FATHER’S DAY GIFT IDEAS: For Rest and Recuperation

By Mark Reed

As you may have read in my previous review on BodyScience products, I recently gave myself an ‘owie’ (as Ralph Wiggum might put it) at the gym. BSc’s line helped get me back on the running road.

But the soreness persisted.

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It’s a busy life right now. I work 6 days a week most weeks, and my brain is nearly always gaming things through, going over and over work stuff. I’m not complaining; I love my line of work, it’s just… Sometimes you need to take your foot off the pedal. Pay attention to you. Relieve the soreness, yes, but ease the mental soreness too.

FATHER’S DAY GIFT IDEAS: For The Sports Dad

By Mark Reed

 

This review was due a while ago. About a month ago I took delivery of Body Science‘s HydroxyBurn Pro Clinical, a pair of their compression shorts, and a box of Cherry Bite HydroxyBurn Lo Carb Bars.

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The problem was, the day I received them I had an “incident” at the gym. A pain in my neck became blinding headaches, vomiting and pins and needles all over. The headaches continued for four days. There was a point where my doctor was concerned that I’d given myself a minor brain aneurysm (I didn’t know they came in ‘minor’, but there you go). It turned out not to be the case; instead I had pinch some nerves on my spine. There were sessions with an osteopath. This had turned into the most expensive gym session in history.

I had become a walking (sort of) advertisement for doing exercise wrong. The only benefit of all this would be the massages which were fantastic, but when administered by a softly spoken northerner in his 50′s who wanted to discuss the Eurozone crisis, the Lakes District, and the Royal family while cracking my back into place… Well, it was different.

So, I had to come back. I had to start slow. And I wanted to do it right.

Scent and the Single Girl

By Tammi Ireland

It’s been a cold winter and – as a single lady living with two other single ladies – it’s been even colder.  While a renewed love of Beyonce’s 2008 classic has helped keep us warm on the dancefloor, it’s quiet moments at home where we need something a little more sensory to give off a bit of testosterone, a bit of warmth.

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Enter Circa Home ‘Majestic Homestead’ Natural Wax Candle (RRP$29.95), which – thanks to its delicious mix of Amber & Sandalwood scents – smells like dude.

Yes, you read that right… despite the brand selling it as ‘evoking memories of evenings on the verandah, swinging on the lounge with crickets chirping in the background’, this delicious double-wicked candle smells like a modern, suited man that you just need to get near to.  You know the ones – they rush past you on the street and you inhale a little deeper because their cologne smells so good. 

THE MEN’S ROOM: Reduce Eye Puffiness and Darkness

By Mark Reed

Let’s face it; We’re not getting any younger. Time marches on, and our bodies find it harder to keep up, no matter how much drinking you eschew, exercise you embark on, bizarre diets you commit to. Only Madonna has the secret to eternal youth, and look what it’s done to her arms: It’s not worth it.  So should we embrace it? Grow old with grace? Break out the blue rinse hair dye and the bingo? Not quite.  While Clinique have yet to develop an Age-Reversing Cooling Eye Gel, they have at least produced an Anti-Fatigue Cooling Eye Gel.

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In a handy pen form, easy to carry, easy to use, perfect for on the go. Clinique claims the pens reduces puffiness and dark circles. While I certainly noticed it’s effect on puffiness, I didn’t see a discernible difference in the dark circle department. Mind you, I’m not exactly a “bed by nine” type of guy, so I’m not sure how much I can blame a cosmetics company for that, and how much I can blame my continued and concerning idolisation of Keith Richards, a man whose own dark circles would almost certainly cause the Clinique eye pen to simply disintegrate under pressure.

THE MEN’S ROOM: Body Lotion for Dudes

By Mark Reed

Cold. Harsh winds. And my God, the storms we’ve had in the last few weeks… It’s not been a bumper month for the city.

It’s a harsh time of year for skin too. And, as guys… Well, you can’t just buy Olay, or Ponds. Well you could, I mean, we live in an enlightened world, right? But I have my limits. Buying a feminine body lotion wouldn’t be so much “crossing the rubicon” as it would be “flying a space shuttle over the rubicon and heading out towards Alpha Centauri” for me.

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So it’s a good thing that Palmer’s have turned up with a body and face lotion for men. Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula for Men is also different to many existing men’s products in the field, because… it smells. Which guy’s products generally don’t do. And cocoa… that’s chocolate.  But the result is surprising, pleasant, and one I keep coming back to. The cocoa actually manifests as a rich, dark, and quite masculine scent. Masculine, and yet strangely subtle and gentle too: It’s certainly not going to offend anyone’s nose.

