less so, with MAC and CoverGirl being far too heavily weighted.

Chatelaine did a decent Favorite Products article in the September 08 issue. I almost bought it, but in the same magazine was an article about a woman who tortured her children – here if you need to see it.

What are their editors thinking? Am I going bring something so evil, that radiates such horrible energy into my house? And have my kids see it? I remember some years ago an issue with a feature on a woman who was in love with Paul Bernardo. I can’t even bring myself to type what he was all about it, but you can Google him. I warn you, it’s not pretty. Chatelaine must have a very solid readership to print this stuff. I won’t even pick up the magazine any more.

Elegance has one master

Giorgio Armani

The source of the photo is an article in Wallpaper, for his Armani Casa furniture design store in London. The interview is interesting, but even better is the slideshow of Armani interiors. Click under the small kitchen photo to view the gallery.

Anyone who’s been to my house will fall over laughing for days to think I aspire to this. I have a long way to go. Actually, the house is too sterile, but visualize some stuff in it and it starts looking less robotic.

Allure has featured Armani’s belief in simplicity in makeup, just as in clothing, in a short article. His sense of elegance and understatement is, of course, renowned. In these, no one can take his place. I was most comforted by his statement that what he dislikes is “the exhibition of being sexy”. Thank heavens. If there’s one thought that does not cross my mind, it’s whether or not I appear sexy.

A good friend spoke with me recently about a piece on “Why Do You Want To Look Sexy?”, as a follow up to Why To You Want To Look Younger? . I sat, I thought, I read, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t find a place from which to understand the question because the sad fact is looking sexy, or feeling it, just never crosses my mind. Maybe it’s a sign of pre-menopause.

I do want to look attractive. I don’t go out without makeup. I think about my hair. I’m literally happier on my thin days. But sexy per se, why don’t I care? No idea. I’d like to know though. I need to speak with my friend and technical expert, Rick, about putting polls on this page. How many of us think about looking sexy? Always, never, sometimes?

An SJP aside

On page 186, SJP has the weirdest hair color I’ve ever seen on her. I’m pretty sure that girl is a summer, and when they make her hair the color of corn, or even worse, whatever this color is, the descriptive words escape me, pinkish-brown…, man, she just looks off. Does anyone recall when her hair was platinum (white) blond and shoulder length? I for one thought she looked amazing.

Best of the Best

But the Best-Of pages!! Stupendous. You can tell they worked at this. The choices are mostly beautiful and original. The colors are modern and elegant , though those of you who don’t wear sea-foam green eyelids may differ on that point. What can you say, they’re targeting 25 year olds. You’ll enjoy the outstanding gray eyeshadows more. The Winners lists are here, sans pictures.

Any colors from the past are only being re-hashed because they’re still the most beautiful ( and, yes, Orgasm is among them; that color will never go away, it will haunt the beauty galaxy for all time). Brands are spread over the board pretty well, with many expensive choices, but I find it forgivable and expected. That’s often where the best pigments and textures are in makeup (not so with Skin Care).

I appreciated the page devoted to Splurges, Economy, Natural, and Men’s selections.

Is it still the cosmetics industry soaking in you in hype and relieving you of your cash? Of course it is. But if you love the stuff and like to play, and are actually happy to go looking for independent opinions before you buy, throw this issue in the grocery cart. You will find the fabbiest products in lines you might never bothered getting to know. Your list of things to take a look at next time you’re out shopping is going to grow.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under This Month In ...

Comments

2 Responses to “This Month In Allure October 2008 : Yes, Yes, YES!”

Kathryn on September 29th, 2008 7:29 pm

And yet not one of Paula’s Choice products…sad, very sad.
Christine Scaman on October 1st, 2008 5:02 pm

Totally right, Kathryn,

It still is about money and inflated advertising budgets. The industry has a long way to go. Change is slow.

Considering the restrictions within which they work, I still enjoyed this issue. The skin care section is indeed a little silly but anyone who picks up a magazine these days and thinks they’re reading gospel has fallen out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down. Anyone is free to inform and educate themselves before making good buying decisions.

What I like is the exposure to makeup brands and colors that I might never look at. I live in a small town so http://www.sephora.com is often the closest I’ll get to a lot of this stuff. At least I would say that Allure does the best Best-of-Beauty of any publication out there. I sure wish they had included a creme-to-powder foundation, some lipgloss colors (though they’re right on about Clinique Glosswear being among the best), and just more makeup overall.