Review: YSL M7 Oud Absolut

Can I tell you a secret?  The first fragrance I ever fell in love with was Aramis.  As in, the men's fragrance Aramis.  The aromatic, musky, woody scent made me feel warm and enveloped with mysteriousness, and I surreptitiously dabbed it on and enjoyed it.  So, when I read the description of YSL's re-released Oud Absolut fragrance, I couldn't help myself - I had to smell it.

M7 Oud Absolut is, according to the Internets, a reformulation of an old (read: 2002) fragrance named M7, now resurrected from the YSL archives.  I've never smelled the original, so I can't comment on the similarities and differences, but I can comment on the scent enclosed within this slightly 70s, black cuboid bottle.  

At first spritz, this fragrance opens with a fruity freshness from the head note of mandarin orange.  After a few minutes on the skin it tempers down into something much more heady, cut through with a slice of freshness that almost tickles the nose.  The basenotes include myrrh, French labdanum and oud, and this, combined with a middle note of patchouli, means that the overriding sense of the fragrance is of muskiness, woodiness, and smoke.   

I absolutely love it.  It's sexy and mysterious, and my husband has already nabbed it.  It smells fantastic on him, and lasts very well - I can still smell it on him at the end of the day.  His opinion?  "It smells quite nice and the lid is a bit annoying" (due to it's non-symmetrical shape and propensity to not snap on easily).  Typical.  Either way, this is a gorgeously seductive, masculine fragrance - and one I might well borrow from time to time for myself.

Find it at Fragrance Direct, where a 80ml bottle costs around £48.

Disclosure: PR sample

MAN REVIEW! Soap & Glory Knock Your Spots Off

Disclosure - PR sample

Here's another of our illustrious MAN REVIEWs, this time from Vas, who you may remember from my post about my experience at his podiatry practice, The Shah Clinic. Vas sportingly agreed to continue his LBR involvement with a review of Soap & Glory's Knock Your Spots Off, a topical blemish treatment from S&G's new(ish) men's range.

Take it away Vas...

I was recently offered this little tube of a million ingredients to try out. Now I don’t have particularly spotty skin – nor is it flawless, so I thought I’d be an appropriate guinea pig for it.

On first glance, it’s hard to actually work out what it is until you study the packaging which is full of phrases like “super powered” and “it puts the kung fu grip on zits”. I think this product is possibly aimed at a younger audience than me.

It contains salicylic acid which is mildly anti-inflammatory, aloe vera to calm and Cypress extract which is antibacterial, and claims to work on pimples and razor bumps.

Taking off the top feels like you have opened a bottle of vodka as the high concentration of alcohol hits you. The gel is clear and fairly thick in consistency. The package advises to apply directly to a spot. However this does mean that after its dried you are left with a crusty white bit on your face so you may want to rub it in a bit.

After using this product for a couple of weeks I found it made minimal improvement to any pimples and no difference to razor bumps – but then my stubble is dark and coarse. 

It’s a good combination of ingredients that would work if they upped the concentration of salicylic acid which tends to be miniscule in supermarket spot treatments. Not sure about the humungous list of ingredients either.

Unfortunately this one was not for me. There are better products out there.

Knock Your Spots Off is £5.99, available at Boots, who are currently offering 3 for 2 on men's skincare.

MAN REVIEW!: Organic Surge eye gel. vs. Boots No.7 eye cream

Disclosure: Organic Surge product was part of a PR goodie bag, while No.7 was a GWP sample.

Today's post is another guest review (they're like buses, I swear), this time from Greg aka The Man Who Fell Asleep, who has taken time out from his regular tweeting schedule to review two eye creams for us. Take it away Greg...

Sarah kindly asked me to review two eye products: Organic Surge and No.7 For Men Protect and Perfect Moisturising Cream.

Beauty products for men are odd. For years I either nicked my mother’s/sister’s/girlfriend’s moisturisers or bought pleasant, unisex Vaseline moisturiser. I’m quite suspicious of the newfangled beauty products aimed at men, mainly because the marketing is so clumsily macho and desperate to avoid accusations of femininity or sexual ambivalence. It’s now not enough to moisturise your skin, you have to “recharge” your skin. I fully expect a moisturiser to claim “This will not only REBOOT your face, it will totally REFORMAT it.”

I make an ideal candidate to review anything that aims to boost eye appearance as my eyes are normally circles by large dark patches. This is for two reasons (1) I work a lot in front of a PC, staring for hours on end at a tiny, pallid monitor, straining my eyes and avoiding vitamins and sunlight (2) life is a series of crushing disappointments, culminating in death. So dark circles are to be expected.

