Informative Industry Magazines Please

[*Glynis*]

I subscribe to Nails, Professional Nails, Scratch and Guild. I enjoy all of them and look forward to them coming. However, I am getting bored!!

Obviously there is only so much that happens each month within the industry, so they all tend to cover the same things. Obviously there are only so many new products out each month, so again they all cover them. I understand that there is bound to be repetition if you get more than one mag.

Why can't we have one mag that is sticks its head out of the water and gives us real product information i.e. marks out of 10 for products. For instance I know what quick drying top coats are available, but which ones actually dry the fastest? Which ones are best value for money? Which ones give a longer lasting finish? Which ones go "gloopy" quickly etc. etc.

I assume that these magazines depend on advertisers for some of their revenue, so perhaps they are concerned not to upset any particular manufacturer. But surely they make some of their money from subscribers. I would prefer to pay more for an unbias product review type magazine with no advertising. Products could be reviewed and scored by a team of nail techs from around the country. The identity of the products could be concealed from the review panel to ensure unbias opinions.

Various women's magazines have been doing this sort of thing for years and it doesn't appear to affect their advertising revenue.

All manufacturers who have faith in their products would have nothing to fear.

Interested to hear if anyone else out there thinks we would benefit from being able to choose products that have been tried and rated. Looking at the amount of stuff on Ebay and other places, it looks like loads of us make costly trial and error mistakes.

 

[geeg]

Various women's magazines have been doing this sort of thing for years and it doesn't appear to affect their advertising revenue.

All manufacturers who have faith in their products would have nothing to fear.

OH BOY if you only knew how the magazines conduct these 'trials' and 'tests' you would die. They are so slap dash it isn't true!

Ususally consists of handing out a bunch of different products to secretaries and others to 'have a go 'at .... and then submit their opinions .... this is not the correct way to conduct a controlled experiment with 'real' results that have any significance.

If they had proper controls and everyone doing the same thing at the same time and someone measuring results, this would be a great idea. But of course this means taking time out and spending money!

 

[chocolate]

Gigi you are so right! I remember when we both sent in nail varnish remover. You got 10 out of 10, (as expected!) and we got 6 out of 10. What they didnt know is that we had had our worries about these tests, and had sent in a bottle of YOUR product with a different label! Just to see what does happen, and your right, it depends on who it was given to and what company its from??????????? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[geeg]

Gigi you are so right! I remember when we both sent in nail varnish remover. You got 10 out of 10, (as expected!) and we got 6 out of 10. What they didnt know is that we had had our worries about these tests, and had sent in a bottle of YOUR product with a different label! Just to see what does happen, and your right, it depends on who it was given to and what company its from??????????? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh ... Rachael, I had forgotten that one!! I remember now. :lol: :lol:

I was recalling some of the things that Samantha and I have seen whilst visiting the various consumer mags in London!! These consumer 'tests' are a complete load of rubbish usually.

 

[naturalnails]

Glynis,

I think what may be a better way of getting "consumer" opinions would be for the mags to do polls for us all to contribute to what we currently use and love. The only downside of this would be if only a handful of the same people responded each time then the results would not always be across the board.

I cannot see people wanting to change and have x topcoat because it got 10 out of 10 in a drying contest once.

I think you have to look at the whole package of what you get from a company - it is not only about price or having one best buy product.

I think your ideas to make the magazines more about us is very good but not necessarily the right angle.

If you are looking for other nail info then you could look further afield and check out the American Magazines - Nails and Nailpro - they both have websites I think.

Good thinking though LOL

 

[Fab Freak]

IWhy can't we have one mag that is sticks its head out of the water and gives us real product information i.e. marks out of 10 for products. For instance I know what quick drying top coats are available, but which ones actually dry the fastest? Which ones are best value for money? Which ones give a longer lasting finish? Which ones go "gloopy" quickly etc. etc..

I quite agree they could send products to Qualified Nail Technicians for their comments over use over a reasonable period (I dont think secretaries would be criticial enough) plus it could sway an existing user of X product to then use Y product (if ya see what I mean0 , I to think sometimes the articles seem to have a theme throught out the nail mags...personnally I want more technicanl less fashion, colours for the next season but over-induldging if I want fashion I will buy vogue...more nail facts, more demos, more product profiling, more on training....thats my 2p worth

 

[*Glynis*]

Obviously trials (as I said) would need to be done by a team of nail techs and the identity of the product would have to be concealed during the trial.

