CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN
The extraordinary mens blog for the modern man
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Movember Guide: How To Trim Your Stache

It’s that time again when those who have been blessed with the ability to grow a full ‘tache – do, in support of Movember. Keep your moustache in check for the month-long fundraiser, started by the Movember Foundation, with these handy tips below from us and British grooming brand, Bluebeard.

Removing Excess Hair

Chances are, people that are close to you might not take too kindly to you looking like you’ve been lost in the forest for months, so a bit of mane maintenance is in order if you’re to keep everyone on side. Movember is the time to wave goodbye to the beard, as when sporting a quirky piece of facial fuzz, you’re going to want it to stand out.

Before you do anything else, trim any unwanted hair down to a manageable length in order to avoid clogging your razor blade to the point of no return. Removing the bulk of it beforehand will make for an easier and smoother shave, which is exactly what you want when you need your moustache to do the talking.

Prior to going in with the razor, slather on a generous layer of The Bluebeards Revenge Pre Shave Oil and leave to soak for ten minutes or so. This will soften the hairs up and prepare them for your shave, as well as enhancing razor glide and preventing nasty nicks and cuts.

Whip The Bluebeards Revenge Shaving Cream into a lather and apply with a brush, coating and lifting each individual hair, before going in with your chosen razor. Follow up with a good post-shave balm to calm, soothe and moisturise the skin.

Trimming your moustache

In order to ensure that your moustache looks its best, you’ll want to give it a good trim, but first, you’ll need to decide on what sort of look you’re going for, as this will have a bearing on how short you want to go. Once your decision is made, dampen your moustache with a small amount of water and distribute evenly by running a moustache comb through the length, then hold a pair of scissors parallel to the ends of the hair. Trim all the way across, leaving a little extra length than desired – hairs will often appear shorter once dried, and you won’t want to ruin your look by getting too scissor happy.

Once you’re satisfied with the length, shape the top and sides of your moustache as desired with a razor – this stylish replaceable blade straight razor, is a good option, as it allows for a greater level of accuracy and is easier to manoeuvre when there’s limited space to work with.

The finishing touches

For styling your moustache, it’s advisable to invest in a good quality styling wax. Warm a small amount between your fingertips and shape according to your chosen style. Twisting the ends and smoothing outwards and upwards will result in the sickest of styles!

Now that you’ve got the moustache of your dreams, it’s all down to the maintenance, but the odd trim every week or so should see you through. Time to get out and about and make some money from your mo’ – remember, it’s for a truly manly cause.

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The Bluebeards Revenge is a British range of barbershop-quality shaving, hair styling, beard grooming, and men’s skincare products. More information on the brand can be found at www.bluebeards-revenge.co.uk.

 

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Summer in a bottle – Acqua di Parma Colonia Pura

I wouldn’t say Summer 2017 has exactly been a washout, just it certainly wasn’t a vintage Summer nor will it go down in the record books in any way as a corker. So if you want to prolong, or in some cases start, your Summer, I have the perfect Elixir for you, well fragrance. Genuinely, if you want the scent of the most perfect Summer’s day captured and bottled as a fragrance Acqua di Parma‘s new Colonia Pura is just for you, yes you.

Created as a modern interpretation of their classic, signature scent – the Colonia Pura expresses both the refined heritage of the brand and a fresh modern masculinity. Colonia Pura can claim a proud tradition of refinement and style. Just like the original Colonia of Acqua di Parma, the new Colonia Pura really does manage to captures the joy, cultivation and warmth of the unique Italian way of life. It is an exclusive, masculine scent made for men, with contemporary sophistication and elegance. Created with a youthful edge and a lighter approach to freshness, Colonia Pura is the perfect fragrance for a new generation to discover and delve into the luxury world of Acqua di Parma. With this new approach Colonia Pura is based on the wonders and richness of nature. Sky, sun and picturesque Italian landscapes are a core part of its heritage and source of strength. This is why Colonia Pura was created and packaged with sustainability in mind.

