In the Bay Area, there are many places where we are lucky enough to find locally crafted goods. To be fair, we also have no trouble finding national retail chain stores either. We did both. For my birthday we let our energy guide us and tested the essences of hundreds of products without a rush for time. What did the stores have in common? They seemed to embrace presence, naturally clean ingredients, responsibility and most importantly, many more options for men to be treated.

ALL MEN ABOARD!

The local company we first checked out had 100% natural and organic ingredients. They are awash with the usual suspects for women, nothing to hide or explain here. We noticed that they had a body wash and a shampoo for men with beer extract. We can’t say it is not natural, but useful? Actually, it is great for skin and hair. The hops in the beer extract is helpful in improving the appearance and health of your hair and for skin, it helps with conditions such as eczema and psoriasis with its anti-inflammatory and antiviral agents. For the man that loves beer there is nothing better than a beer in the shower! It certainly is clever advertising at the least.

After the local supplier, we found ourselves at the national chain bath and beauty store, which seemed to embrace natural ethically sourced ingredients. This company had an array of products targeted for men with names that had something to do with dirt, volcanoes or manly sir names. Most were moisturizers and shave balms or shampoos. We liked that they were committed to reduced packaging by combining multiple uses for one product such as a shampoo and soap bar all-in-one. While all the products worked great, they seem to need a little more work as we found them heavy and greasy. (NOTE: We were surprised to find out that many of the products contain Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Parabens to make them "sud up" and bubble. These are controversial ingredients to some consumers because of the possibility of toxicity in the body and abrasiveness to the skin and hair over time.)

As one may have assumed from the focus of our blog post, more men are entering the mysterious world of beauty products. According to studies published in the Wall Street Journal, about one in four men uses some sort of facial skin-care product, whether it is facial wash, moisturizer, lip balm or eye cream. Pricing for mens products are also way lower, for example, a Vitamin C face serum available for men costs about $32 for 4 oz while the same face serum for woman would cost about $80-$100 in regular skin care lines. Market researchers indicate that men will not buy the same product at the women’s price point. We feel like it’s a bit unjustified that men get lower prices than women for their products.

So women, you have so much power to influence your man into supporting local organic skin care lines as well. Do men really care about what goes into their bodies? Many natural and organic skincare lines popular among women now have skincare lotions and creams centered on shaving for men. Psychologists suggest that most men have a female “influencer", often his girlfriend or wife, who introduces him to more sophisticated grooming products, then once he's in, he starts to pay attention to things. We have also found many mens magazines giving simplified lists of the best natural products for men such as Well + Good, Mens Journal, and OM For Men. It seems the trend is looking up.

Are we excited about this? Yes, we are. We are excited about less packaging for the environment, more awareness in our male population for organic and ethically sourced ingredients, and for the possibilities of all-in-one products that work! Everyone deserves access to natural, clean products that work, whether or not they “sud up”. Don't you agree?