US VERSUS UK: MAGAZINE COVERS, JULY 2012

1. VOGUE

Vogue US: I love Emma Stone. I want to be Emma Stone. I want her wardrobe, her husky voice, her sense of humor and her boyfriend, obvs. (Hello Andrew Garfield!) I creep myself out... I actually have this magazine, and it is gorgeous. The editorial flips between sexy Emma and silly Emma, with girly and menswear clothing. Such a fresh cover.

Vogue UK: I like how natural this cover is, along with the bold print background. The orange is a little hard to read however, but I like it paired with the navy blue of Rachel Weisz's sweater. 

WINNER: Vogue US.

2. COSMPOLITAN

Cosmo US: Super. Long. Hair. The thing about Demi Lovato is I think her style and my style could not be more different. Same with Miley Cyrus or whoever else in those string of Disney stars. I guess Selena Gomez. I'm not sure how I feel about the orange background because Demi's skin is fairly tan, but really not too bad.

Cosmo UK: This cover, for me, has the classic problem of two much dominant text crowding over the celebrity. In this case, poor Zooey Deschanel.

WINNER: Cosmo US. Much more clean.

3. GQ

GQ US: There was a little tiff over this cover between New York Magazine and GQ. It's pretty funny actually. Here is NY Mag's fictional take on how GQ came up with the concept of Kate's bomb pop, tiny bikini cover. Here is GQ's response to it. Regardless of all that, I love the bright lighting and subdued red, white and blue being used. It's just so clean and bright, and I've never seen Kate's face and hair look better!

GQ UK: Speaking of Andrew Garfield, here he is. He look g-g-g-great with a slick haircut and maroon suit. But once again, British GQ's consistent cover template hinders its success. The fonts and flipping of colors, back and forth, and excess boldness. Great photography though.

WINNER: GQ US

4. GLAMOUR

Glamour US: Oh my goodness, what a mess. It might not look as bad online, but when I held this mag in my hand, it's just so hard to focus on anything. Plus, that helvetica font is SO BIG, with such a dark drop shadow on all of it. I know it's supposed to be all washed out and bright and crazy, but I can't even appreciate Julianne Hough's style/beauty because of this design. (The inside editorial is not much better either.)

Glamour UK: I love this. What's interesting is that both covers are trying to do similar things. Julianne's shorts match her background, and Kylie's lace cutout dress matches her background. Kylie's seems much more successful because the lighting is much more tolerable and that dress ROCKS. The color on color is classy and accentuates that awesome dress. And it's such a nice color, the Tiffany's blue. 

WINNER: Glamour UK.

5. INSTYLE

InStyle US: I'm not sure if it's just me, but InStyle US is in a photoshopping funk--every cover star has recently looked overly-photoshopped to me. The skin is SO smooth, it's like a plastic doll. I mean, I know every magazine photoshops, but this just seems more so. Everything is too perfectly shaded. 

InStyle UK: Perfect. While the US seems unbalanced with so much text on one side, I just prefer a more evenly balanced cover with light text on both sides. The shadows and even Cameron's skin looks much more natural than Salma's. Plus, that dress looks awesome with her skin and eyes. Even how the bottom left corner of the cover is either her shadow or just a gray gradient, it helps that natural feel. Also, great side-swept hair.

WINNER: InStyle UK. I adore the cute little "We <3 High Street!" 

6. ELLE

Elle US: This cover is much better than the subscriber's cover that I got. (I have recently unsubscribed, finally.) The subscriber's cover was bright, highlighter yellow with an OUTDOOR photo of Selena cut out and pasted on it. Not only did it look weird because you could see the light of the sun on her face and hair, but that exact same photo with the natural background was inside in the editorial. That makes no sense to me. This one is much more bright and rich with color. 

Elle UK: But it's nothing compared to THIS COVER, which I will tell you right now is my favorite, and perhaps one of my favorites of all time. And no, it's not just because David Beckham is smokin'. It's the low opacity masthead, the super thin font, the minimal text, the incredible lighting, simple grey tee, the serene blue behind him, the natural feel... plus Beckham's hair, eyes, small smile, scruff and badass tattoos. It all equals one amazing cover.

WINNER: Elle UK.

7. ESQUIRE

Esquire US: Same cover as last month. Still gives me the giggles.

Esquire UK: I do like it. Sexy, but not in a XXX magazine sort of way, an Esquire way. And I'm sure some people are like, but the text is nude colored, it's hard to read! But it plays with the whole "nude" theme. It's purposeful, and totally works in my opinion.

WINNER: Esquire UK. 

8. HARPER'S BAZAAR

Harper's Bazaar US: Same as last month. Bummer.

Harper's Bazaar UK: This cover and styling reminds me a lot of her cover with Vogue UK in January. They both have the ethereal, floaty feel to it. It would be nice to see her in a different look, even if that is her personal style.

WINNER: Harper's Bazaar UK. Still, by far, the best.

9. MARIE CLAIRE

Marie Claire US: Ohh! Another particularly great cover. Whoever just isn't sure if menswear can be sexy, well then please just look at this. I wish I could buy it. Thank you Marie Claire for playing that red suit up, with the red masthead and whole "Red Hot Fashion" teaser. The tanned skin, smoldering makeup and Blake Lively's always-perfect-hair just creates one killer look. 

Marie Claire UK: I love how they completely accentuated Eva Mendes' body with this bedazzled one-piece, curves and all. Plus she looks sexy, fun and happy, which is always nice to see. I love how they enlarged her photo so her head and elbows are getting cut off, so even though there is quite a lot of text,  she is still by far the main focus. She fills the space very nicely.

WINNER: Marie Claire US, but by a small margin.

FINAL COUNT:

US: 4

UK: 5

And my favorite, you all already know, is Mr. David Beckham's cover! The first male to ever grace the cover of British Elle, and what a great choice. My second and close favorite was Blake Lively's cover. Aren't they both great?

While I could have done without the borders around some of the photos, I adore the handwritten text around the spread, with the lyrics from Mad About the Boy. It's playful and risky and I love it.

Lovely...Which was your favorite for the month?