Better male skin care – from Down Under

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never really thought of Australia as the land of advanced male skincare. I mean, consider the faces of Paul Hogan, Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe, or the late TV adventurer Steve Irwin. Not exactly smooth roadmaps there.

But a new line of male skincare products being introduced at Rustan’s Essenses is set to change that impression. VitaMan is a skincare and spa treatment system that is making waves, not only Down Under where it was formulated and launched in ’99, but in Paris, London, Tokyo, Thailand, and soon the Philippines.

Here’s the twist: VitaMan "utilizes the ancient wisdom of indigenous people through unique plant extracts" that have worked well for native aborigines for thousands of years.

"I like to say we’ve got the oldest clinical trials in the world – 40,000 years of tribal use," quipped Glenn Kiddell, the co-founder and director of Vita-Man Natural Spa and Grooming Products for Men, as we sat down for lunch at Essenses’ Tea Bar. Kiddell gave us a run-through of the natural ingredients to be found in its extensive line of shaving, face, body & sports and hair-care products – extracts from fruits and herbs studied by researchers for over a decade.

There were bottles full of colored powders on the table, things labeled "Wattleseed," "Lemon Myrtle" and "Quandong Kernel." I was game. What specific benefits did these natural ingredients have that VitaMan just had to use in their products? Kiddell walked us through it:

• Grass Lily: heals skin and facilitates rapid cell multiplication, up to three times as fast.

• Lemon Myrtle: a mix of lemongrass and other plants with high antibacterial properties; also kills fungus.

• Quandong: a native peach fruit high in Vitamin C and a great source of natural protein; its seeds are used in a paste for hair-care products.

• Kakadu Plum: highest natural Vitamin C concentration in the world, it’s used in an antioxidant skin solution.

• Wild Rosella: a hibiscus flower full of fennels, used as an antioxidant to retard skin-aging.

• Mountain Pep-per: used in the Desert Muscle Rub to treat sports injuries, it naturally warms and penetrates the skin and muscles.

• Wattleseed: used in the facial scrub, it’s granular yet doesn’t damage the capillaries.

Along with Clare Matthews, an Australian beauty therapist, hairdresser and makeup artist, and Vic Cherikoff, a research scientist who is the company’s consultant adviser, Kiddell helped develop VitaMan’s exclusive line and propel it to become the second top-selling men’s brand at the elite Galeries Lafayette in Paris, outselling Clarins Men, Nickel and Biotherm Homme on France’s home turf. Talk about a facial!

Kiddell recognizes that, avowed metrosexuals aside, there’s still a certain male reluctance to give in to the "beauty" industry. So instead, he terms it "the wellness industry." He also notes that VitaMan’s sleek, masculine-smelling products are "very solutions-based." (Hey, he does know how to appeal to us guys!) "There’s also a growing acceptance that we can’t just rely on dad’s old routine of soap and warm water, and splashing on a little Brut" to protect our skin for a lifetime, he adds.

VitaMan was also voted the No. 1 Skin Care Brand at the 2005 Beauty Challenger Awards in Paris. And the respected Internationale Cosmetique News (the skincare "industry bible") voted VitaMan one of the top six niche brands to watch in Feb. 2005.

So, other than impressing a lot of French people, what can VitaMan do for you?

Well, it claims to be the first company to introduce both a full Spa Treatment Range (including "Executive De-Stress" back massage, facials, foot and hand treatment) and a retail grooming range specifically made for the male market. (That spa treatment will have to wait a few months while VitaMan trains the Rustan’s massage therapists.)

This ties in to a growing realization that not only working hard, but playing hard, can be rough on guys’ skin and bodies. Sports injuries are a fact of life, but an hour on the treatment table might be an ideal way to deal with that tennis elbow or that pulled muscle from a bad golfer’s swing. VitaMan products are specially designed to work out sports injuries, says Kiddell, a sports physical therapist himself.

And the men’s care market shows no signs of slowing down, growing at a staggering rate of 46 percent a year. Clearly, many among our gender are out there getting a lot of facials.

In fact, a lot of celebrities find VitaMan’s services to be just the ticket. Kiddell told us the company supplied "goodie bags" for last year’s Oscar participants, as well as giving out premium VitaMan products to Down Under dudes Mel Gibson, Geoffrey Rush, Heath Ledger and others during Hollywood’s celebration of "Aussie Week."

In Dubai, during the Dubai Golf Classic, VitaMan offered its services at the premium 1847 Spa to pro golfers Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods. Faldo later said it was "the best Sunday afternoon he’d spent in his life." Other celebrity raves have come from Aussie actor Hugh Jackman and spiritual guru Deepak Chopra. And while VitaMan and Kiddell don’t like to crow too much about the celebrity attention – it definitely doesn’t hurt.

And to think a lot of the magic comes from an indigenous people who found out – all on their own, without marketing, lab trials or celebrity endorsements – that this natural stuff could protect their skin in the often-harsh Australian outback. I couldn’t help asking: Were the aborigines who pioneered the natural ingredients included in the VitaMan success story? Or were they left out of the loop? Kiddell pointed out that VitaMan researchers worked for over a decade, studying the use of these rare fruits and herbs among aboriginal tribes. The tribes have set up their own co-op system, selling the natural ingredients on to suppliers, who then sell it on to cosmetic companies like VitaMan. They see a share of the profit by selling raw materials. At least, he pointed out, the miracle plants don’t sit around and rot, benefiting no one.

Eager to test the products, I was able to take home a bottle of VitaMan Face Scrub, with a strong but pleasant smell of lemon myrtle, powdered walnut shells and aloe vera. That, and the combination Shave Crème (with grass lily) and Shave Gel (with tea tree oil and eucalyptus) did, in fact, provide a rather enjoyable experience before the bathroom mirror. The shave crème really is a cream, for example – not a gel or a foamy lather with skin-drying alcohol. And the aftershave gel is refreshing without being cloying or artificial-smelling. And this just touches the surface of VitaMan’s extensive line, which includes Wrinkle Serum, Skin Protector, Exfoliating Soap, Scalp Treatment, Paw Paw Skin Repair Crème and Hair Food (containing the aforementioned quandong), among many others. All soon to be available at Rustan’s Essenses in Makati and Rustan’s Tower in Shangri-La Plaza Mall.

VitaMan’s products are designed exclusively for men – though don’t be surprised if the lady in your life starts asking to borrow it for herself. It kind of makes you glad to be a man.