MAN REVIEW! FCUK Sport 100 Degrees deodorant and Absolute Zero hair & body wash

Disclosure: These products were provided by PR for Jon to give his 2p's worth on.

So great was the quality of Jon's last MAN REVIEW that we have asked him for an encore, this time with some FCUK Sport man-products that were sent through for him. (NB there will be yet another MAN REVIEW tomorrow, courtesy of the Twitterific Greg aka The Man Who Fell Asleep.)

Over to Jon...

FCUK Sport Absolute Zero Hair & Bodywash

There's quite a lot of this sort of product around at the moment - playing on the well-known FACTS that all men are lazy and only shower because they're supposed to. Oh, and like SPORT. Fact. No, of course these are simply age-old marketing ploys to make it easier and more acceptable for us dudes to buy soap. It's getting a little old, if you ask me, but I suppose it must still work. Anyway, aside from the fairly predictable branding there's a fair bit to recommend the Absolute Zero Hair & Bodywash.

It smells like… well, shower gel. It's got a reasonably mild, cool, refeshing scent (allegedly birch leaf, pine needle and eucalyptus, blended with musk, amber and cedarwood) - essentially a fairly standard, vaguely masculine one. It does remind me a bit of Mr Matey, actually - which is fitting, as it does lather up quite well and doesn't seem to be too drying. You don't need to use loads to get a lather going, either, as with some other shower gels I've used.

MAN REVIEW! Malin+Goetz Eucalyptus Deodorant

Disclosure: This product was given to us free of charge for review purposes.

Today's review is written by Jon, who kindly took on testing duties for this product.

I've long been of the opinion that the world of deodorants, especially with those targeted at men, was a bit of a strange one. The focus seems to be on absolute dryness, total evasion of perspiration at all cost - so much so, that it's extremely difficult to find a deodorant in high street shops that isn't also an anti-perspirant.

I'll admit that my armpits are a generally quite sweaty place, so much so that I've pretty much given up entirely on the notion that an anti-perspirant can actually work for longer than half an hour or so. I've tried various different forms (aeresol, roll-on, stick) and brands (run-of-the-mill stuff from Sure, Right Guard, Nivea etc. to premium efforts by Anthony and Lab Series), and haven't had any success with any of them. Perhaps my prolific sweating is abnormal in this regard, but from my experience the logic seems to follow that if you block up your skin with anti-perspirant, the sweat glands will actually work harder to find a way for the sweat to get through. There is, surely, a reason that we sweat other than to simply embarrass.

As a result of my many failed anti-perspirant trials, I've tended to stick with deodorants that promise only to stop me from smelling foul. Only Sarah would be in a position to tell you whether that particular mission has actually been a successful one! My current anti-ming of choice is the Deodorising Body Spray from the Charles Worthington Results For Men line. It doesn't clog the skin and has a fairly light, apple-tinged fragrance, whilst retaining a degree of masculinity. The only real problem I have with it is that it's now discontinued. Typical. Luckily I managed to grab a big batch off eBay before it all disappeared, but sooner or later I'll need to find an alternative. Enter the sample of Malin + Goetz Eucalyptus Deodorant Sarah kindly gave me to try in return for these here thoughts.

Taking the form of a twistable stick, the packaging is refreshingly non-gender-specific (or simply minimalist?) and feels well-put-together. The fragrance is light and cool, obviously reminiscent of eucalyptus, but also a bit of lemon with a menthol-esque cool hit. This is a very good thing. To me, it's neither particularly a feminine nor masculine scent - it reminds me a bit of a less potent version of the Iceberg Twice Eau de Toilette I used to have. It's an alcohol and aluminium-free recipe that absorbs in easily and doesn't feel sticky (a problem I'd often associate with 'stick' deodorants) or greasy. So far so good, then.

Testing over a few days, it seems that over the course of a day, the Malin + Goetz deodorant does its job with the minimum of fuss. It might be my imagination, but I also didn't seem to sweat as much as I normally would - perhaps this is due to its alcohol-free nature. I'm not certain that it really does last 24 hours as promised, and its effects were certainly at least a little reduced by bedtime, but over a standard waking day, I can't see this being a problem. Besides, I'm perhaps not a fair test subject, being a relentless sweaty git.

So overall, I'd say i'm impressed. The Malin + Goetz is certainly something I'd consider using long-term - at £15 a throw, it's definitely a premium item, but no more expensive than its competitors. Check it out, yo.

Malin + Goetz products are available at Liberty, or online from HQHair.