Aaron Britt

Herban Cowboy

With notes of sage and rosemary, Herban Cowboy's Dusk has a masculine scent.

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Gone are the days of Barbasol and Brylcreem. The past decade has seen an explosion of men's grooming products, and it seems that more of us are moisturizing than before. Your local apothecary probably offers the same matrix of essential oils, botanical extracts and organic ingredients found in women's cosmetics, meant to tighten, plump and beautify your mug.

Though men's prestige grooming accounts for just $100 million of the $2.5 billion global beauty industry encompassing men and women, it turns out that men purchase very specific products.

"It starts with moisturizer and shave treatments, both of which account for 50 percent of total sales," says Karen Grant, vice president of beauty at the market research firm NPD. Once you're smooth and moist, it's just a stone's throw to exfoliants and eye creams.

Since the metrosexual trend took off around 2003, demand for increasingly elaborate products has increased, Grant says. With the mounting interest has come a surge of products made from natural ingredients. "Men want something simple, easy to understand and that they feel comes from a pharmacy but is still natural, effective and safe," she says.

The Osmium for Men line from London, which offers plant-based skin care, exemplifies the trend with its Osmium Real Skincare's Cellular Renew anti-aging cream. A blend of vitamins A, C and E is meant to reduce fine lines and keep the skin firm and plump.

I took a spin through a handful of recent grooming products, particularly those with organic ingredients.

Let's start at the beginning: underarm deodorant. Following a hot tip from a Twitter follower, I headed down to the local Whole Foods and ponied up $8.99 for Organic Grooming's Herban Cowboy deodorant. Its herbal, masculine scent (it's got notes of sage, rosemary and parsley), called Dusk, is generically appealing. Dusk is not an antiperspirant, though it also boasts a slew of organic ingredients and none of those underarm beasties like aluminum, alcohol or parabens. After several days of sporting the stuff I was slightly less smelly, though no less sweaty.

Next up were two shaving creams, and though each did the trick, the edge goes to Ursa Major's Stellar Shave Cream ($21 for a 5.1-ounce tube at Union Made in San Francisco). I was able to work up a good lather, and it provided excellent protection from the razor. It also has a subtle smell of aloe, birch wood and sunflower seed oil, plus my face never felt dried out after use.

Cleanse & Shave by Evolutionman afforded less of a pre-shave lather. However, the company's Moisture Protect SPF 20 moisturizer worked like a charm on a recent beach excursion. Both are available at the San Francisco grooming site Luxury 4 Him, at $20 and $19 respectively.

Rounding out the shaving set is a fine aftershave balm by Task Essentials, a Swiss brand of manly cosmetics sold at Bloomingdale's. A 2.5-ounce tube is $28, though the milky, botanical cream is wonderfully soothing and a little goes a long way.

My best find, however, was not for the face but for the hair: Grant's Golden Brand Pomade has a gentle almond scent, splendid hold and can be worked and reworked over the course of the day. I found it easier to style with my hands than with a comb. For a good amount of hold that doesn't calcify into a brittle shell, try Bumble & Bumble's Texture Hair (Un)dressing Cream. It stands up to the comb and the whipping winds of the Financial District.

You can pick up a 4.5-ounce tin of Grant's pomade at the Common in San Francisco for $22, or if you'd rather not have your hair goop confiscated from your carry-on, a 2-ounce tube of the (Un)dressing Cream will cost you $12 and is available at many hair salons.

E-mail Aaron Britt at style@sfchronicle.com, or follow him on Twitter @thepocketsquare.

This article appeared on page M - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/20/LV1H1J2VFP.DTL#ixzz1Q2C04yqg

If luxury for men came in a bottle — then it would be found in one of the Osmium for Men products.

Age Defend Shaving Creme($19): Guys- shaving your face sounds painful. Age Defend is moisturizing and has a creamy texture that allows you to get a close shave. The Vitamin E and Chamomile soothe and condition the skin. Say goodbye to bumps and irritated skin when you use this.

Clean & Refresh Cleanser($22): This is the ultimate face cleaner. This cleanser removes dirt, oils and unclogs your pores. You’ll notice less breakouts when you start using it, and will be left with a fresh feeling. It goes hard at work and won’t dry your skin out.

Cellular Renew Creme($43): This is great to apply on the skin after washing your face and before bed. The skin absorbs it instantly so you won’t have an oily residue. Once applied it goes straight to work repairing your skin, diminishing wrinkles and even produces collagen. You’ll feel a tingly sensation on you skin.

Peak Performance Moisturizer($36): Peak Performance is perfect for all skin types. It’s got a light-weight texture, but hydrates the skin all day. Continuously applying it will improve the texture and appearance of your skin.

Whether you try one or several of their products, you’ll be hooked. They do exactly what they say they will and never leave the skin with an oily feel or look. They have natural ingredients and are free of many preservatives.

Check them out for yourself at www.binkformen.com

For those of you in the UK check out www.osmiumformen.com

http://superglamnews.com/?p=2283

BINK for MEN introduces Osmium for Men to the US men's skincare market

* * * *

Osmium for Men, an all natural skincare line just for men

New York, January 5 2011 --- BINK for MEN, the stylish online store, announces that it has extended their brand selection with Osmium for Men. Founded in London, Osmium® offers a range of high quality, all natural men skincare products. Osmium®, whom does not offer any female products, has developed their product line especially for men. The products are rich in plant actives, vitamins and minerals, and are 99% preservative free. The whole line of Osmium® will be immediately available at www.binkformen.com.

In the UK, Osmium® is sold to exclusive spa's and luxury hotels. Many celebrities have had their products already in hand. It's not without reason that this young brand has won a price for "Best Male Grooming Launch" from Pure Beauty Awards. Each product of Osmium® is non-greasy, fast absorbing and easy to use. The products work immediately on restoring the skin's vitality and the effects of age are much minimized over extended use. Osmium® offers products to target every need:

Eye Gel: Intense Hydration - $ 28.00   

Active Body Wash: Circulation Boost - $ 16.50

Peppermint Revive Gel: Wake Up Tired Muscles - $ 26.00

Boost Shampoo: Stimulating Clean - $ 16.50

Peak Performance, Energise & Renew Moisturiser - $ 36.00

Detoxify & Polish Two Clay Mask & Walnut Exfoliant - $ 33.00

Cellular Renew Anti-Ageing Crème - $ 43.00

Age Defend Shave: Soothing and Moisturising - $ 19.00

Clean and Refresh Cleanser - $ 22.00

Eveline Gelderman, CEO of BINK for MEN,  is excited about launching Osmium® in the US. "Osmium® is the result of 93 years of cutting edge scientific research and is built on a legacy of natural ingredients." She adds: " There is an increase in demand of all natural products in almost every industry and the male skincare market is no different. What you see out there is that more and more brands are developing natural skincare lines and Osmium® is definitely ahead of the pack." 

For Damini Sharma, Osmium's managing director, BINK is the ideal partner for the launch in the US. "BINK's philosophy of not just offering every product out there, but focusing on quality, is in line with our philosophy." She adds: "BINK's stylish and no-nonsense website, together with their top notch logistics make them a natural partner for us".

The market for men’s skincare is booming. According to GQ and Allure men use only seven minutes less in the morning to get ready for the day than women and are spending around $121 on beauty products, up from $90 five years ago. In the past 10 years more and more men actually start enjoying their daily grooming routine and some feel a big pressure of having to look good. But still many men don't want to use skincare products. They think it is nonsense, while it is actually very important especially in this society. Besides having to "look good", men forget that protection of the skin is very important. The exposure to the sun causes more often skin cancer to men than to women because of lack of using sun screen products. Using skincare products should be a daily routine for every man.     

Skin Deep

Men’s Cosmetics Becoming a Bull Market

Joshua Bright for The New York Times

Jeffrey Lederer checks himself out after using cosmetics. He prefers Menaji.

By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN

Published: September 1, 2010

Enlarge This Image

Stephanie Diani for The New York Times

Win Tuttle, 52, a real estate developer in Palm Springs, Calif., shows the effects of having Vapour cosmetics applied to only the left side of his face (right in photo) by Eric Sakas (inset). Mr. Sakas applied a concealer under Mr. Tuttle’s eye and to mask the redness below. Then with a mascara wand, he wiped all but a slight residue off with a tissue and brushed Mr. Tuttle’s lashes and brow.

Her husband, Jarrod.

It turned out that Mr. Bain, 34, a Customs and border-protection officer who is 6-foot-3 and weighs 240 pounds — and whose uniform includes a 9-millimeter handgun — had developed a fondness for his wife’s under-eye concealer, which hid his occasional dark circles. He was also swiping her face lotions and mud masks.

“At one point I just started buying stuff for him because I don’t want him stealing mine,” Ms. Bain said. Now she orders products online for him at Menaji.com, which bills itself as a “masculine” and “undetectable” line of cosmetics and skin-care products. His favorites are an eye gel and stick concealer that target dark circles, and an anti-shine powder that comes (shhh!) in a compact.

“When you looked at him you wouldn’t think he’d have his own supply of men’s skin-care products in the cabinet,” said Ms. Bain, 40, a fashion buyer for Lane Bryant Outlets. “He’s got a short, military haircut — and he’s very butch.”

Whether they admit it or not, more men are using cosmetics, judging from sales figures and the number of new products arriving on store shelves. But please don’t call it “makeup” — cosmetics marketers pointedly steer clear of the term, which men tend to find emasculating. And the products men are using promise not to add color to masculine eyelids or stubbly cheeks, but rather to mask imperfections like razor burn and blemishes.

“Having makeup become part of guys’ daily habits is kind of far-fetched,” said Jason Chen, the grooming editor at GQ, who admits to occasionally using an inexpensive concealer for blemishes. But he acknowledged that certain products, like moisturizers that can even out skin tone or reduce shine on the face, have been growing in popularity.

“There is a little bit of that stealth makeup thing going on, where you’re not slapping foundation onto your face but as part of your other routines — it sort of creeps in,” Mr. Chen said.

True, neither the “manscara” look of Adam Lambert, the “American Idol” star, nor the “guyliner” stylings of Russell Brand, the comedian, will likely be adopted anytime soon by the guy who fixes your car. But men’s use of stealth makeup like concealers is on the upswing.

American consumers spent $4.8 billion on men’s grooming products in 2009, according to Euromonitor International, a market data firm. In 1997, the figure was half that — $2.4 billion.

Among the fastest growing men’s segments is skin care, which refers to nonshaving products like facial cleansers, moisturizers and exfoliants. That category grew more than fivefold over the period, to $217 million from $40.9 million, Euromonitor said.

While the data suggests more mirror time for men, it doesn’t give the full picture. By and large, men’s cosmetics are sold online by companies that fly under the radar of researchers.

Among those brands, business appears to be booming. Menaji, for example, reports a 70 percent increase in online sales over the last three years, according to Michele Probst, the makeup artist who founded the company 10 years ago.

“People thought it was nuts when I came out with the idea,” said Ms. Probst, who lives in Nashville. “But men have always been very vain and always have groomed, and these are just new grooming tools.”

At 4Voo, a seven-year-old Canadian company, sales have tripled over the last four years, according to Marek Hewryk, the founder. Its products — all targeted to men — include a lipstick-shaped concealer called Confidence Corrector ($34); a Lash and Brow Styling Glaze, applied with a mascara wand ($23); and even an eyeliner ($19).

“Women use cosmetic products to beautify, but men have a totally different approach and totally different goals,” said Mr. Hewryk, who holds degrees in applied chemistry and biology. “Men use cosmetic products in order to cover up or correct imperfections, not to enhance beauty.”

Another Canadian men’s line that says it has thousands of customers in the United States, KenMen, has quadrupled sales since 2005, according to Lee Gilbert, its founder. Ms. Gilbert, a film industry makeup artist, developed the products for Hollywood actors, but now many use her line every day off-screen, she said, though she declined to name any. KenMen’s products include Guy-liner pens ($22), a slightly tinted lip salve ($25) and pens ($22) to “sculpt and define” eyebrows and to fill gaps in beards.

Enlarge This Image

Dan Neville/The New York Times

Among the big-name brands that make cosmetics for men is Clinique.

One argument that men’s cosmetics are going mainstream: some men are not even self-conscious about using them. Jeffrey Lederer, 63, a principal in several investment partnerships and a former Wall Street trader, openly applies Menaji products — including a Bronze Star facial bronzing gel, concealer and anti-shine powder — after his workouts at a private Manhattan club.

“People are reticent to ask what they are, even though I think they’re interested,” Mr. Lederer said. “It does take a certain amount of self-confidence to use it in public.”

Mr. Lederer, who wears tailor-made suits from Milan, called himself an “aesthetic person” who attains an “airbrushed look” from the cosmetics.

“As I get older, the one thing you never want to do is look foolish, like dying one’s hair, which I think is probably the most obvious and egregious thing a man can do,” he said. “But I don’t think any of these products in any way makes the user look less respectable, or foolish, or less manly.”

Mainstream beauty brands are listening to men like him. Among the big-name brands that make products for men are Jean Paul Gaultier, Yves Saint Laurent and Clinique.

A 2009 report by Packaged Facts, a market research firm, expressed high hopes for the product category. “Pass the manscara, Joe! Makeup for men is here,” the report proclaimed.

Widespread use, though, is a way off, the report continued: “It might take a long time, possibly a generation, but makeup for men — yes, color cosmetics for male eyes, lips, face, and maybe nails — will eventually be a viable category, even if a relatively small one in terms of retail dollars.”

For now, there are early adopters, some of whom have their first brush (or sponge) with makeup at Sephora. Gilbert Soliz, a makeup artist based at a Sephora store in Times Square, said that he tends to steer men to products that are fragrance-free and packaged neutrally, including Sephora’s own brand.

At Sephora, the makeup areas are the least frequented by men, whose preferred habitat is the fragrance section, followed by the shaving and skin-care areas, Mr. Soliz said. If a shopper tells a consultant at the store that he wants to, say, reduce shine, “the consultation might take place in front of the fragrance wall, or in men’s skin care, so they’re more at ease and we’re not staging a consultation in front of a lot of blushes and eye shadows,” Mr. Soliz said.

Julian Kynaston, the founder of Illamasqua, a unisex makeup line from England, said the obsession over whether makeup is manly ignores the past: “The irony for me is that it’s only in the last century that makeup and men parted company.”

As far back as 3500 B.C., Egyptian men and women wore an eye color made of crushed ant eggs, perhaps more for the sake of sun protection than decoration, according to Stephan Kanlian, the chairman of the master’s program at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Use of makeup by men was common among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and throughout the Renaissance, and the founding fathers powdered their cheeks as well as their wigs, Mr. Kanlian said.

Today, the heirs to this tradition include Peter Albert, 41, who directs a corporate training program for an education company in Baltimore. He applies Illusionist Concealer by Vapour Organic Beauty ($20 for a 4.5-gram stick) to the circles under his eyes.

“They’re not severe dark circles, but the concealer makes me look less tired when I have had just four hours’ sleep, as I have had today,” Mr. Albert said in a telephone interview.

Before he discovered the concealer on a Web site last year, he was a devoted user of the men’s Facial Fuel Eye Depuffer by Kiehl’s ($18.50 for a 0.17-ounce stick). The eye product “was the gateway drug” that led him to the concealer, he said.

Vapour Organic Beauty, which started a year ago, does not even market products to men and features only female models on its Web site, but about 15 percent of customers who order the makeup online have been men, “which is really kind of shocking,” said Eric Sakas, a founder of Vapour and a makeup artist for more than 20 years.

But Mr. Sakas, who lives in Los Angeles and once or twice a week is hired to do women’s makeup in their homes for special occasions, said that something has been happening in the last couple of years that might have prepared him for so many male shoppers.

“I’ll be doing her makeup, and the husband will poke his head in and say, ‘Can you do anything for these dark circles under my eyes?’ or ‘Can you do anything for this redness?’ ” Mr. Sakas said. “That never used to happen before, and I would say it happens 60 percent of the time now.”



A version of this article appeared in print on September 2, 2010, on page E3 of the New York edition.

You hear about it on commercials. You see your wife do it at night. Drugstore shelf after shelf is lined with products singing its virtues. So you, "Mr. Perplexed Male," might be asking: What the hell is exfoliation?

Why men should exfoliate

Exfoliation is the process of scrubbing off dead skin cells to reveal and expose "younger," fresher skin. The shedding process unclogs pores, keeps skin clean and helps reduce acne breakouts. It's usually the first step in cleaning your face, to be followed by washing your face with soap (preferably one with hypoallergenic properties) and finally, moisturizing.

Unfortunately, many men wash exclusively with plain old, hotel-grade soap. It's certainly enough to keep you clean, but it's not the best bet to keep your skin healthy. Indeed, bar soap dries out your skin, its ingredients sometimes clogging pores and leading to rougher skin in the long run. 

Exfoliation also specifically helps men in a huge way: It exposes the face's hair follicles, allowing for a better shave. And we all know that a smoother shave is practically the holy grail of a man's morning routine. 

Face

The skin on your face is quite different from that of a woman's. It contains larger pores, whiskers, more collagen and elastin (fibrous proteins that help hold everything together), a denser supply of blood vessels, and it produces more sweat. Put all these factors together and a guy's face can attract a fair amount of dirt.

Most of these products contain some combination of granulated pumice, sea salts, fruit seeds, salicylic acid, alpha-hydroxy acid, and beta hydroxy acid, all of which serve to loosen and slough off dead skin cells. Some even aid in the formation of collagen.
To get the most out of your exfoliating cleanser apply it with a sponge.

Note: However you choose to exfoliate, don't forget to moisturize. Exfoliating can dry out already dry skin, but a moisturizer will help stabilize your skin and "feed" the new, young skin you've exposed.

Healthy skin is easy

You know your body best, so only you can decide whether to exfoliate daily, every other day (three times per week is a good routine), or maybe just give yourself a nice scrubbing once a week. Exfoliating too often can damage the skin; exfoliating too little may let your skin's oils run wild. Whichever schedule you settle on, recognize that while exfoliating takes some extra effort, by doing it, you'll ultimately have to worry less about wrinkles, flaky skin and acne. And that's a tradeoff every man should take.

BINK for MEN offers the following great exfoliators:

Exfoliating Facial Scrub by Kyoku

Face Buff Energizing Scrub by Jack Black

Exfoliator by Menaji

adapted from: Alex Muniz/ askmen.com

http://www.askmen.com/fashion/fashiontip_200/248_fashion_advice.html