Walking along the slightly wet Guildford canal. The traditional family New Year’s Day walk.

Another year is here and once again thoughts have turned to New Year’s resolutions. I can’t say l follow the crowd when it comes to creating New Year’s resolutions – l find it all a bit bland in a ‘here we go again’ kind of way. Instead – l prefer to follow a single life aim, which is a lot less pushy and time constrained than a New Year’s resolution is.

My life aim is quite a simple one, but it is to be honest, to explore and to achieve in everything l do. A few months ago l blogged about my ‘Running to the beat….’ and this firmly ticked the ‘to explore, to achieve’ boxes. And, I suppose the ‘honest’ box too- in that l didn’t cheat (though tempting as it was at the time!). My attitude towards male grooming products very much matches my life aim too.

When it comes to male grooming, l consider myself an ‘explorer’, who always likes to try new products, brands and techniques. During these last 12 months we’ve had quite a few new brands join Mankind, for example, 6630, Elemental Herbology, Hairbondand with it have come the opportunities to try, try, try. I also expect my male grooming products to be honest about what they’re about and the ingredients that they contain. Finally, rather like ambition- l’m always keen to find products that better the one being used at the moment (…and of course, this doesn’t always happen!).

To take the theme of ‘exploring’ – l’ve recently been giving the new Terrance Conran Bath and Body range a try. I’ve always been a Molton Brown fan (as previously blogged, here), but l’ve recently switched to using the new unisex ‘1’ product in their new range. Rather like the Black Pepper, it has a warming spicey scent about it – but one that isn’t as heavy as that by <a href="Molton Brown. Each number has a different fragrance and ‘2’ comes packed with a clean, watery, lemony, fresh cut flower scent. I have one of each fragrance and l find that they complement each other very nicely. My visitors also seem to like it too, passing comment after they’ve tried it for themselves.

Another brand that l’m currently enjoying is ‘Milk Skincare’. Milk has been personally researched, tested and created by Michael Kilm- who, if you don’t know, is a world record holder swimming and three-time Olympian, with two gold medals. This immediately makes it a very functional product range, which is great if you’re sporty or always generally on the move. But unlike other functional products, this has very natural ingredients, such as brown seaweed and algae extracts- taken from the sea, which your skin will appreciate the benefits of after a good workout. These same ingredients are often used in SPAs because of their body benefits.

Finally, supplements. Just as l like to be careful about what l put on my body, l also like to be careful about what l put in it! After all, it’s a well-known fact that drinking plenty of water, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables can do a great job of promoting healthy skin cells. To help this along, these Anthony Logistics Inside Skin Capsules are packed with eight honest ingredients to really help keep your skin in good health. They’re particularly helpful during those heavy weeks at work, when convenience really is everything.

Of course, there are a lot of other products l could talk about, but maybe you have some that you’d like to share? ‘Add a comment’ below or contribute on our forum…..

Darren | Mankind

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Laura

Laura

Make Up Specialist

Major fan of scented candles, Make Up brushes and Highlighter. I’m always on the hunt for those Holy Grail products and my dressing table is covered in more beauty products than I like to admit. As an adopted Northerner originally from Brighton, I spend most my days wondering what all this rain is about. My hair isn’t grateful for the move. Currently loving: NIOD Photography Fluid