Retailers angling to attract men have come up with a variety of skin-care products with creatively masculine names, packaged in cigar boxes and containers mimicking liquor bottles.

Like most guys, Eric Lugo wants to look handsome. But he doesn’t want to be caught applying makeup.

So the 26-year-old uses skin-care products with names like Kiehl’s Facial Fuel and Lab Series’ Power Brightening Serum.

“I want to keep myself up and maintain my looks, but I’d never use anything that looks like it’s made for my girlfriend,” the Los Angeles banker said. “This stuff looks like it’s for guys, not girlie at all, so I feel OK using it.”

Retailers are seeing a booming market in cosmetics and skin care for men. But they face one big challenge — most guys are squeamish about products that seem too feminine.

So skin-care firms have come up with a variety of products with creatively masculine names, packaged in cigar boxes and containers mimicking liquor bottles.

The terminology and instructions are also suitably manly. The colors pink and gold — staples of women’s cosmetics — are out. And the word “makeup” is verboten.

“We don’t say the ‘M’ word. It’s taboo,” said Michele Probst, founder of Menaji, a high-end men’s line carried at Nordstrom.com and department stores.

One popular men’s brand, Jack Black, is sold at places such as Sephora and Bloomingdale’s, and it has a $60 anti-wrinkle lotion called Protein Booster Skin Serum. Estee Lauder’s Lab Series for men sells a $28 eye cream called Eye Balm. And Menaji puts out a $26 concealer called Urban Camouflage and a $35 face powder simply named Anti-Shine.

That smart packaging seems to be doing the trick.

Men’s grooming is one of the fastest growing segments in the beauty business. Chicago-based research firm Mintel forecasts that sales of men’s toiletries will hit $3.2 billion by 2016, up from an estimated $2.6 billion this year and $2.2 billion in 2006.

Companies are eagerly staking territory in this burgeoning market. According to research firm NPD Group, only 1 in 4 guys uses some kind of facial skin-care product, and male shoppers tend to be more brand loyal than women.

Retailers such as Nordstrom andMacy’s are devoting more shelf space to these products, and many are creating separate sections dedicated solely to men.

Cosmetics chain Ulta rolled out in-store boutiques called the Men’s Shop. CVS Pharmacy has created Guy Aisles in its stores devoted to men’s products. Macy’s last week opened a Men’s Grooming Zone in San Francisco with a barber, flat-screen TV, the sports pages and free Wi-Fi.

Nordstrom began shifting its male grooming items out of the beauty department last fall and into the men’s furnishings area, staffedby a trained salesclerk ready to guide confused men, said Jennifer Kovacs, Nordstrom’s national merchandise manager for fragrances.

“Men are just more comfortable in their own environment, away from makeup and pink,” Kovacs said, adding that male grooming is “a really strong and growing category for us.”

Skin-care brand Kiehl’s is building Shave Bars inside its stores decked out with black subway tiles and displays that resemble gym lockers. Kiehl’s President Chris Salgardo said the company realized the potential of male shoppers during the worst days of the Great Recession, when men’s grooming grew while other categories declined across the board,

The popularity of men’s grooming is driven by baby boomers eager for an edge in the workplace and younger fellows influenced by changing standards of male beauty. It’s not just deodorant and after-shave — these guys are reaching for powders, concealers, anti-aging creams and tinted moisturizers.

“It’s become more socially acceptable for men to put effort into looking and feeling good,” saidDamon Jones, a spokesman at Proctor & Gamble, whose brands include the Art of Shaving and Gillette. “The whole metrosexual trend has gone more mainstream.”

Although men across all demographics are dabbling, those under 35 and over 50 are diving most enthusiastically into grooming products, said Karen Grant, a beauty analyst at NPD Group.

Reviewed: Gillette Fusion ProSeries Thermal Facial Scrub, Dove Men+Care Deep Clean, Neutrogena Men Razor Defense Face Scrub, Dermalogica Daily Clean Scrub.

