Biotherm Homme High Recharge Eye Shot

Feb 21, 2012 | Post by: Thom Watson No Comments

Part of Biotherm’s Recharge family, the eye shot is a powerful member of the range. More than a standard eye gel, and ever more than a standard ‘rollerball’, this product is made of a lightweight absorbent gel dispensed through a whopping 3 rollerballs.

Firstly, at the end of a long day, its become over the last week, the first thing I reach for as it immediately relaxes my entire eye area. It’s ridiculously cooling, fast acting and absorbing.

My eyes really do look instantly brighter using this product and it has helped with my dark circles that build up doing a full time 5 day a week degree course, working for Clinique when I’m not studying, slaving away over a hot computer reviewing, writing and researching when I probably should be sleeping. So you can imagine, these are the bag of bags.

The magical ingredients are the eye serum’s favourite, it’s a natural anti-inflammatory and smooths skin. Sericoside is a natural extract that increases circulation around the eye area and finally manganese helps protect the skin and is a valuable anti-oxidant.

This is definitely worth a try and I have to say, popping it into the fridge for storage gives the icy coolness of the product a big kick, it feels amazing.

High Recharge Eye Shot £18/15ml at Debenhams Online

Sassoon Titan Series Mains Clipper

Feb 20, 2012 | Post by: Thom Watson No Comments

This is the second post in what is becoming a series of Electrical Grooming reviews, the Titan Series from Sassoon for Men.

There are some products that seem to good to be true, and this one really did come across as such when discovering what you got vs the price, its unbelievable it really is. This is the Titan Series Mains clippers from Sassoon, a company everyone knows as being built around its amazing heritage in hair dressing. The clipper includes a hole accessory kit with extra guards, cleaning brushes, blade oil and some pretty awesome scissors.

The device itself has a fantastic weight, feels like a good quality product as well as being pretty damn powerful. So how much you ask? £15.99 I say. I know, amazing right!

Now everyone has a mate called Dave and I’m no exception, and this Dave allowed me to use this great new product on him, getting a pretty decent haircut as an outcome.

I carefully cropped around the back and sides and the clippers just glided through with no snagging and caught absolutely every hair in the process leaving it really even, needing very little touching up. I then finished off with a number 3, gradienting upwards from the hairline at the back just using the comb as a guard, finally taking the guard off completely to neaten up the edges. It was all so easy.

The scissors were actually pretty good and I just needed them to trim the top and add some texture, blending everything in; I mean, they’re obviously not professional hair dressing scissors but they really do the job.

I have to say for one my first times cutting hair, it was a surprisingly easy process that was completely down to such a good clipper and comprehensive accessory kit (and maybe my slight eye for style, but who knows). You’re not gonna cut a layered bob with this but for all your clipping needs, you’ve found the tool to do it with.

Sassoon Titan Series Mains Clipper £15.99/each at Currys Online

FHI Platform Hair Straighteners

Feb 20, 2012 | Post by: Thom Watson 1 Comments

I’ve long since been a user of GHD hair stylers, as anyone who owns a pair of hair straighteners will know, they are considered one of the industries best, but with a hefty price tag of £129, they don’t come cheap.

FHI are a company I’ve been aware of in the back of my mind for a while and I know more than one professional hair stylist who have protested they actually prefer using these in their salon as opposed to the new GHDs they had as they used continually to break and they find they get better results with FHI. I’m not talking about men’s barbers by the way, I mean real £35 a pop for short back and sides hair salons.

So after trying the 1 inch FHI Platform series, I can honestly understand why it’s becoming the stylist’s choice. They’re awesome! Now I have pretty straight hair that has a tendency to kink slightly as it grows, but my other half has the thickest, curliest hair of all time. All I can show you are the amazing results really and let you be the judge:

It took no time at all to get his hair like this, and I really have to point out that it took less time to do than it did with GHD’s, they seemed to glide more easily and actually run about 12 degrees hotter than GHD stylers. Even though 12 degrees is an incremental rise in heat, it does seem to make a lot of difference but the hair wasn’t burnt or over heated at all.

The stylers have a pretty good thermostat, its a standard flash alert system with a red LED that flashes rapidly when it gets to full temperature. They remain steadily hot as long as they stay on and don’t overheat. The thermostat is adjustable from about 60 degrees upwards, this is for different hair thicknesses as someone with very fine hair needs less heat than the thick haired bugger featured in the pictures above.

