What free gifts with magazines do you remember fondly?

[Takenoprisoner]

I loved the gifts that came with magazines. Some were of course crap, like no name mascaras and nail sets that had the magazine branding on them, utter rubbish.

Others were brilliant, I remember fondly:

Lipstick case with sugar magazine

A clear plastic tote with Elle, which I still miss

A small denim bag, again, Elle, which i still have

Various clutch bags with glamour magazine

Roomy beach bags with Red magazine

T shirts with Instyle magazine

Silk scarves, High st mascaras, bikinis

I really miss those little freebies. It's better for the environment that they don't do those any more of course.

Also, I really miss magazines from the late 90s, which is when I started reading them, they were great and many are defunct now.

I loved Elle magazine, 90s era
Real magazine
Company
More
Look
Glamour.

What magazines or magazine freebies do you remember?

@Lyricallie I came here to say the Sabrina mag. Started with the purple case and then a new piece of makeup every week. Loved it!

Oh belly button jewels! The memories!

About 15 years ago and I can't remember the magazine, but the freebie was KG (Kurt Geiger) flip flops. They weren't rubber, more a faux leather, were lightweight and I used to take them with me everywhere. I wore them for years.
I don't buy magazines anymore.

I remember belly button jewels!

I have a comb that I still use that I got free with Shout magazine in 1997. It's a great comb.

My eldest daughter enjoys Shout magazine, it's still available! No combs now, just llama and sloth branded bits of tat and stickers 😂

@Chocoqueen the blue comb is the one I have from Shout!

I'm another who still has a pink comb that was a magazine freebie in the 90s. I can't even remember which mag but it's a brilliant comb and I use it regularly.

Yep, I still have the pink wide toothed comb from just seventeen too!

I used to have hundreds of the teen magazines from the 90’s. So wish I’d kept them all but during a sort out when I moved out of my parents I binned them all.

I have a spotty beach bag with rope handles from Red that I still use today - it’s great for (unsurprisingly) the beach and for things like library books. I miss those good magazines too. I’m a fast reader and even so I could find plenty to entertain me in them - I pick them up now or look through the online versions on my library app and there’s just nothing to actually read in them.

I'm terrible for losing, breaking or forgetting to pack sunglasses, free ones on magazines at the airport have saved me several summers in a row.

I also had the star signs book mentioned by a PP upthread, huge source of lunchtime entertainment in the office. I wonder if I still have it somewhere...

@queenjaneappro

A blue wide tooth comb from Just 17 that I still use. Must be over 25 years old!

I also have one, although I suspect mine is more like 30+ years old.

I still have that clutch bag from Glamour too.

I remember getting so many beach bags, sunnies and nail polishes, and even a plastic pouch from Bunty that I kept for years. And CDs from Q. But my favourite magazine gifts were zip top purses from Anya Hindmarch that cane with something like Tatler or Vogue that I never normally bought. Still carrying my holiday jewellery and currency a good decade later.

Percy and Reed hair balm. Brilliant marketing, I’m still buying it eight years down the line.

That Twinkle bracelet was the first thing that sprang to mind for me too, @Ktay ! I must have only been about 3 or 4 but i was thrilled with it - i can still picture it so clearly ☺️

I used to love a free book just before the summer, some were really raunchy !

I haven't bought myself a mag for years, might have to go for a wander to Sainsbury's later

I had a couple of Benefit samples that were great. Bought a couple of copies of Glamour magazine at the airport to get them.
Do they not do them any more?

In the 80s and 90s they used to include tiny phials of luxury perfume that I’d eke out over a few weeks. Then they switched to foil pockets that did one application if you were lucky.

I’ve kept a few speciality quilting rulers from magazines but they’re more like toys than the real thing.
DD used to love the plaster “archaeology digs” from Horrible Histories magazine.

The book Go Ask Alice from Just 17

It really moved me. I still have the copy. I know it turned out not to be a true story but I think it’s well written abs connects with teenagers. I think that would have been about 32 years ago

A pink and black tote bag from Cosmopolitan. You could turn it inside out for so two bags in one. Used it for years abs would see a number of other people using it

Various CD’s one from Cosmopolitan with summer laid back tunes I still listen to in the car and various others one a tribute to Amy Winehouse I think from Q.

A few books and makeup items from Red

I loved the little gifts

Oooh a trip down memory lane.

Smash Hits
Just 17
More
New Woman
Cosmo

I still have a beach bag from one of them

Sounds magazine (I think) did Oasis Christmas wrapping paper one year, it was very funny. I still have a sheet somewhere. Liam and Noel’s faces with Christmas baubles !!

@SirVixofVixHall

Sounds magazine (I think) did Oasis Christmas wrapping paper one year, it was very funny. I still have a sheet somewhere. Liam and Noel’s faces with Christmas baubles !!

I remember that!

I remember, some time in the early 80’s, one magazine (possible Just 17) gave out a free “Shaders and Toners” temporary hair dye. It was mahogany. Literally everyone I knew bought it and used it, and we all deliberately left it in far too long. Scores of young teen girls with horrible pinky browny purple hair for weeks!

Other than that I loved those floppy singles, and a cute cherry scented cream perfume that came in a little pot with cherries on it.

I save the sample sachets of shampoo, conditioner & moisturiser for weekend trips but I haven't seen any recently in mags.

I still have a handbag mirror from Prima from sometime in the 90s.

First free gift I remember was a flexidisc of whalesong with National Geographic, I think we even played it once.

I also loved Misty, I used to get them passed on to me by my Brown Owl, whose daughter was a few years older.

Circa 1978 and I think it was from Jackie MagazIne, I had a brooch that was a red plastic heart that could be worn whole or split in half with a zig zag gap to indicate your heart had been broken!

I'm enjoying al the love for the Just 17 comb!

Here's mine. The handle has been chewed (child or cat probably) and it's lost one spoke but still going strong!

In my first post I said it's over 25 years old but another poster said theirs was 30 plus - this is probably more like it! God I'm feeling old now!

I remember the free books of ghost stories @SallyCinnamon3009! I kept them for years and was genuinely distraught when they got thrown away.

I also remember a silver clip on belly button ring from shout magazine in about 1997. I wore it on the beach in Florida and thought I was the bees knees.