For the man deciding to embark on a responsible skin-care regimen (or for the woman deciding on his behalf), the flood of new products to the market over the last year and a half makes that first baby step a confusing one. While Dr. Harold Lancer recommends exfoliating the face to remove dead skin cells, then cleaning the skin to remove dirt and oils, then repairing damage (which includes, but is not limited to, hydrating the skin with a moisturizer), if he was forced to pick just one step, it would be using an exfoliant.

“But,” he points out, “if you’re a beginner and you’re starting in the $9.95 [drugstore] category, probably the single best thing to do would be to buy a combination facial scrub and cleanser.”

To that end, we took his advice and speed-dated a handful of male-specific skin scrubs — most of which do at least double duty (and sometimes more).

Gillette Fusion ProSeries Thermal Facial Scrub (3.3 ounces, $6.99)

In June 2010, Procter & Gamble’s Gillette brand rolled out a quartet of skin-care products clustered around the traditional morning shave ritual, including a face scrub that heats up on contact with water, warming the face and softening the beard at the same time as the skin is being exfoliated and cleaned (making it a “three-fer”). The only slightly disconcerting thing about it is its light blue color, which makes it look like a toothpaste. Which could cause an awful mistake.

Although it’s not the first men’s pre-shave to crank up the heat via a chemical interaction, its recognizable name, bright orange-blue-and-silver NASCAR-worthy packaging and familiar Gillette scent make it a good point of entry for the skittish skin-care neophyte.

http://www.gillette.com/en/us/Products/skin-care/proseries.aspx

Dove Men+Care Deep Clean (Two 4.25-ounce bars for $3.99)

The brand’s first-ever product line created specifically for men rolled out in December 2009, and was featured in a high-profile commercial during the 2010 Super Bowl. That’s no doubt because there’s a lot to overcome — starting with the awkward name (do you pronounce the “plus” or is it “and”?) and ending with the fact that it’s essentially a curved bar of Dove soap that’s sitting in your soap dish — which seems kind of feminine. (The line also includes a scrubbing tool for the shower and a face and body wash).

But since this version (there are two others) of the bar contains “purifying grains,” cleanser and Dove’s traditional “one-quarter moisturizing cream,” you’ve got the entire skin-care trifecta in the palm of your hand. If you heed the packaging suggestion and use it on the face and body, it practically becomes the shower stall equivalent of the Swiss army knife.

www.dovemencare.com

Neutrogena Men Razor Defense Face Scrub (4.2 ounces, $5.99)

Johnson & Johnson launched its line of Neutrogena Men facial cleansers in 2008, and Mintel’s recent survey of the men’s grooming industry singled it out as the only brand that’s distributed through food, drug and mass merchandise stores that gained market share — up 37% between June 2009 and June 2010.

Although the full product range includes a hydrating eye reviver, a post-shave balm and a handful of moisturizers that range in SPF from 15 to 30, one needs to look no further than the Razor Defense Face Scrub to see why the line has proved popular. A tame-looking oil-free, dye-free and non-pore-clogging white paste with a mild soapy scent that’s served up in a simple black-and-white tube, it packs a wallop, and just a dime-sized dollop is all that’s needed to leave the face feeling clean, smooth and primed for the morning’s ritual razor-dragging.

http://www.neutrogena.com/category/men-s.do

Dermalogica Daily Clean Scrub (4 ounces, $25)

Part of a suite of Dermalogica men’s shaving products that have been around for a couple of years, these scrubs are color-coded with red caps to stand out from the rest of the line so you don’t have to ask for help finding them (since guys notoriously don’t ask for directions). This is actually a twofer (or what the grooming industry calls “dual action”) — exfoliating (thanks to tiny beads of silica) and cleaning the face at the same time, leaving the face fresh and shave-ready.