THE MEN’S ROOM: Trumpers Is Forever

By Mark Reed

The twin V2500-A1s barked instructions at the plane, bringing it to a halt on a cold, barely realised morning. It woke me suddenly. I thought of Tammi, and my promise to her: To write the review in the style of Ian Fleming. This would be an assignment like no other.

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Melbourne.

I was here for three days. Business and pleasure. While in town I would surround myself with friends old; new; and as yet unmet. Enjoy a match of the national game. Hear from an infamous artist.

I would have to look my best. Come Monday night, a shave was a must.

137 years ago, George Trumper opened a distinctive barber shop on Curzon St in Mayfair, London. Geo F. Trumper still stands today, offering cuts, shaves, and a line of shaving products consisting of all natural ingredients. High quality, old fashioned, yet also timeless and retaining a distinct class. The Sandalwood Skin Food and Limes Shaving Cream were about to be put through their paces.

THE MEN’S ROOM: Dry Shampoo for Festival Season

By Mark Reed

Summer; It’s the festival season. If you plan in advance, you could almost spend every weekend between now and March and some gathering of musicians or another. The heat, the smells, the crowds, the questionable sound quality, tall people, people who spend $160 on a ticket to a festival just to be seen there, don’t know any acts, and then plonk a further $180 down on drinks in the alcohol enclosure, blissfully unaware that they deprived a music buff of a ticket to this now sold out venture, the queues for the “toilets” so long they’re visible from space… I do it every year, and against all expectations, I love it.

Until a few years ago, festivals in Australia were overwhelmingly single day affairs. With Southbound, and July’s Splendour In The Grass, we’re moving towards a multi-day, european model.

That means camping. If you thought the smells were bad at a one day event…

The Men’s Room: Three course Men-U, packing light, and the Apocalypse: Melbourne in four easy products

By Mark Reed

I pack light. I buy when I’m there. Coats and scarves. A new shirt. It saves on check in time at the airport with less luggage, you can find something different at your destination, and that difference is a connection, a story you can tell about that time you did… etc, etc.

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I also pack light when it comes to the bathroom. I rarely take a razor on holiday, and nothing that requires a propellant to shoot it out of a can. Which is why Men-U‘s “buddy” packs came in handy on my trip to Melbourne this week. I took a trio of ‘basics’ with me- Their Healthy Facial Wash, their Shave crème, and the Facial Moisturiser Lift. Each is in a minute 15ml travel tube, so easy to pack you’d almost forget about them. What makes Men-U different is the portions required to get the job done. The 15ml tube of facial wash, a similar size to a hotel guest serving in your bathroom, will do 30 washes, nearly a month.

The real surprise with Men-U? They’re right.

The Men’s Room: Natural Skincare

By Mark Reed

The Franc Essentials Sample Set is, for a man at least, perhaps a little too much. It’s five steps, it takes a while. And… it’s too effective. Your skin feels completely different after even the first experience. It’s certainly not an every day process. However…. Hungover on a Sunday morning after a big night? Not feeling fresh? This might be the perfect antidote. I mean, I’d still have the bacon and egg breakfast too, but this will definitely help.

 

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Cleanse is first. I only required a small amount. Massaged in, it felt like it did it’s work, without being harsh on the skin: I don’t think I’ve tried anything that felt so natural before, organic; As if it was mixed from ingredients straight out of the backyard. The natural oils and seeds, and the appealing but asexual scent they give off are surprisingly relaxing.

The Exfoliate is next, and again, the effect is staggering: The natural ingredients really go to work, and you can spend a couple of minutes massaging them into the face in the shower if you don’t watch yourself: For all Franc’s stressing of their natural organic designs, it’s probably not great news for our dam levels. Oh well… If you’re only doing it on a Sunday morning….

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The Men’s Room: Do batteries really make a difference?

By Mark Reed

Batteries. Since Volta made the first one at the start of the 19^th century we’ve put them in virtually everything. At first it made sense. Cars. Torches. The Walkman, possibly the single most influential shaper of my youth, if you discount Bond Girls and The Beatles.

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Then, somewhere, in this writer’s humble opinion, things went wrong. We started putting them in toothbrushes. CD packaging (I’m looking at you, original 1995 issue of ‘Pulse’ by Pink Floyd). The christmas greeting card, already an asinine commercial device borne to deliver guilt unto uncaring grandchildren, became tortuous as, upon opening Granny’s tragically unreciprocated seasonal salvo, this reader was greeted by an utterly inappropriate 2-bit rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’. Honestly.

We had taken it too far.

And now our humble AA has found it’s way into a razor. Specifically Gillette’s new flagship, The Fusion ProGlide.

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It’s good looking. The AA inside gives it a wonderful weight in your hand. There are so many blades on the head, more than this writer has ever seen. The button is minimal in design, and when you turn it on it glows. An ice cool neon blue. It’s nice.