Skin Care
So, I think I’ve developed a bit of an obsession. It seems nearly everything I touch has lavender oil in it. This morning, I shaved with the Metro Men’s Grooming Ultimate Shave System (each product contains pure lavender oil), showered and washed my hair with Paul Mitchell’s Lavender Mint Shampoo and Conditioner, did a load of laundry with soap and softener containing lavender. To top it off, I even tossed my dog a piece of chicken jerky infused with…. take a guess. Lavender candles…. lavender spray…. lavender plants…. the stuff is everywhere. Some may call this obsession a bit girly, but I beg to differ. Lavender is the MAN flower!
Pure lavender oil, in addition to having a very earthy rich masculine smell, has all kinds of benefits.
Lavender has great mood enhancing properties and can be used to releive symptoms of the following conditions:
• Restlessness
• Insomnia
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Headaches
Can’t sleep because you’re stressed after you called your boss and asshole and told your girlfriend she looked fat? Wife nagging you ’till your head’s splitting? Depressed because you’ve just burned a $30 filet on the grill? Light a lavender candle and crack open a Bud. That’s the ticket.
As one of the only essentials oils which can be applied directly to the skin undiluted, lavender has great natural antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. It can by helpful in treating the following skin conditions:
• Burns
• Wounds
• Eczema
• Acne
• Insect Bites
• Fungal Infections
WikiPedia lists tons of other uses as well. Pack a little lavender oil in that camping bag and keep some in the medicine chest.
It’s no wonder so many companies, including ours, use lavender oil as a beneficial component of their products. Take a look at a few of the products on mmgrooming.com that contain lavender as an essential ingredient:
• Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Lavender Mint Shampoo
• Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Lavender Mint Conditioner
• Metro Men’s Grooming Pre Shave Oil
• Metro Men’s Grooming Ultimate Shave Cream
• Metro Men’s Grooming Post Shave Repair
• The Gentlemens Refinery Standard Shave Cream
• Jack Black Electric Shave Enhancer
• Destination Nation Badlands Hand Balm
• And more…
So man up and let this pretty little flower get down to business for you. In addition to the benefits to the skin and the mood enhancing properties, you’ll also gain some big chick points, too.
Of course… here comes the legal crap… these statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and these products are not intended to treat, diagnose, cure, or prevent any disease. Blah blah blah…. Our lawyers made us put that in there. Not the. “Blah blah blah.” Just the part about the FDA.
Tags: Haircare, Lavender, Skin Care
Having acne sucks. In your teens and early twenties it can dramatically affect your social life and self esteem. Left untreated, severe cases of acne can scar your face and have an impact on your life well into your adult years. Fortunately, science has come a long way in the treatment of acne. Following are our recommendations for controlling acne using Menscience products. These products are, in our opinion, the best available.
1) NEVER overscrub your skin or pick at blemishes. This can lead to further infection and scarring. Nothing is more satisfying than popping a big ole zit, but resist the temptation.
2) Wash your face every morning with lukewarm water. For a great wash, we recommend Menscience Daily Face Wash. It helps improve your complexion with glycolic acid and other professional grade ingredients that will help smooth, heal and renew your skin.
3) Apply a topical cream such as Menscience Acne Therapy Lotion that contains benzoyl peroxide and allow it to absorb into the skin and let dry before applying any additional product.
4) One to three times per day, remove oily residue and buildup with a face pad. Menscience makes a great one - Menscience Adcanced Acne Pads - that contains salicylic acid, witch hazel, tea tree, and glycolic acid to help clean and heal the skin.
5) Wash the face again before bedtime using Daily Face wash and lukewarm water. Pat dry. As an alternative to washing, use Menscience Advanced Face Tonic to clear the face of oil, buildup, and dead skin cells.
6) Once or twice a week, use a gentle scrub like Menscience Microfine Face Scrub. Remember… very gently wash your face with this product using a circular motion. Allow to sit for two minutes and then rinse.
7) To quickly eliminate breakouts, Menscience Acne Spot Repair will help heal blemishes with the highest concentration of benzoyl peroxide to provide fast results.
These products will provide great results. As always, consult your dermatologist before beginning any skincare regimen.
For more great skincare tips, check out our Guide to Skin Care at the Metro Men’s Grooming website.
Tags: Acne, Menscience, Skin Care
Most drugstore brands of bar soap are great at doing their job — if you define their job just as “getting the dirt off.” And unless your mom still cleans your shower a good shower wash leaves much less soap scum for the dreaded weekend chores. That scum that gets on your shower walls gets on your skin, too, by the way.
