lookmantastic is renowned for bringing you the best in men’s skincare from around the world, with ClarinsMen, Elemis, men-u and Murad already setting the standard for quality. Joining the aforementioned grooming heavyweights on our virtual shelves this month is Eshu, a brand hailing from Australia with all the fuss-free credentials you’d expect from skincare products born Down Under.

The Eshu Skin Assist philosophy is simple – everybody wants to look good, but it’s important to look good without going overboard, keeping a perspective about your look and not trying too hard. That’s why Eshu is about simple, easy and effective skincare that doesn’t make you work too hard with difficult regimes or making you preen in the mirror. It doesn’t over complicate looking good because that’s no way to look your best.

With a range of shaving, skincare and bodycare essentials starting from just £10, Eshu’s product range contains unique Australian ingredients that haven’t been tested on animals, and promise to uncomplicated grooming results. To coin a phrase from the TV advert of another well known Australian export, upgrading your routine with Eshu Skin Assist would be a “good call”.

>>> Shop Eshu Skin Assist >>>

Tags: Bodycare, Eshu Skin Assist, natural, shaving, Skincare

We reveal the lookmantastic products nominated for this year’s prestigious Shortlist Men’s Grooming Awards, and our Grooming Editor picks his front runners.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have noticed that we’re right in the middle of award season. But it’s not all about the Grammys and the BRITS, there’s the small matter of the Shortlist Men’s Grooming Awards 2012 to contend with. As the UK’s leading supplier of quality men’s grooming you’d expect us to stock the lions share of the nominations, and you’re in luck as we’ve got all the top products featured in the (erm) shortlist. To celebrate the nominee announcement, we asked our Grooming Editor Duncan to pick the products he thought were likely to come away with an award under their (metaphorical) arm.

Our Grooming Editors Front Runners:

Best New Fragrance: Dsquared2 Potion EDP

Best Body Maintenance: L’Oréal Men Expert Invincible 96 Hour Deodorant Roll On

Best Facial Cleanser: Alpha-H Micro Cleanse

Best New Razor: Braun Wet & Dry Shaver Series 3

Best New Hairstyling: Kérastase Homme Capital Force Densifying Modelling Paste

Click here to view all the lookmantastic products nominated for an award. Or cast your vote here.

Tags: Awards, Fragrance, Haircare, Men's Grooming, shaving, Shortlist, Skincare

Roses are red, violets are blue, stock up on pampering bounty for her, and for you! Our Grooming Editor picks his tops Valentines gifts and helps you scrub up well.

It tends to be women that ‘buy in’ to Valentines Day more than men, but underestimate the important of 14th February at your peril because even though she says she “isn’t bothered” – she is! Finding a gift of superior glamour will bag you maximum bonus points, and ensure you can rest easy until Christmas.

With a plethora of products on our sister site lookfantastic.com, finding her the perfect gift has never been easier. Top offers include the must have ghd Hair Irons with a tidy £20 off, and the revolutionary styling, finishing and conditioning product Moroccanoil, but there are hundreds of top gifts to be had – whatever your budget. Once you’ve acquired your gift, it’s time for you to ensure you look sharp in time for the big day. We tasked our Grooming Editor with picking his must have products for Valentines success, and his choices are guaranteed (top-charmer skills also required) to ensure you impress your date.

For our Valentines Gift choices and  Grooming Editors Top Picks visit our VALENTINES GIFT SHOP. For the rest of the big date planning – it’s over to you.

Tags: beauty, gifts, grooming, makeup, shaving, Skincare, valentines

We’ve teamed up with the toning experts at Slendertone to give away a prize worth £139.99 that will set you on your way to amazing abs in just 4 weeks!

We’d all love to have cover model abs, but slugging it out in the gym to get tone and definition can be difficult to fit in to your hectic schedule. Understanding the tedious downside of achieving a wash-board stomach, the team of researchers and developers at Slendertone have come up with an ingenious way of getting the abs you’ve always wanted – all without stepping one foot in to a gym.

Replicating six pack exercises, 20 minutes using the Slendertone System+ is equivalent to 120 sits ups targeting the rectus, oblique and transversus abdominis muscles. By mimicking the body’s natural muscle movements and sending signals to activate the nerves; Slendertone’s patented EMS technology delivers a complete abdominal workout to give you killer abs in JUST FOUR WEEKS!

