A peek inside any heterosexual couple’s bathroom cabinet will typically reveal the fact that skincare is either for men or it’s for women, not both and certainly not for anyone who finds themselves between these two binaries.
The skincare industry, being the multi-billion-dollar business that it is, is full of advice. If you have skin, you’ll have been fed a whole lot of information and opinions from the get-go and much of it reveals just how misguided the power behind the machine can be.
The truth in fact is far simpler: skin is skin. That’s all. It doesn’t have a gender, nor an ethnicity, it seeks solutions specific to that person’s skin condition. Effectively this means that the lilac-hued tube of moisturiser with a subtle floral scent and the down-to-business black tube with the lemony fresh scent are mere marketing tools.
Recently, the world has heeded a new consciousness around genderless skincare and the brands leading by example have stripped away any notion of products being geared toward men or women specifically, aiming rather to treat drier skins, oilier skins, pigmented skins, congested skins and so on. This is a new crop of skincare that caters to the full gender spectrum; a bit like epicene fragrances, these cleansers, moisturisers and serums don’t discriminate.
There’s also been a levelling out of interest in skincare between the genders, doing away with the notion that it’s women who have majority of the market. In addition to seeing a steep increase in overall sales year on year, Biomedical Emporium’s male customer base has risen by 34% since 2015, proving that investing in skin health is for everyone.
“The way you age is exactly the same. Your collagen and elastin fibres are going destruct as you get older; the contours of your skin will decrease and whether you’re a Fitzpatrick 1 or 6 (scale of skins complexion and response to the sun) anti-ageing ingredients are the same,” notes Dr Judey Pretorius, a leading biomedical scientist and founder of Biomedical Emporium. For her, it comes down to the quality of skincare products, how they’re formulated and the expertise of those creating them, rather than targeting an exclusively male or female audience.
As the name suggests, Biomedical Emporium champions science with evidence based, dermatological formulations at the heart of every product. To stand up to scientific scrutiny, her practice includes laboratory-controlled formulations, highly qualified practitioners, stable machinery, strictly pure raw materials and all within a pharmaceutical facility. In addition, Dr Judey has created the first tertiary-tissue protective peptide technology, a protein in all her products that encourages faster cell-division, because despite what you’ve heard, optimal skincare is deeper than skin-deep, it happens at a cellular and molecular level.
“If you take out your ID card, 80% of what you see is skin. You’re identified by it, it’s your largest and most public organ as well as your most dynamic, it’s directly linked to your self-esteem. So, how you take care of your skin is crucial,” she says. This, from a doctor who teaches skin histology, biochemistry, cosmetic chemistry, tissue engineering and medical aesthetics.
Ultimately, this is where premium skincare is at, it’s cosmeceutical, science-backed and solutions-driven, rather than demographically based and surface level. Protecting the uniqueness of human skin is the new gold standard.