The resin body gets warm but not so you can’t hold it or have it against your scalp and the device feels very solid in the hand, it has a nice weight to it, and feels like a good quality piece of kit. The positioning of the plates is also incredibly accurate so even when you really clamp them shut, there isn’t any pulling on the hair.

Finally, they’re red and black and look sexy as hell, what more could you want!?

FHI Platform Hair Straighteners £59.95/each at The Modern Man with Free Delivery and 10% off your first order by entering MANFACE12 at the Checkout.

The Modern Man is a great online destination for all you guys (and girls) and even though you do see them there on my sidebar, my views remain completely unbiased.

The Body Shop Nutriganics Drops of Youth

Feb 18, 2012 | Post by: Thom Watson No Comments

Over the last year The Body Shop seems to have come on leaps and bounds and whoever is now in charge of their marketing and R&D has finally dragged this ageing hippy screaming into the 21st century whilst still upholding those amazing core values that we all know and love. It definitely has evolved for the good since I was one of their skin coaches.

The new invention is part of of Nutriganics, a range of anti-ageing skin care for late twenties to late thirties. The ingredients are predominantly natural, around 98%, as well as being eco-certified meaning they contain organically sourced ingredients as well as being sustainable produced.

This serum has been designed to firm and smooth the skin, keeping it healthy and fresh. There’s too many natural actives to name all of them but the main active is criste-marine plant stem cells, which has the ability to repair damaged tissue as well as comfort skin concerns, it helps to regulate skin cell turnover as well as assist in the desquamation of skin cells (medical term for exfoliate, but its more than that, this ingredient doesn’t remove them, it loosens the bonds holding dead skin cells to the surface skin).

I always felt The Body Shop’s skincare felt a little sticky on the face and had a habit of being incredibly rich, but not with this bad boy. It’s got the texture of Aloe Vera gel, and massages well into the skin, leave it for a few seconds for it to disappear before layering your moisturiser and other products over the top.

This product will actively help to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles but more importantly recondition the skin, leaving it looking more radiant and feeling much smoother.

The Body Shop Nutriganics Drops of Youth £15/30ml at The Body Shop Online

Anthony Logistics Acne Cleanser

Feb 17, 2012 | Post by: Thom Watson No Comments

What a treat, the Anthony Logistics for Men Acne Cleanser is something that definitely doesn’t come along very often.

Truly designed for acne and blemish care, this product has been very meticulously designed indeed, being dermatologist tested, allergy tested and being free from the foaming agent Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS) which can easily irritate sensitive, acne prone skin types.

You should never manually exfoliate acne or blemishes with beaded or grain scrubs, because this will cause a lot more damage, bursting spots and spreading infection, leading to higher risks of scarring. You do need to exfoliate but how do you do it then? Well this wash contains salicylic acid, which is a chemical exfoliator which is the best exfoliator for spots and breakout, and its combined in your wash resulting in a lot less fuss.

The bottle points out Vitamin B5 for repair, allantoin, chamomile, and camellia to soothe. These are the main active ingredients. I’m convinced I can smell tea tree oil (Melaleuca Alternifolia), however I can’t see it in the ingredients list, but if you smell it, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

The product felt great on my skin, foamed nicely, not too much, but not too little. Once massaged in and rinsed off, my skin felt surprisingly hydrated for after a facial wash, especially an anti-acne facial wash so big kudos there. My skin once towel dried off still felt very hydrated, in fact it was really noticeable meaning I didn’t feel the need to rush quite as quickly to apply a moisturiser.

If you or anyone you know suffers with Acne then firstly, make sure a doctors appointment is booked straight away, and then, give Anthony Logistics for Men a try.

Anthony Logistics Acne Cleanser £16.95/237ml at The Modern Man with Free Delivery and 10% off your first order by entering MANFACE12 at the Checkout.

The Modern Man is a great online destination for all you guys (and girls) and even though you do see them there on my sidebar, my views remain completely unbiased.

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Welcome to Manface

Welcome to Manface, a Men's Grooming Blog. Here you can find all sorts of reviews and articles on Men's Grooming products, Cosmetics and Skin Care by Thom Watson, a specialist in skin care and derma-concerns. If you have any questions or suggestions, contact me.

All views are my own and do not represent those of Clinique or Estée Lauder Companies.