Green Product Review: boho Magazine
November 4, 2008 by Jennifer
I was at the bookstore recently and decided to pick up a few green-minded magazine. I’m not a fan of magazines in general – they create waste, often consist of more ads than information, and I’ve only come across a few that really promote green living.
That said, I picked up boho to see if the cover could live up to the hype. Also note, the cover you see above is the first issue; I’ll be reviewing issue number 2 – the give issue (personally I like cover #2 better – it was gorgeous). I just didn’t want to break out the camera to get a snapshot of it.
Basics:
boho is a green fashion-lifestyle magazine that promotes green inside and out. Each issue offers the latest in fashion, beauty, and other items, like green gifts, and home products. This is not a blunt how-to go green magazine, more of a let’s entice you to go green with lovely images and quick tips magazine.
boho is also a very eco-friendly publication. They’re the first magazine ever to use 100% recycled paper, packaging and inks. Plus they make sure to tell you in a big bold way (a whole page) to recycle the darn thing when you’re done.
What I think – the pros…
Go recycled!: I love that this magazine is 100% recycled. I also love that it wasn’t jammed packed full of subscribe cards. There were ZERO subscribe cards in my magazine, which could have been a fluke, but I think it’s their standard, as they had a subscribe page instead.
Aesthetics: The feel of this magazine is awesome; not all slick and glossy, but substantial harder paper you can really hold onto. No rips, no obnoxious pages flying backwards while you’re reading. Because it’s not glossy, the colors come across as matte and really true to life. The photography was great and put all the green items shown in a lovely light. Also the models were beautiful, but this magazine didn’t shy away from featuring real-life women as well, such as Paige Wolf – a PR pro. There’s absolutely appeal in this magazine for younger and older women.
Green values: I like that this magazine promoted having cool green stuff, and allowing yourself to glam up in a major green way, but that it also promoted simple green ideals, such as homemade gifts, and handbags for good causes. There was the perfect combination of having stuff, but not having it all.
Readable items: This magazine is major eye candy, but with features that make you think as well. This issue covered NYC teens for safe cosmetics, avoiding holiday anxiety, and more, in nice easy chunks.
Overall theme: I don’t know about the first issue, but this give issue really stuck to the theme. The whole magazine poured out a holiday / wintertime feel, and never diverted. I like when magazines don’t jump all over the place, like a good book, this publication stayed focused.
Website: Easy to navigate, useful information, and the company is forthcoming about their product.
What I think – the cons…
I’m too green for my own good: I thought that many of their green products were old news. As in I’ve seen tons of them around for a while. However, I have numerous green blogs, and spend hours and hours researching green products, so it’s not unlikely that I’d know about this stuff. I think that the typical reader will find that many of the items are new and cool to them. I’m just not one of them. While I adored the item shown, say in the gift section, wrap section, and other product areas, I would have liked to see more new-to-me items. This didn’t ruin the magazine for me though, I still got a lot out of it.
Um….: Honestly, I’m hard pressed to find bad things about this magazine.
The final score: The girl in me says; as you know, I’m totally on board with simple living. I don’t own much, I don’t buy unnecessary items, but this magazine made me want to break out the shiny glitter and lip gloss; only, in an eco-friendly way, which face it, all of us girls should do once in a while. boho makes green fashion seem not only easy to achieve, but easy on the earth too. If you’re into green, eco-fashion, want to learn about green cosmetics, have a hankering for some great green products, or want to learn some easy tips that will make your life greener, than this is a great magazine.
Total score: 
Five out of five happy tree smiles – mainly because I’m thinking of subscribing, and I haven’t subscribed to a magazine in years. That should show you how much I like it.
November current events at Tree Hugging Family – themes, reviews, news, and more…
[image via boho]