Its simple, straightforward packaging gives it a vaguely science-lab feel, and its lack of artificial colors or fragrances will appeal to the morning-ritual minimalist. Follow the shave with a pea-sized squirt of Dermalogica’s Daily Defense Block SPF 15 and you’ve accomplished another twofer — hydrating the skin and providing sun protection at the same time.

http://www.dermalogica.com/us/html/products.html?type=function&id=shave

A new study conducted by Univision has shown that Latino men are spending more effort, time and money when it comes to looking better for themselves and their female counterparts. Surprised? Keep on reading the following article from L.A. Times and find out the reasons for their behavior - The 18/8 Man.

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The pitchman and ex-football player says he’s a jeans and T-shirt kind of guy. But when it’s time to suit up, he goes for Hugo Boss and Zegna and looks to icon James Bond for fashion pointers.

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Interesting article I am sure all of you will appreciate. Men’s evolution from the clean-shaven look, to the 5’oclock shadow, and from the preppy haircuts back to the straggly no-shower hair. How far have you come since those days? - The 18/8 Man.

30,000 BC: Stone Age man begins using sharpened flint and seashells to scrape the hair from his body, inventing the morning shave.

1150 BC: Biblical hero Samson, whose feats of strength allegedly included slaying an entire army with the jawbone of an ass, confides to Delilah that losing his hair means losing his strength, making this perhaps the earliest recorded lament about premature baldness.

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Morgan Spurlock’s latest documentary fails to provide any real insights into male vanity.

“Mansome,”Morgan Spurlock’s documentary examining male vanity and self-image, feels exceedingly random and disorganized, even though it’s divided into chapters and keeps a consistency of observers throughout. There’s no real center to the film’s potentially insightful topic, with Spurlock never zeroing in on a cohesive message.

Instead, the filmmaker and humorist, perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated fast-food exposé “Super Size Me” (so you know he has the chops to do better), offers mostly skin-deep snapshots of various men and their grooming habits.

His subjects include a manscaping pro wrestler, a champion beardsman, a Yonkers “hair replacement specialist” and the creator of a men’s hygiene product. Even Spurlock himself shows up to ceremoniously shave his trademark mustache. But it’s only when the cameras turn on an obsessively metrosexual ex-Sikh that some actual emotional depth peeks through.

Spurlock also marks time with tepid input from a few sociologists and style experts, along with unfunny commentary from such usually amusing actors as Paul Rudd,Zach Galifianakis, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett.

The latter two performers, who are also among the movie’s executive producers, enjoy a bromantic L.A. spa day punctuated by such empty banter that you wish Judd Apatow(who also weighs in here) would have written them a script.

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“Mansome.” MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language and some crude material. Running time: 1 hour, 22 minutes. At ArcLight Cinemas, Hollywood; Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex, Santa Monica; Laemmle’s Playhouse 7, Pasadena; Edwards University Town Center 6, Irvine.

Morgan Spurlock, the clown prince of documentary filmmaking, has examined fast food (“Super Size Me”) and product placement (“The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”). Now, in the just-released”Mansome,” he turns his attention to the somewhat surprising topic of men’s grooming, enlisting champion beard growers, hirsute celebrities and a grab bag of barbers, anthropologists and magazine editors to bring the discussion of men’s looks and masculinity out of the closet and into the bright light of day.

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    1) Before you leave, make sure that your laptop, phone, iPad, kindle…anything that takes a charge, is actually charged…2) If you plan on working from the road through a VPN…test that you can connect to your company network before you leave for your trip…3) Learn how to tether your laptop to your phone…in case you find yourself outside of a wireless hot-spot…your phone can step in…4) Buy a sturdy traveling case that will hold all of your technology…so you don’t lose or break it…5) Pack an extra charger and/or laptop battery…keep one in the carry-on and one in the checked luggage…because you never know what the travel gods may have in store for you…

read more @: http://themessengerofstyle.com/post/20003849076/principles-of-style-259

Despite being hard-working (68.6 per cent are in the workforce), charitable (32 per cent do volunteer work and 73 per cent donated money in 2006) and spending nearly three hours a day on average doing unpaid work at home, men are often represented as one-dimensional stereotypes.

If you believe some commercials, guys have never even learned how to go to the bathroom.  It’s a little insulting, right?

