Hope all you SCforM readers had a good holiday season! Let’s kick the year off with a review of a great men’s product line…

I was contacted by Menscience a few months ago who offered me a few samples to test and review for SCforM and here are my thoughts!

Firstly, I love the no-frills approach to skincare they have. The website is clean and professional, they provide a full ingredients list for each product as well as a short gloss on the key ingredients of each product so you know exactly what you’re putting on your face and what it’s doing. I definately recommend checking that out whether or not you order from them.

The website is definately worth a look…

Menscience has a reputation for being a very well fomulated, higher-end line of male grooming products and i’d say that rings true for the most part (see below). The packaging is simple, sleek and unassuming and the products are mid-to-high priced. They also offer grooming products such as shave kits, hair wax and even vitamin supplements making this one of the few fully comprehensive skincare lines aimed solely at men.

On to the reviews!

Facial Cleansing Mask
Loved this face mask and it’s one of the things i’ll be repurchasing. It contains both kaolin and bentonite to deep cleanse pores and calm down irritation and breakouts. This really sucked all the oil out from my pores leaving my skin looking calm and matte for the next few days. Unlike most face masks this also contains hyaluronic acid which helps the skin to retain moisture, making this great for people who find their faces to be – while clear – incredibly dry after using a clay mask.

Advanced Face Lotion

Again this face lotion is a great, it contains aloe, salicylic acid and allantoin to sooth the face as well as diminish breakouts. The glycolic, malic and lactid acid add mild exfoliation in order to smooth out your skin and make it look more youthful. To top it off there’s a generous amount of antioxidants in this to fight free radicals and brighten up the skin. This goes on completely matte and can sting slightly when used after a shave due to the glycolic acid. Having said that, this is one of the best post-shave moisturisers out there. The ingredients really help to ultimately calm the skin and prevent ingrowns. The only drawback to this is that it doesn’t contain SPF so I use it at night or under a sunscreen during the day. If this contained SPF whilst retaining the matte finish it would be a winner.

Microfine Face Scrub

Another one that i’ll be repurchasing! I love my facial scrubs to be fine and very gritty which is exactly what this one is. When applied you can really feel it scrubbing your skin clean but at the same time it’s gentle enough not to irritate. The addition of glycolic and salicylic acid takes it a step above other face scrubs by offering additional skin benefits. This one is perfect as a pre-shave scrub, what I like to do is scrub my face in the shower with it and leave it on for 2 or 3 minutes to allow the acids to work their magic on my skin. Then I rinse and shave, a close smooth shave every time and my skin looks progressively better every morning!

Anti Aging Formula

This one is decent but not worth the price. It contains a fair amount of antioxidants and peptides but a pretty low concentration of retinol. For the price you could definately find better products like Olay Regenerist for peptides and antioxidants and Skinceuticals Retinol products. Other than that the finish is nice and non-greasy, just remember to use this at night or under a sunscreen during the day.

Acne Spot Repair

I usually dislike products with benzoyl peroxide but I must admit this is a fantastic on-the-spot treatment. I can apply this to a zit and be sure that the 10% peroxide treatment will have dealt with it by the morning without making the surrounding skin dry. Pretty basic but a solid product nonetheless.

Advanced Acne Pads

Okay so it’s getting slightly repetitive now but yet again this is a really well formulated product from Menscience. 2% salicylic acid, glycolic acid and green tea make this a potent anti acne/blackhead/ingrowns-solution. Its quite strong so you may want to avoid this if you have sensitive skin. If you don’t, this is a great acne and post shave treatment. You simply swipe a pre-soaked pad all over your face twice a day to give your face a highly effective anti-acne and ageing treatment. I’d call these a souped-up version of the Clearasil/Stridex pads I often mention.

TiO2 Sunblock SPF 30

This one was a disappointment. Like all Menscience products it has a nice non-greasy, matte finish and is packed full of beneficial ingredients (this time antioxidants), making it a really nice sunscreen to use. However, looking at the active ingredients, despite the SPF 30 this sunscreen has hardly any UVA protection at all making it pretty useless if you’re looking to prevent sun damage and premature ageing.

All in all, Menscience is a well formulated skincare line with some really fantastic products on offer. However, as with all product lines, there are some misses amongst its many hits so try and get a hold of some samples before you buy. I’ll be placing my own order with Menscience as soon as I finish up with my samples, thinking of trying out their hair wax and a few other things so look out for that review! If I had to recommend specific products I’d definately advise you to try the Face Lotion, Face Mask and Microfine Face Scrub. Thumbs up from me.

Wondering where to buy? Just click here.

These products were sent to me by a PR agency to review but I have not been paid a single penny for my opinion. All reviews are my own, you can trust that i’ll tell you what I like and what I hate.