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Esquire's Top Ten Men's Products

I went to Kyoku's website and their retailers are all in the UK. I'm in the States. They have one on-line vendor but $34 is pretty steep to take a chance. I'm going to wait until someone gives a review. I'll find out if they do samples.
 
I love Esquire, but I've come to the realization that most of their "top products" are paid for... And the others one that aren't are way to expensive.Who is going to pay $18 for deoderant???
 
I used to subscribe to Esquire in the 1960s, maybe into the early 1970s. It was a great guide for a young man, it covered beer, liquor, manners, dressing for business, women, smoking, college, grooming, how to order wine, how to tip, restaurants, what makes a good shoe, how to get fitted for a suit; and all from a strong masculine voice

I never even pick it up anymore, and will not for sure now; the editorial staff must all be female, their list completely misses the mark for me. Its all too delicate, feminine, metrosexual

I wash my face and shampoo with whatever bath soap I am using, I shave with a brush and the puck of the day, a DE from rotation, splash on Dominica Bay Rum and I am good to go

Don't need their opinion,
ken
 
Having worked in the publishing industry for a short time, I can say that most of these top-product lists are pay-to-play, at least the ones that don't outline any test method or rating criteria.
 
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I wash my face and shampoo with whatever bath soap I am using...
ken
Barbarian. :ohmy:

Just kidding. A lady friend of mine just recently asked what shampoo I used and couldn't believe it when I told her that I don't use shampoo, just soap. I have been doing this for close to 20 years now.
 
It's why Esquire (or GQ for that matter) will never have an article devoted to the DE revival. Count the number of full page Gillette ads in an issue. P&G, and their ad agency, would bring an absolute ****storm down upon the editors.
 
I would say you are correct in that these are ringers and Esquire a paid shill. However a brush only cream is the point. While most are fadding away here is a new brush only cream that might inspire the younger crowds.
 
I like how Kyoku's website credits their products as being "inspired by Japan." I picture them being just a buch of 35 year old anime lovers that wanted to get into the cosmetics industry which have no real ties to either Japanese culture or wetshaving.
 
I like how Kyoku's website credits their products as being "inspired by Japan." I picture them being just a buch of 35 year old anime lovers that wanted to get into the cosmetics industry which have no real ties to either Japanese culture or wetshaving.

If you want inspired by Japan in your shaving routine, all you need is a bottle of Mandom!
 
I believe it was an article in Esquire that I read >20 years ago that said that the best prep for shaving was old fashioned shaving soap and a brush. It was an article about shaving, had some good pointers in it, but when I read the part about soap and a brush a light bulb went on. Went to the local pharmacy that day, bought a VDH boar brush and soap puck, put the soap in a coffee mug that I used for about 10 years before I broke it, and I never looked back. That was the single most significant improvement in my shaving. For years all you ever found was VDH or Williams (don't start on me now.....) and all you could buy was the 5 dollar plastic handled boar brush, but it served me very well until I stumbled across this wacky wetshaving community.

It was all a while back and my memories of what magazine and exactly when are hazy, but I vividly remember that point in the article and I believe it was Esquire. So I am forever grateful and if now its articles aren't equally as objective and useful it is too bad.
 
I used to subscribe to Esquire in the 1960s, maybe into the early 1970s. It was a great guide for a young man, it covered beer, liquor, manners, dressing for business, women, smoking, college, grooming, how to order wine, how to tip, restaurants, what makes a good shoe, how to get fitted for a suit; and all from a strong masculine voice

I never even pick it up anymore, and will not for sure now; the editorial staff must all be female, their list completely misses the mark for me. Its all too delicate, feminine, metrosexual

I wash my face and shampoo with whatever bath soap I am using, I shave with a brush and the puck of the day, a DE from rotation, splash on Dominica Bay Rum and I am good to go

Don't need their opinion,
ken

Aha! But when you were a youf you hadn't formed the tastes and habits you now have as a man. Such articles are of limited utility to you now. Personally, I too wash my with whatever soap is available and shave with what is to hanc, but the point is we know to do so.

A note to any Youf who might be reading: the washing bit is important, but don't obsess about what with.

[PONTIFICATION]
But this does neatly get to the heart of what I hate about the modern world. Forty years ago you could run a successful magazine based on content. Your readers bought the product because what was between the covers was useful to them. The readers were the audience and the magazine the product. The readers paid your bills.

Now the vast majority of mainstream publishing turns that around. The readers are the product, their attention to be sold to anyone willing to pony up the cash. In publishing cannot risk upsetting the advertisers because that is where the money is. The cover price is just advertising itself in many cases. Honesty and insight is not so much out of fashion as out of business. Editorials used be about something, now they are just a preview of what the rest of the magazine shills for. It's easier and more profitable to reprint press releases than create real content.

The content is strongly metrosexual because that is where the money is. Use the product, wear the clothes, watch the TV show. There is no point in targeting outside your specific demographic and when you pick a demographic, make it a profitable one. Whatever you do, you cannot introduce new ideas. Pick up a different magazine and it may be carefully targeted at a different audience, but the modus operandi is the same.

Thankfully, we have the internet where publishing costs, potential reach and most importantly commercial pressures are more conducive to real journalism.
[/PONTIFICATION]
 
Just because Esquire recommends these products is not the issue or the meaning behind the thread. As board members we are way ahead of the regular public in that aspect of knowing the finer things in grooming.

Point is the brush cream made it to the list. Also the issue of is this advertising, or an honest review of what Esquire puts out to it's readers.
 
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