News.com.au has looked at just how much the trusty television has to answer for. We’ve packaged six of the most obvious stereotypes floating around Australian television today – the dopey dad, the alpha male, the bad boy, the larrakin, the thinking man, and the average bloke.

These commonly seen characters are often clichéd and one-dimensional, and provide little in the way of role models.

Dopey dads can be found in any ad for cleaning or cooking products that aim to make it easy for clueless men, and alpha males are often objectified in much the same way women have rightly complained about being victims of for decades.

     Foxtel’s Xbox commercial which depicted four women ogling a new male flatmate who walked in wearing only boardshorts attracted an official complaint to the Advertising Standards Bureau.

And the clichés are just as heavy for the larrakin who is never taken seriously, the thinking man who is always shy and awkward and the bad boy who just needs the love of a good woman to turn him around.

Dr Karen Pearlman, head of Screen Studies at the Australian Film, Television and Radio school  told news.com.au no screenwriter ever sets out to create a conventional character but audiences like to see something familiar and recognisable, albeit with something “fresh” thrown in.

“If you see a character that is completely familiar with no nuance, nothing to add, nothing to help explain us to ourselves a bit better – that’s not really great writing,” said Dr Pearlman.

“There are other shows where people hope characters will behave exactly as expected and then a writer might be writing that show to a brief.”

“Less of a real person than it is desirable marketing”

Film and media critic Marc Fennell echoed the desire for familiarity on screen but also told news.com.au the truly one-dimensional characters are driven by marketing and advertising.

“It’s kind of a demographically derived character,” Mr Fennell said, “and not just a demographically derived character but a character that – in my view – is less of a real person than it is a desirable marketing quadrant.”

Top-rating drama Packed to the Rafters is well, packed to the rafters with these male stereotypes.

Mr Fennell said the Channel 7 program has applied all the lessons from advertising, with “100 per cent stock characters,” but it fills its brief of being broadly appealing and agreeable.

“They’ve somehow managed to create the most successful Australian drama with characters that look like they’ve been lifted straight out of a Sanitarium ad.”

These characters are just as easily found in almost any other Australian TV show or commercial.

In real life, most men are a combination of these characters, or perhaps they aren’t like any of them, but Australian television would have us think all men are one type, and only one type.

In fact, reality television fills this void, said Mr Fennell. Shows like Masterchef and The Block have also offered new on-screen representations of men.

“I don’t reckon 20 years ago you would have seen straight, blokey men cooking on TV but Masterchef has completely changed that,” said Mr Fennell.

“Craftsmanship has become a new male attribute in popular culture.”

So if you are a man who doesn’t fit inside the focus-tested, marketing-friendly stereotypes and are looking for representation on screen it appears you have to turn to reality TV. Or find another way to spend those two and a half hours a day.

Yes, the letter is about as self-indulgent as you’d expect a resignation letter from a banking executive to be.”

For once, we have a Goldman Sachs resignation letter from someone who isn’t an overworked first-year analyst. Circulating the interwebs today is this NY Times’ op-ed piece from Greg Smith, a (now former) executive director for the storied investment bank. In it, he details why Goldman has become a horrible place to work. Shocking revelation: Goldman Sach’s culture is one big greedy get-rich-quick scheme (allegedly).

Yes, the letter is about as self-indulgent as you’d expect a resignation letter from a banking executive to be (though his parents are undoubtedly happy he made the world aware that they raised the world’s third-best Jewish table tennis player), and there’s no denying the hubris of using the NY Times as a resignation vehicle. But looking past that, this is not your typical “I was meant for better things” resignation letter. In fact, this letter contains several lessons that apply to pretty much every man in the workforce, be they bankers or bartenders.