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW YOU COULD WIN A SLENDERTONE SYSTEM+

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SLENDERTONE

Tags: Abs, competition, Fitness, Health, Slendertone, Toning, Weight Loss, win

Our grooming editor Duncan Copeland looks ahead and picks his hair care heroes, skin care saviours and shaving must haves for 2012 from the world of men’s grooming.

Hairbond

Hairbond believe that an essential piece of the British fashion phenomenon is the well-styled man, and have created their products based on that very ethos. With four styling products joined by a shampoo and a conditioner the Hairbond products are manufactured in the UK using professional formulations – born from a heritage in barber shops – to offer styling solutions that suit every hair type.

The truth is Hairbond could just as easily slot into a ‘Best of 2011′ list – such has been their meteoric rise since their launch on lookmantastic.com. But the reason they’ve made the ‘Ones To Watch’ list for 2012 is that for Hairbond, 2011 was just the beginning of a very stylish success story.

>>> SHOP HAIRBOND >>>

The Bluebeards Revenge

In order for a grooming product or range to be considered truly great, it has to be doing something that no other product is achieving – and that’s what The Bluebeards Revenge is doing, and why it makes my list for 2012. A range designed around their Luxury Shaving Cream and accompanying shaving accessories, The Bluebeards Revenge products use a visionary ingredient called ‘Decelerine’ that tackles tough stubble and actually slows down hair growth, so you shave less often and take the pressure off your skin. Like Hairbond, 2011 was a breakthrough year for Bluebeards and it’s set to boom in 2012 and join shaving’s top table to dine with the big boys.

>>> SHOP THE BLUEBEARDS REVENGE >>>

Natio For Men

It’s hardly a new concept but there’s no escaping the fact that organic and natural products are a big deal. Natio For Men however, is new to lookmantastic for 2012. Arriving on our virtual shelves from Australia in the final month of 2011, Natio For Men is a range that combines the ‘no fuss’ aspect of the best men’s products, with natural plant extracts that deliver great results without harmful additives. The name Natio is Latin for “creation” or “birth”, which is rather fitting because 2012 looks set to be the year when Natio For Men is born in to lookmantastic greatness.

>>> SHOP NATIO FOR MEN >>>

Tags: 2012, Hairbond, Men's Grooming, Men's Haircare, Men's Skincare, Natio For Men, natural, Ones To Watch, organic, shaving, The Bluebeards Revenge

One man in the UK dies of prostate cancer EVERY HOUR. That’s more than 10,000 every year.

In 2010, over 112,000 individuals were involved in raising £11.7 million as part of the Movember initiative to support men’s cancer charities.

In 2011, the LM team are dedicated to helping the Movember initiative raise awareness and funds throughout the month formally known as November - and we need your help!

About Movember

If Movember is a new concept to you then here are the basics. In order for the fund raising marathon to begin, participants register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face and then for the remaining days of November Movember these ‘Mo Bros’ (as they shall now be known) raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts. Together, our actions and words throughout Movember raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

How You Can Get Involved

Throughout Movember the LM Facebook page will be a hub for all things Movember, with updates on our teams progress, Movember facts and your chance to decide which ‘tache style our guys are wearing! As our Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November – you’ll get a front row seat!

As with all charity initiatives, if Movember 2011 is to be as successful as previous campaigns, it needs as many people to get involved – whether you’re growing a moustache yourself or simply supporting the Mo Bros in their fund raising endeavours. If you would like to show your support by sponsoring our LM moustache growers then you can do so by clicking the link below.

SPONSOR THE ‘TEAM LOOKMANTASTIC’ MOVEMBER TEAM

VISIT THE LOOKMANTASTIC FACEBOOK PAGE

How You Can Win

To help all the Mo Bros with their post-Movember shaving routine, we’re giving away THREE Shaving Hampers worth over £50. We’ve hand picked some of the best shaving products on the market, and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is visit our Facebook Page.

VISIT THE FACEBOOK PAGE FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN

The Movember Effect: Awareness & Education, Survivorship, Research

Tags: Men's Health, Movember, shaving

Top men’s magazine FHM brings us some of the very best men’s news, fashion, jokes, gadgets and scantily clad pretty ladies in print, and online. But this month the focus is firmly on men’s grooming, with the leading mag wanting to know “the gunk you put in your hair, the aftershave you’d like to bathe in and the moisturiser that stops your face crumbling before your eyes” as they open the voting for the FHM Grooming Awards 2011.