Are you seriously saying Fiona that you wouldn't change products (or at least try something else) if fellow professionals were telling you it was the best?

Because these tests are "slap dash and unreliable" in other magazines/industries does not mean that a professional panel could not be put together in our industry. If manufacturers are afraid of scores being given how about just a "I liked/didn't like this one because ...."

 

[naturalnails]

...

Are you seriously saying Fiona that you wouldn't change products (or at least try something else) if fellow professionals were telling you it was the best?
....

Hi Glynis,

I think "best" can be a relative term in some situations - what is perceived as best for some may not be best for others.

For instance I would not change to using one company's top coat for instance as it is not always financially viable to use one product from one company and all your others from somewhere else - even if it is perceived to be the best. Some companies make you have minimum orders - one company who I used to buy varnishes from have a £70 minimum order and all colours have to be bought in 2's - even if it was perceived to be the best in the industry - as a one man band I could not afford their terms and conditions.

I hope this does not appear to be argumentative but I think we need to look at the whole picture rather than one individual product. But hey if one company came up with the best topcoat and all their other products were also voted best then I would have to give them a reasonable look LOL.

 

[Little Angel]

Hiya

I agree with the comment about the magazines contents being sameish i also would like to see more techniques, step by steps that havnt been mucked up (i am refering to a biosculpture one i saw it was all wrong) . Step by steps on nail art, 3d acyric, gel nail art. New massage technics ect i do think the mags are very led by there advertisers. ( and i carnt blooming spell!)

 

[rachmcw]

I dont want to give MR GEEK extra work but

could we not have online 'trials' by using a poll system like we already have. A topic could be chosen each month eg..polish. Within it there could be polls for brand that lasts longest, popular colours, quickest drying time etc.. Also we could provide opinions of our experiences with each product. I think i am saying group lots of small polls together under an umbrella heading. These could then be archieved for future reference.

I know we can not rely 100% on the results and that some may flood us with opinions regarding their brand of products/defame other brands. But we should be able to work out for ourselves the genuine comments.

Then we can use the views of other nail techs and not have to worry about editors pleasing their advertisers.

 

[naturalnails]

don't think that would be seen as unbiased in some peoples minds LOL - without mentioning the unmentionable I think it may be viewed in the same way as the accusation about the magazines being seen as biased.

There have already been some polls on here about best varnish etc.

 

[Mrs Geek]

I thought I would reply to this since I send info to all mags!! I have always tried to send different info to each one so that they are NOT putting the same info in however what they do and when is up to them. Now that there are only two mags, it may be easier to read differing info. I do agree with you though Glynis and have often thought how boring it must be to see and read the same things in evey mag - I will try harder to remedy it from my side!!

Also yes, advertisers may get more editorial than those that don't but I have plenty of mags that we don't advertise in and still get great editorial - especially in the consumer side!! I am sure Alex and Ali / Kat will read this and it will give them some great ideas!! Great post by the way - good topic!

 

[The Geek]

The biggest pain in this context is getting not only unbiased information, but educated opinions as well.
In order to get something like that, you would have to have a panel of scientists and professional technicians blind testing products.
This would cost big bucks and a lot of time. Subscription fees don’t make a magazine a great deal, its the advertising. A magazine devoted to this type of information would be great (like Consumer Reports in the US), but I would take a stab that the annual subscriptions would have to be a few hundred pounds to cover expenses (that would also mean no advertisers).

As far as posting polls on product opinions, I am slightly weary of it seeing as all the butt pains I have had over one whinging member about the product preferences on this site. As soon as 1 of that ranges products came out top, the whole freaking thing would start up again (even if that brand lost in the last 100 polls).
The other problem with the polls is that you cant always get a proper gauge on the products being discussed. If someone had a bad result with Product A, was it the product or the technician?

The magazine bit is a great idea, but I don’t think its fair on the trade rags to implement it.

 

[chocolate]

This is a difficult one, i can see both sides.

Just wanna add that if anyone has any negative comments about my company, please please do let me know, constructive critacism (i need to buy a dictionary, sorry) is always received in a positive way. For example, the colleges were complaining that we only sold nail art paint in 59ml bottles, far to big, so this month we launch our new range of 36 colours in 15ml bottles. Our aim is to please!!!!!!!!!!! (most of the time anyway!)