ZooZoom

Today I'm going to touch on fashion rather than makeup as I have done so far. Even though makeup is one of my passions, my other soft spot is also for fashion ever since I can remember.

Whilst I've been missing in action recently I've been desperate to blog about ZooZoom - the "original online glossy" and it is quite simply a fashion magazine exclusive to the web. I stumbled across it completely by accident during one of my very many makeup research sessions :-P Once I found it I was blown away by the awesome photography, outlandish fashion shoots and fantastic makeup pieces.

Around and About the Site

To give you an idea of the layout and feel, it's a lot more like i-D magazine rather than Vogue - there are more photos rather than pages of articles amongst the images. You can choose to subscribe to their newsletters and viewing the entire content is completly free (which is another favourite bonus of mine!).

Navigating however is the tricky bit as it's not immediately obvious at first. Once you go on there you'd be forgiven for thinking that all you see in the main menu is all you get but please don't leave now! :-) The menu panel towards the bottom of the page is a little crowded, but bear in mind that the default section is always the Editor's Picks, so this will always be the section that appears when you enter the site.

The other categories are listed above the article thumbnails in Editor's Picks. Click on any of these to load up what you want to take a look at. Just be patient - you might sit there wondering if the site's down at first at it doesn't do anything for the first 5 seconds or so. Once it's had a think about it you'll see the new thumbnails appear as your category of choice pops up.

Once you've taken a look at the articles in the panel and want to see more in your category, hit the very small 'Next' button to the far right of the thumbnails. Wait patiently and more features will appear in the panel. You'll then notice a 'Back' button underneath the 'Next' button so you can now go back and forth between the pages. You'll know when you've reached the end of a category when the thumbnails run short of the panel space.

If at any point you want to get rid of the menu click on the 'Close' button at the top right hand corner of the main menu panel. To open it again, look to the very, very bottom on the left of the screen and you'll see an "Open Menu" option.

Makeup!

All things makeup-related can be found under the Beauty category in the main menu. The looks and features created are truly stunning. Current titles covered include 'The Freedom', where they revisit 1920s makeup (period makeup is a fave of mine!), 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll' showcasing the harder, metallic makeup for those punk-inspired looks and a fantastic piece called 'Lip Service' where crazy, avant garde uses of colour, textures and makeup materials are created for the lips, eyes and face - very awesome shots!

And that's just the tip of the iceberg! There are many more articles covering what's hot in makeup, a wide variety of editorial pieces, articles covering the best beauty buys on both skincare and makeup products.

The only sad thing is that the makeup section has been sorely neglected compared to the fashion sections! Articles are much more sparse over the years since 2005 whereas the fashion pieces get updated regularly each month. The makeup section alas needs a little TLC :-( Hmmm, I wonder if they need someone to write for them? :-P ...

Check out ZooZoom here.

Image Sources

All images courtesy of ZooZoom.