As you’d expect, there are several lookmantastic best sellers that appear on the list, with the likes of Redken For Men, Kérastase Homme and L’Oréal Men Expert leading the way. Among those nominated for a prestigious award is the best selling Ole Henriksen Fresh Start Eye Creme – the innovative product that’s become a firm office favourite because of its ability to diminish lines and wrinkles in the delicate eye area, whilst protecting against future damage (not to mention covering up dark circles and puffiness caused by late nights!).

Click here to vote for your favourite lookmantastic products, including the Ole Henriksen Fresh Start Eye Creme, in the FHM Grooming Awards 2011.

Tags: FHM, grooming, Grooming Awards, Men's Grooming, Men's Magazines, Ole Henriksen, Skincare

The reason guys love VitaMan shave products is simple – they work! Discover their highly effective daily solutions that offer the modern man a clean, comfortable shave and read an expert guide on how to use them.

Step One –Analyse

Map the direction of your hair growth. Before you apply any products and before even picking up your razor blade, you must properly analyse your beard growth. You only ever need to do this once, as the direction in which your beard grows never changes. We recommend you do this on a weekend when you can grow your beard out to clearly see the hair growth direction, before dividing your face and neck into four sections. Left side of the face, right side of the face, left side of the neck and the right side of the neck.

For each section, look closely at your beard to see the angles which the hairs grow out of the follicles. Its important to determine which way the hair grows (or ‘grain’) because you have to shave WITH the grain or  in the direction that the hair grows out of the follicle/skin. Shaving with the grain removes about 70-80% of the hair’s length and prevents the appearance of shaving irritation, ingrown hairs and bumps.

Step Two – Cleanse

Gently lather VitaMan Face & Body Cleanser prior to shaving all over your face and neck, which will not only clean away any debris from your skin, but also soften your beard growth in preparation for your shave.  It’s always advisable to shave directly after a hot shower, but if you can’t or don’t want to shower before shaving, you should cleanse over a basin with hot water or use a hot wet towel to properly prepare the skin. It’s really important to use warm water, because shaving with cold water constricts the blood vessels and makes hair follicles stiff. When whiskers are stiff and coarse, the beard is much more resistant, which makes it harder for the blade to cut each hair. If you don’t keep the room hot and steamy you may need to reheat your face with a hot towel to relax your pores.

Step Three – Preparation

Applying good quality pre shave oil will provide a protective film between your blade and skin, maximizing a close shave.  Perfect for coarse beards, this step softens tough hair follicles and lift the hairs in preparation for the shave, while sensitive skin prone to ingrown hairs or pimples will benefit as a shave oil provides an extra barrier of
protection. VitaMan Shave Oil is a 100% natural oil product that contains unique Australian natural plant and herbal extracts that will warm your skin, increasing blood flow and help soften and lift hair follicles allowing for closer, smoother shave.

Step Four – The Shave

Apply enough product onto the face to give a protective barrier between the skin and the razor blade. It is not necessary to “lather up” and see bubbles, this usually means you are using a detergent based or alcohol based product which will leave your skin in bad condition. Re-apply during your shave as many times as necessary, as this will protect your skin from razor burn.

Your decision to choose between VitaMan Shave Crème and Shave Gel is simple. If you have “creative” sideburns, goatee, or beard, VitaMan Shave Gel is perfect as it is 100% natural and clear and you can see exactly where you are driving your blade. VitaMan Shave Crème is great for dehydrated skin types as it will hydrate and protect the skin as you shave. Both VitaMan products are free from alcohol, harmful or skin irritating chemicals and will give you the smoothest, friction-free shave possible every day!

Step Five – Calm

Rinse off all the residual Shave Crème or Shave gel from your face and neck with plenty of cool water and gently pat dry. This will help “shunt” the blood supply away from your skin’s surface. By shaving you inadvertently remove a thin layer of skin each time, and this new skin is sensitive and dry, needing care and hydration. To Calm the skin and keep it free from bacteria use a natural shave balm like the VitaMan After Shave Balm to complete your shave routine. To apply it, take a small amount and gently pat it onto all
the areas of the face and neck that have been shaved. This soothing balm cools and calms skin inflammation or redness, and prepares it for moisturiser.

To discover the entire VitaMan range, or to read more about the VitaMan philosophy click here.