The scent of the new Colonia is warm and sunny with bright citrus hues, inviting natural surroundings and intriguing urban settings. Just like its name, Colonia Pura has a minimalistic aesthetic that focuses on the purity of joy and its modern interpretation.

Crisp and sunny bergamot, combined with juicy orange notes and delicate petit grain accents, brings new light and air into the classical citrus structure of Colonia. Next comes a seducing and alluring vital energy at the heart. The oral lusciousness of narcissus and jasmine absolutes blends with the spicy notes of coriander in an unexpected balance. The warm and sophisticated accents of patchouli and cedar wood encounter at the base the delicate, yet persistent white musk notes. The result is a luminous dynamism that celebrates life, inspires and opens up new vistas of expression.

This new way of thinking is continued as part of the accompanying Ad campaign where the brand has employed the skills, as an ambassador to head up the campaign in the form of British male Supermodel Will Chalker and in unison with the characteristics of this new fragrance he is joined in the campaign alongside his wife Chloe Chalker and their son Arthur Chalker.

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Obsessed with Obsession – Obsessed by Calvin Klein

Obsessed Calvin Klein PerfumeObsession by Calvin Klein was and still is iconic in every way, shape and form. It was a fragrance that completely summed up a period of time. In 1993, a certain Kate Moss, who was THE Supermodel at that time, became the fragrance’s face. She was 18 years old when her then boyfriend, MARIO SORRENTI, aged 20, shot her for the campaign.

Kate Moss Calvin Klein

Sorrenti already displayed prodigious talent as a photographer, while Moss was fast becoming not just a model, but a star. CALVIN KLEIN himself, having been shown some of Sorrenti’s informal holiday photography of Moss by the uber-art director Fabien Baron, sent the couple away alone, to the Virgin Islands.
They were asked to replicate the intimacy and informality of the earlier photography for OBSESSION; there was no photographic team, no hair and make-up crew and no art directors present.
The ground-breaking and provocative imagery that ensued reflected the couple’s real love story; besides portraying a mutual flourishing of first love, the images also reveal an obsession with both a subject and a medium by the photographer.

Kate Moss Calvin KleinAs the legendary campaign approaches its 25th anniversary, the House of Calvin Klein finds itself with a new, Chief Creative Officer, in the shape of Belgian design phenomena, RAF SIMONS.

Who believes now is the right time for the re-invention of an iconic fragrance. OBSESSED plays on the evocation of memory through scent. Mixing memory and desire, masculine and feminine, the past and the present, these compelling fragrances echo the original OBSESSION, yet blur and reformulate scents for both men and women today.

As Simons states, “I suppose you could say we were obsessed by OBSESSION. If one thing summed up CALVIN KLEIN for us visually, it was Mario Sorrenti’s OBSESSION campaign with Kate Moss. It lived in our heads for so many years and became a touchstone of sensuality when we arrived at CALVIN KLEIN. We thought about a scent that could reflect such an idea of memory and desire for today. Of male and female, of the memory of somebody else on your skin.”

Kate Moss Calvin KleinAs part of the campaign to promote this fragrance OBSESSED utilises never before seen imagery from that time and personal biography to further explore and evoke the idea of memory, past love and present iconography.  As the first fragrance formulated and promoted under RAF SIMONS as Chief Creative Officer of CALVIN KLEIN, OBSESSED can be seen as a celebration of CALVIN KLEIN fragrances past, present and future. OBSESSED is about how memory, the sensual and the visual intertwine today.

OBSESSED FOR MEN is an Oriental Woody Amber fragrance with top notes of Oro Blanco Grapefruit Sichuan Pepper Black Cardamom. Leading into Cedar Leaves Labdanum Firnat Blonde Leather and finally dry Patchouli Cœur Black Vanilla Infusion Ambrox Super. A compelling heart of Black Vanilla is sophisticatedly structured with dark, dimensional woods, providing the tension between a feminine melodiousness and masculine strength. Ambrox elegantly cuts through all, lending a sleek and contemporaneous edge.