I think this is the way most all of us dream of leaving a job we hate. Enraged, accusatory rants only make the employee seem disgruntled and incompetent, and boilerplate “I’ll always cherish the work I’ve done here” messages are ultimately transparent clichés. No, you want to tell your bosses to f*ck off in the most dignified, articulate manner. He stumbled a bit by shoehorning his resume into the body of the piece, but otherwise, nice work. Everyone should save this letter as a template for when they decide to leave a company they hate. He states his feelings and supports them with examples of the way things should be. His superiors may be free to disagree with his beliefs, but there’s no arguing with manner in which he presents them.

On a deeper level, Smith reveals a lot about the modern workplace and how easy it is to become complacent, even as the world crumbles around you. Smith and others sharing his views were and are afraid to speak out against Goldman’s declining culture, leading to the (predicted) demise of the firm but, tangentially, mirroring the deterioration of the U.S. economy as well. Every successful company, regardless of how lawless or derelict it may seem today, was founded on values that aligned with the best interests of its customers. If you speak out loudly enough about those values (even if it’s as you make your exit), the right people will eventually notice. In a memo released today, Goldman’s top brass mentioned an internal survey that reinforced the firm’s customer-focused culture. While the results of this company document would appear to contradict Smith’s perspective, companies typically don’t conduct those sorts of internal surveys unless they believe they have a problem.

The op-ed also brings to mind the concept of integrity, which isn’t something a lot of people think about when it comes to work. Sure, you might serve your clients, but in practice it’s more like “servicing” them (my parents will be so proud to see that I worked a sex joke into a career article). While Goldman’s size and influence magnifies and simplifies the implications of poor customer focus, it’s not limited to global investment banks. While companies pay us to do a job, consumers pay those companies for goods and services. When those goods or services suffer, the consumer will go elsewhere because in this day and age, there are few if any industries completely free of competition. When that happens, the quality of the work you do matters little, because eventually there won’t be a company to do that work for. There is a direct correlation between one’s integrity as a worker and the long-term health and integrity of one’s firm.

Finally, there’s one message that should resonate loud and clear with every person reading this: Don’t be afraid to leave a job you hate. No matter what kind of Kool-Aid the company tries to pour down your throat, no place is unique. If you don’t like the way your company does business, you can almost always find another one in the same industry. Remember, despite the way things appear, people are the commodities and resources, not jobs. If you’re a genuinely good employee and can articulate that, someone somewhere is ready and willing to lure you away from a job you no longer believe in. Sure, it helps if you have the kind of financial safety net Greg Smith probably does, but all men, be they new college recruits or 20-year veterans, should have their resume at the ready should the right opportunity come knocking.

If nothing else, Greg Smith will have plenty of time to work on his Ping-Pong skills.

Once you’ve heard the call of the white rooster, it’s hard to imagine your life without it. And just to be clear, this is not related to that elusive white rabbit; we aren’t channeling Jefferson Airplane here. We’re talking hot sauce — and more specifically, Thai hot sauce.

If you haven’t heard of Sriracha before (though at this point, we’re assuming that most people have), it’s high time that you do. This hot sauce has boomed in popularity the past couple of years, largely thanks to the Huy Fong Company who first introduced it to the U.S. in the 1980s. Equipped with a white rooster logo, they continue to manufacture this insanely popular hot sauce to this day.

Sriracha is traditionally made from chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt. (Note: the Huy Fong Company uses red jalapenos in their version.) In Thailand this condiment is used as a dipping sauce, particularly for seafood; there’s a time and a place for the hot sauce. But, that doesn’t seem to be the case in the U.S. Here, all bets are off.

Those who have been introduced to Sriracha in the U.S. know what happens: complete obsession.

Collapsible Grill Brush by Guy Fieri

Biting into a succulent freshly grilled medium rare 2 inch rib-eye - priceless.  Biting into a steel fiber on your steak, from a cheap grill brush that caught on the grill - awful.  Here’s a solution…

This 25-in. grill brush is collapsible for easier transport and storage. The stainless-steel-and-brass bristles work well for fine and deep grill cleaning. Use the scraper for removing grilltop residue. It also has a convenient hang loop for storage.

http://www.4thegrill.com/grill-brushes/guy-fieri-extra-large-grill-brush/