Tags: Men's Grooming, Perfect Shave, shaving, Skincare, VitaMan

Kyoku For Men has been a long-standing favourite in the lookmantastic office. Designed specifically for men’s skin, their products combine cutting-edge skincare technology with effective natural ingredients to offer the ultimate luxury grooming line. So when the Kyoku For Men Eye Fuel picked up the lookmantastic award for Best Eye Care (as voted for by you, the customers) we thought who better to catch up with to talk about the product than Kyoku For Men Founder, Dr. Asim M. Akhtar.

French neurologist Guillame Duchenne was quite a bright man. Aside from investigating neuromuscular facial movements and their relation to neural pathways, he coined a term that, at the time, was well recognized but poorly defined: the “Duchenne Smile.” This aptly named smile described what most people would call a genuine smile, or more colloquially put, “from the heart.” According to Dr. Duchenne, this smile occurs when there is an involuntary muscular reflex occurring at the mouth and crows feet around the eyes that symbolizes genuine happiness and/or satisfaction.  The “Pan-American” smile, perhaps appropriately named, occurs when the muscular reflex is consciously controlled around the mouth with no matching reflex occurring around the crow’s feet of the eyes. According to Dr. Duchenne, over 90 percent of people can consciously, or more importantly, unconsciously recognize a genuine smile.

The Award Winning Kyoku For Men Eye Fuel.

I was in awe of this concept when I first heard about it – as human beings, we have a built-in emotional thermometer that measures the truthfulness or believability of someone else’s emotions. Women, generally speaking, have 10,000 times the ability of men to read subtle social cues and emotional truthfulness. This is according to a wonderfully insightful book by Dr. Louann Brizendine called “The Female Brain.”

With all of this in mind, it is no wonder that perhaps the first place your woman, or anyone for that matter, looks to see what your thinking is your eyes. It is often said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. The Buddha once said, “the self is always coming through,” from which he meant the eyes. With so much social and spiritual importance placed on the eyes, perhaps we as men should take a step back and examine our own.

One of the first signs of ageing, as well as fatigue, is bags under the eyes. This occurs for a number of reasons, including less blood flow to the under eye area as well as a drop in collagen production. Short term, as in the case of fatigue, this involves fluid loss, which causes that unsightly appearance in the office after a big night out with your mates. With this in mind, the Kyoku team and I looked to dive head first into this problem by attacking it at the core with the Kyoku for Men Eye Fuel.

The Kyoku for Men Eye Fuel was developed over the course of 3 years using dozens and dozens of different formulations to really pin down the problems men experience around the under-eye area. This product comes in a dual-pump container that houses two different products: an Eye Radiance Crème and the Uplifting Eye Gel. The Eye Radiance Crème contains a host of deep-sea algae extracts along with Japanese licorice root to help remove dark circles and prevent fine lines and wrinkles. The Uplifting Eye Gel uses exclusive light scattering particles to fill in any pre-existing lines you may have coupled with sugar extract that instantly gives you a fresh, well-rested, alert appearance.

Armed with such potent technology on our side of the sink, us men can finally attempt to rival our female counterparts in terms of aesthetic appearance. Who knows, using such potent technology, maybe even your “Pan-American” smile will garner a loving gaze from your partner. If not, at least you will look younger, which should help your situation anyway.

Dr. Asim M. Akhtar

Founder, Kyoku for Men

Click here to find out more information about the Kyoku For Men Eye Fuel and the rest of the Kyoku For Men range.

Tags: Eye Care, Kyoku For Men, lookmantastic awards, Men's Grooming, Skin Care

Featured in every men’s magazine the world over, and fronted by global mega-star Gerard Butler, L’Oréal Paris Men Expert is now available at lookmantastic.com. As one of the leading powers in the industry, L’Oréal Men Expert aims to “provide affordable luxury for guys who demand excellence” – a philosophy that every guy can get on board with.

Incorporating the latest scientific advances in their visionary formulas,  L’Oréal Men Expert offer products for every men’s skin concern while also helping you achieve a perfect daily shave. With the Hydra Sensitive range for irritated skin, Hydra Energetic for tired complexions, Vita Lift to combat ageing and Pure & Matte to combat oily skin and pesky breakouts – every man can now have a skin care routine designed by the experts.

Shop L’Oréal Men Expert at lookmantastic.com

Tags: Gerard Butler, L'Oreal Men Expert, Men's Grooming, shaving, Skincare