Obsessed Calvin Klein Perfume

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Magic Memorable Moments with Azzaro Chrome Plus

With Father’s Day a little over a week away, we thought the launch of the French Fragrance house, Azzaro‘s new men’s scent was timely but more so is its backstory for the inspiration behind the fragrance. Founder of the brand, the late, Loris Azzaro shared two great loves, the first his close relationship with his grandson Romain and his attachment to the Mediterranean Sea were the sources of inspiration. With Chrome Pure the driving force behind it, is to reconnect with these two major inspirations: the undeniable bond between a father and his son, and the sense of escapism conveyed by Chrome’s symbolic freshness.

This was the brief set for the creators of this new scent, perfumers Jacques Huclier and Olivier Pescheux, who have been responsible for such iconic aromas as Davidoff Horizon and Thierry Mugler A*Men. In the tradition of Chrome, Chrome Pure focuses on special bonds such as that between a father and his son witnessed during spontaneous moments, instances when time seems to stand still, magical everyday interludes that stay with you for the rest of your life.

Messers Huclier and Pescheux have done a sterling job in recreating the scent of Fresh long Summer days and the memories created during this time. A citrus-oriental-woody fragrance, Chrome Pure revisits Chrome’s emblematic freshness, creating a more textured and vibrant feel, with the addition of two new ingredients: The spicy-woody accents akigala wood and tonka bean join the white musks and mate leaves of the original version. Chrome Pure is a crisp fragrance, synonymous with purity, combined with a real feeling of vibrant freshness and strength, structured around sun-kissed moments.

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The Cornerstone of your Grooming Routine – Cornerstone grooming range

imageYou know that feeling, why didn’t I think of that ?  Well with Cornerstone this is a perfect case in hand. The concept of it is simple yet brilliant. Basically, entrepreneur Oliver Bridge launched Cornerstone in June this year, having raised £175,000 from a group of angel investors and teamed up with leading packaging designers, dermatologists and web developers to bring the idea to life. Cornerstone was born out of Oliver’s personal frustrations with the discomfort and expensive nature of wet shaving – he felt that combining quality products with modern technology would be a powerful way to disrupt the men’s shaving market.

The range offers a flexible, regular delivery of its razors and shaving products right to your home. It’s a simple, more convenient way for men to shave. The journey begins at cornerstone.co.uk where customers are asked two questions:

(i) How often do you shave?

(ii) Which products from the Cornerstone range would you like in your box?

imageCornerstone uses these answers to suggest a regular delivery schedule tailored to the customer’s personal shaving routine. Before each scheduled delivery, the customer receives an email to alert them of their upcoming delivery, giving them the chance to change their product selection or the delivery schedule of their Cornerstone box, as well as allowing them to cancel or pause their plan at any time if they’re not ready for their next set of products. This way, customers avoid build-ups of the products that they use less often, and are never committed – they can cancel or change their plan whenever they need to – giving control and flexibility.

The range consists of Pre-Shave Face Scrub – blended with volcanic sand and cedarwood to help release ingrowing hairs, reduce shaving spots, unblock pores and lift dead skin cells. Shave Gel – blended with ginger and eucalyptus, protecting and rehydrating skin to help reduce shaving irritation. Razor Blades + Aluminium Razor Handle – sharp, durable razors mounted on a lightweight alloy aluminium razor handle. Each razor has five blades, an aloe vera moisturising strip and a flexbile head for precision and control. Post-Shave Balm – blended with mint and honey to cool, refresh and moisturise skin after shaving. The Cornerstone range was developed in partnership with expert dermatologists and manufactured in the UK. The razor handle was designed in London and produced in the UK, and the razor blades are manufactured in Germany.

imageOne of the great attentions to detail I love about this range is if you refer a friend to Cornerstone they’ll send you a razor handle personalised with your initials as a thank you !!!

Talking of which Cornerstone have are offering an engraved shave set to one of our amazing readers and each entrant a runner-up prize of a £10 Cornerstone gift coupon (once the winner has been announced!). Is this something you’d be up for? I bloody well think so !!!! All you have to do is sign up to our Instagram account @ClothesMakeMan between now and midnight (GMT) on Sunday 27th July. Its that simple !