Marie Claire Magazine

I have in front of me the January and February of 2002 issues of Marie Claire. My daughter brought home the January issue and I bought the February issue. I rarely buy magazines because between my husband and myself we are always getting free subscriptions, but this issue looked good. For $2.99 for 164 pages it seemed like a good buy.

I am reviewing the February 2002 The magazines have an average of 155 pages which is a hefty magazine in terms of magazines for women. Allure sells for $2.99 and has about 50 fewer pages. But perhaps those 50 in Marie Claire are ads.

What attracted me to the February issue making me purchase this issue, is that it was a combination of health, beauty and non-fashion articles. Both issues have famous women on them: January has Michelle Pfeiffer?s ?new take on life? and February has Halle Berry on ?racism and reality."

Marie Claire?s departments are the same monthly. They are:

~"On the cover" has a list of the cover articles and a bit about them. I find this very helpful because I knew what I wanted to read without flipping through the magazine. For example: on the cover it says, ?What your hair says about you.? And under this department the blurb says, ?Would going blonde change your life? We put it to the test on eight brunettes.?

~"Features" includes your horoscope and a Special Report on a ?Diary of a Heroin Addict.?

~"Fashion" includes ?What?s in, What?s out for Spring" with a Spring Preview Special.

~"Beauty & Health" includes ?What?s hot now? and ?Are you at risk for STDs??

Let?s look at some of the articles in the various topics that drew me in:

~Since turning 50, I am working on wearing more makeup and I cut my hair a bit. When I saw that on page 34 in "On the cover" it said ?85 Hair and Makeup Buys: 13 pages of products for the best you ever" I was surprised to see 10 best beauty buys on 1 page. I found another listing under "Beauty & Health" for these 10 best buys, but I never did find 85 Hair and Makeup Buys. I imagine that is a mistake and perhaps in the March issue that will be noted. There are no letters to the editor but there is a page on ?What?s new: Updates and Opinions? and it could be put there.

~Also on the cover is an article on ?Women of Courage.? This is a very serious 10-page article on women around the world who put their lives on the line to fight injustice. The author is Kerry Kennedy Cuomo who talked with 4 women who won Reebok Human Rights Award. One woman, for example, Dita Sari in Indonesia, is fighting slave labor. This is a very well done piece of writing by a woman I think is bright and politically knowledgeable (Many will disagree.) There are some well-done pictures by photographer Nick Cardillicchio. What ruins this article is that the writing is white against black, a mixture I have always found to be difficult to read. If you can get beyond that, it is worth reading.

~Getting out from ?Under the cover? to ?Features? which has "The special report: The diary of a heroine addict" we find a 3-page article with primarily gruesome pictures of a woman from 1983, a healthy-looking 16-year old to 1997 where at age 32 she has gone decreasingly downhill. These are all mug shots. The article itself is worthless, really. There is a small piece on ?Facts About Heroin? which, in my opinion, most people reading this magazine won?t bother with. The article doesn?t do justice to the drug problem in the United States and I feel as if it is just thrown in to make Marie Claire something other than just a beauty magazine.

~The 33 pages of ?Fashion? in a row is nicely done. I say in a row because fashion pages are also spread out throughout the magazine. The clothes are, for the most part, clothes that a wide range of ages can wear. There are some I wouldn?t wear at age 50 and some a 25-year-old wouldn?t wear.

~Under the topic ?Beauty and Health? there are 15 pages covering everything from "what is in (bold hair color) and what is out "(washed out tresses) with articles covering each In and Out. This was a nicely done piece and I enjoyed reading it even if I won?t pay all that much attention to what is in and out.

~There are 2 pages in the section of hairstyles. This is a really nice spread if you are looking for something to show your hairdresser. There are 40 looks starting from 8 cuts and 5 styles. It is a well-done fashion piece.

~I liked the splurge and steal page with suggestions such as Splurge: Lancome Rouge Magnetic lipstick in Wink and Steal: L?Oreal Colour Riche lipstick in British Red. They did this with 4 other beauty ideas.

~The "Health" section of this topic has 3 good pieces. One is a brief 1-page article on saving your skin. There is nothing new here, but it is presented in a different way. It talks about foods, for example, that are good for your skin.

~There are 2 pages on ?Ways to Prevent PMS? with a gynecologist, an herbalist and an endocrinologist discussing the issue. This is also easy to read and well done. There is enough information to get the basics but not too much for the person reading this magazine to get bored.

~I feel the same way about ?Are You at Risk for an STD?? as I did the article on heroin use. It is barely one page. There is some helpful information in it for the woman who knows nothing and perhaps there are women who do know nothing about STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases). It would probably mean she has never read a magazine before.

~You will find the website at www.marieclaire.com where you can get a yearly subscription (12 issues) for $12.00. There are also some great articles much like you would find in the magazine and it costs nothing to use the site.

~Not unlike Allure, this magazine is almost one big ad. It isn?t quite as full of ads as Allure is and other than telling us who the product is by and how much it costs, I didn?t feel overwhelmed by advertisements. I also think the layout isn?t as scattered as Allure?s is. The one sentence or one-paragraph pieces making up 10 pieces on one page aren?t here as much, although you will find them. All in all, though, it is much better organized than Allure, in my opinion.

My final thoughts

~I like this magazine. It gives you the best of all worlds with information not only on beauty, but also on health and current problems in the world.

~Although I believe I found an error and never did find the article listed with 85 buys, it may be buried within something else and not clearly defined. Like many magazines, there were times I didn?t know where one section ended and the other began. I?ve gone through this magazine at least 3 times and the January issue as well. That may be what woman want to see in this genre of magazine.

~Marie Claire attempts to make this magazine for a wide range of women with the political interview as well as the Diary (It really is a picture diary.) of a heroin addict, but I feel it will appeal to women in their late 20s and 30s. I say late 20s because there are many magazines for younger women which I feel they will like better such as Shape, Fitness, Cosmopolitan and Glamour.

~I will rate this as I did Allure with 4 stars. It is a good magazine and well worth the $1.00 subscription or even the newsstand price of $2.99 if you are looking for a magazine that will take more than 10 minutes to read through.

~Published by a joint venture of ?Hearst Communications, Inc., a unit of the Hearst Corporation and Comary, Inc., a subsidiary of Marie Claire Album S.A.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment.