Nope I'm not talking about the beer goggle effect or the whole "why do you only call me when you're high" situation (see I'm still down with the kids!) but male beauty and grooming products.
While showering in my grandparents home I noticed a bottle of Old Spice Shower Gel and it claimed to provide up to "7 hours of fragrance" to which I openly scoffed and uttered (in-between chorus' of whatever ditty I was shower singing of course) "is that all?".
Think about it how many female aimed products have such simple claims?
None! Our shower products all claim to be infused with some elusive oil that has been gathered by a stream that is only accessible by donkey trail as well as being beautifully scented and promising to quickly turn you into a supermodel. Okay not quite but I can almost guarantee that it will promise more than just seven hours of fragrance, that's for sure! Seven hours of measly fragrance? Pfft don't insult me or my showering needs.
I jest of course but it doesn't just occur with shower gels take shaving foams, now I won't name the brand but their female offering advertises a sensual experience that exotically fragranced that will allow the blade to glide over the skin, moisturise, soothe and prevent cuts, razor burn and on some bottles even reduce the rate of hair re-growth. The male version simply states that it will help the razor glide over the skin and prevent cuts.
So I ask you have we and by that I mean those of the female persuasion became so fussy that we don't just want a hand soap, we demand an all singing and all dancing version or is it that we are more gullible to marketing? If you are a male reader do you want more from your products or is back to basics the best route?
I have to say I'd disagree on this. Most men's cosmetics are made to sound like sports cars! My boyfriend has a face scrub which says some thing along the lines of "special technology formulated with magnetic charcoal" as well as a load of other marketing gimmicks where as the Lush equivalent of this product doesn't say anything about 'technology'.
ReplyDeleteSlightly Skint Blog
Slightly Skint Blog
Products do not know whether its a man's skin their being used on or not its all marketing crap. Same with age defying, all rubbish. My gran used a bar of imperial leather soap and a tub of nivea and she had better skin at 90 than I do now. I have a product for everything and look no better.x
ReplyDeleteMy man is fuss free getting whatever he gets to wash and do his hair, Maybe we do ask too for too much
ReplyDeleteEmily
www.beautybyemily.co.uk
My Dad is in love with COAL TAR SOAP.. that's already pretty self-explanatory! But really I think it depends on the person. As the above commenter's boyfriend has this technological face scrub, other people will have a simple bar of orange, I repeat, ORANGE soap.
ReplyDeleteRimmel Stay Matte only claims up to 4/5 hours matte, which I think is pretty realistic. But I do think men get a lot of THIS IS ULTRA MANLY AND FILLED WITH DARK THINGS AND SCIENCE bs so I think we're even.
ReplyDeletespoiler alert: society & patriarchy, lulz. Society has told women over and over they need this and that in their products, they need to put this on my age. We can't look old, we can't have body hair otherwise it looks disgusting (I'm sorry, what) , we have to do this and that because wah women need to be perfect but damned if we do & damned if we don't. Society doesn't put that much fuss on men, hence why their products have less fuss and less claims.
ReplyDeleteThis very question (or one very like it) came up in the pub last night. The lads around the table (aged 33 - 68) seem to use whatever's in the shower, "but never, ever, the expensive, smelly stuff my good lady wife's left in there, on pain of death" - wise man. The ladies choose their products depending on the the diary: ordinary, every day; going somewhere nice; going somewhere extra-special, but always, always decent moisturiser.
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