Disclosure: These products were provided by PR for Jon to give his 2p's worth on.
So great was the quality of Jon's last MAN REVIEW that we have asked him for an encore, this time with some FCUK Sport man-products that were sent through for him. (NB there will be yet another MAN REVIEW tomorrow, courtesy of the Twitterific Greg aka The Man Who Fell Asleep.)
Over to Jon...
FCUK Sport Absolute Zero Hair & Bodywash
There's quite a lot of this sort of product around at the moment - playing on the well-known FACTS that all men are lazy and only shower because they're supposed to. Oh, and like SPORT. Fact. No, of course these are simply age-old marketing ploys to make it easier and more acceptable for us dudes to buy soap. It's getting a little old, if you ask me, but I suppose it must still work. Anyway, aside from the fairly predictable branding there's a fair bit to recommend the Absolute Zero Hair & Bodywash.
It smells like… well, shower gel. It's got a reasonably mild, cool, refeshing scent (allegedly birch leaf, pine needle and eucalyptus, blended with musk, amber and cedarwood) - essentially a fairly standard, vaguely masculine one. It does remind me a bit of Mr Matey, actually - which is fitting, as it does lather up quite well and doesn't seem to be too drying. You don't need to use loads to get a lather going, either, as with some other shower gels I've used.
I was in a bit of a hurry one day last week and decided to give this a try on my hair as well to save some time…. it wasn't actually all that bad. I've got a bit more hair that your average BLOKE so wouldn't normally do such a thing, but it didn't seem too dreadful as a shampoo. It left my hair a little dryer and a little less soft than i'm used to, but it wasn't really an issue for me. If you're in a hurry you could do a lot worse - If you're a gym-goer or other sports-doer then this is probably just the ticket.
There's quite a lot of this sort of product around at the moment - playing on the well-known FACTS that all men are lazy and only shower because they're supposed to. Oh, and like SPORT. Fact. No, of course these are simply age-old marketing ploys to make it easier and more acceptable for us dudes to buy soap. It's getting a little old, if you ask me, but I suppose it must still work. Anyway, aside from the fairly predictable branding there's a fair bit to recommend the Absolute Zero Hair & Bodywash.
It smells like… well, shower gel. It's got a reasonably mild, cool, refeshing scent (allegedly birch leaf, pine needle and eucalyptus, blended with musk, amber and cedarwood) - essentially a fairly standard, vaguely masculine one. It does remind me a bit of Mr Matey, actually - which is fitting, as it does lather up quite well and doesn't seem to be too drying. You don't need to use loads to get a lather going, either, as with some other shower gels I've used.
I was in a bit of a hurry one day last week and decided to give this a try on my hair as well to save some time…. it wasn't actually all that bad. I've got a bit more hair that your average BLOKE so wouldn't normally do such a thing, but it didn't seem too dreadful as a shampoo. It left my hair a little dryer and a little less soft than i'm used to, but it wasn't really an issue for me. If you're in a hurry you could do a lot worse - If you're a gym-goer or other sports-doer then this is probably just the ticket.
The packaging is also quite well thought-out for this purpose as well - the top is quite stiff to open, which is a bit of a pain if you've got wet hands, but does mean that it wouldn't easily burst open if you're carrying it around in a bag. There's also an unpainted section to the bottle with a rudimentary scale so you can gauge how much is left. Handy. So despite my earlier whinging about generic branding, it seems like the makers have actually thought this one through, and the stuff is actually lives up to its promises. At £3.49 (and 3 for 2 at Boots at the moment, pop pickers), it's easily as worthy as any other shower gel i've regularly used.
FCUK Sport 100 degrees anti-perspirant deodorant
I've never been a big fan of deodorants that mask any unpleasant natural odours with thick scents that try to block everything else out. The mere thought of such a thing reminds me of school days, of the post-P.E. cocktail of Lynx Africa and adolescent armpit sweat; comparable, I would imagine, to the smell of rotting Haribo, wrapped in a used nappy, fermenting in a sulphur mine. Grim.
I digress. Times, and deodorant technologies have moved on, and new from the FCUK SPORT range is the 100 degrees antiperspirant deodorant spray, which promises to:
"Release more fragrance as you perspire, providing long-lasting 24-hour protection against perspiration and odour when you need it most."
Quite an over-the-top statement, there. And sure enough, this isn't a particularly subtle product.
It has a strong, thick, warm scent that isn't unpleasant by any means, but is one of those smells that I personally would hope would calm down after a while, as it's fairly overpowering in its 'raw' state. I'm the sort of fellow who, upon wishing to smell appealing for whatever reason, would choose to use an eau de toilette or cologne (are they the same thing? pfft) - a deodorant would have to smell pretty damn special to do that job as well.
Unfortunately, the scent doesn't really die down at all. And true to the claim, it does seem to release more fragrance as you sweat, which i'm sure is fine if you are desperate not to smell of sweat at any cost - perhaps if you are, as the brand positioning would sit, a sportsperson who's too busy (lazy?) to shower. To me, though, with my not all-that-active lifestyle, it's just a bit embarrassing, really. Particularly as I sit at a desk most of the day. So it's not my kind of thing - it's just a bit 'thick' for my tastes. If the scent was lighter, a bit fresher even, it might work better, but as it stands, it's just a bit 'much'.
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