Define a bar soap’s job as “getting dirt and other things off without damaging your skin,” however, and it’s a different story. First off, there’s a job just as important as cleaning off dirt that most bar soaps are not very good at doing: exfoliation, or removing dead skin, and leaving your skin free from pore clogging residue.
Skin is made of dozens of layers of cells. New ones are constantly being made on the inside and pushing the old ones to the outside, where they dry up and, if dry enough, will visibly flake off. Usually, however, they tend to come off invisibly when you wash.
And that’s what bar soaps are just not good enough at doing. They only get some of the dead cells off, and they leave behind a residue (including those dead cells) that tends to clog pores, which can even increase acne breakouts.
When you use a higher-quality exfoliating cleanser, you not only scrub more of the dead cells off, revealing the younger, fresher skin below. You also open up those same pores, so they don’t clog and cause breakouts. (On your face, removing more of that outer layer also means hair and beard follicles are better exposed, for a closer shave.)
But the other important reason to use something other than that “soap on a rope” your dad used is that bar soap contains grease-cutters which not only do their job, they overdo it. They cut through both the oils you build up during the day — and the oils you need to keep your skin from drying out. And it’s dry skin that ages, wrinkles, damages in the sun, and chaps in the winter.
A better-formulated exfoliating cleanser in combination with a moisturizer will enable you to be even cleaner than someone using that old yellow bar, while allowing your skin to keep its natural protection against aging and damage.
Get Your Groom On Guys Recommend:
Menscience Daily Body Wash
Jack Black Cool Moisture Body Lotion
Tags: Body Wash, Skin Care, Soap
Face it guys there is nothing that kills a fun evening like frying yourself before the sun even goes down. If it’s the pool, the beach or just the backyard - no matter where you’re headed for your outdoor pleasure - protect your full rights to have fun without the burn by protecting your skin (don’t forget the lips, too). You’ll stay looking good and avoid that “George Hamilton” look.
Overexposure to the sun’s invisible rays causes skin damage. And that the damage can be both immediate and long-term — ranging from sunburn, rashes, and cell and tissue damage to premature wrinkling and skin cancer. So before departing to your vacation destination, a few tips:
Tips and Facts to Know:
1) An SPF (sun protection factor) number gives you an idea of how long you can stay in the sun without burning. For example, let’s say you’d typically burn in 10 minutes without sunscreen. However if you apply a sunscreen with a SPF number of 15, you should be protected from sunburn for 150 minutes.
2) Studies show that most people typically under-apply the amount sunscreen needed to get the full protection a sunscreen offers. They often apply only 25% to 50% of the recommended amount. Be smarter and always apply liberally.
3) Some medications may actually make your skin even more susceptible to burn. Certain antibiotics, antihistamines, and antidepressants are commonly used drugs that can increase your skin’s sensitivity to the sun’s rays. Be sure to consult your doctor.
Consider a sunscreen with Titanium Dioxide (or TiO2)
which provides a broad spectrum of protection but is much less visible to the eye (no white haze on your skin like with other sunscreens).
Get Your Groom On Guys Recommend:
Menscience Ti02 Sunblock SPF 30
Menscience Advanced Lip Protection
And a product great for spraying on that thinning spot on the top of your head:
Jack Black Sun Guard Ultra-Light Spray
Tags: Jack Black, Menscience, Skin Care, Sunscreen
Sloughing not slouching. Not like when you Mom said stop slouching and sit up straight. When it comes to your face, sloughing is a good thing. Sloughing—aka exfoliating—removes the dead, flaky cells from your skin. It can help you reduce fine lines and achieve a more even skin tone and glow.
For men, the added benefit of using a scrub is that it helps raise your whiskers, giving you a closer, better shave. And it helps prevent nasty ingrown hairs that cause razor bumps.
One important tip…even though it’s called a scrub, you don’t want to apply the same pressure as if buffing your car. Just glide the scrub gently across your face in circular motions to hit the dead cells from all angles.
A few other things to keep in mind when using a face scrub:
• Use a scrub made specifically for the face. Body scrubs can be too abrasive.
• Avoid scrubbing directly below your eyes, since the skin is thin and can easily be damaged.
• After scrubbing, splash your face with cold water to close the pores.
Get your Groom on Guys Recommend: Jack Black Face Buff
Tags: Exfoliation, Face Wash, Jack Black
