What Happens at Lumberjack Spa Day?

December 5, 2013 2:51 PM

Due to penury/everyone already having everything they could want in life, I was going to go with homemade beauty products this year for the family gift exchange, Ladies will be receiving bath bombs, in various scents and colors. The men I'm related too wouldn't know what to do with a bath bomb if it...well, fizzed at them. What manly products - salves, oils, creams - could I easily make at home? Or what kinds of unisex self care will male-type folks happily use?

I've thought about homemade shaving lather, but a few of these guys have full beards and probably won't use it (also, buying shaving brushes does away with the cheapness factor). Will be using coconut oil and essential oils (rose, rosemary, citrus) for the bath bombs, so anything using those would be a plus. Also, I have tons of fresh rosemary at my disposal.

Any packaging/presentation thoughts are also appreciated; anything to belay a bit of that "Oh, I wonder what thiiiisss is" that tends to arise when everyone is obviously getting the same thing.

posted by theweasel to Grab Bag (19 answers total)

Male-type folks of my acquaintance have really liked rosemary shampoo; I would expect rosemary soap would be similarly appreciated.
posted by jaguar at 2:56 PM on December 5, 2013

As it is wintertime, anyone who works or plays outside is going to have chapped skin; for men, I do not recommend lotion as such, but consider whether you can make something like this Burt's Bees Hand Salve, which has the texture of soft beeswax (I suspect due to the addition of some oil or other) and a woodsy, citrusy scent. (A few drops of citrus and rosemary essential oils would probably do the trick.) I have no idea how this stuff is made, but it's what immediately springs to mind as something manly and in the vein of what you're looking for.

ETA: Oh, I happen to have a tin of the stuff right here. Memail me if you'd like the ingredients list.
posted by gauche at 2:57 PM on December 5, 2013 [3 favorites]

For the bearded dudes, beard conditioner might be an unexpected and novel treat (rosemary and citrus are very popular oils for beard conditioners).
posted by muddgirl at 2:58 PM on December 5, 2013

My brother is a sucker for any of those man-scented multi-use products. Oh, you mean it's a shampoo and a body wash? AMAZING. I can shave with it and it's a face wash? AMAZING. He also loves anything that has "energizing beads" or whatever stupid marketing gimmick they're doing lately. (My brother is definitely a guy's guy, and he is a consumer whore.)

I also notice that pretty universally among the guys that I know that they all desperately, desperately need NEED need hand lotion, but very few of them actually own or know how to use lotion. There's this idea that lotion is a feminine concern, but it's like bro your knuckles are cracking and bleeding wtf is wrong with you here have some aveeno. If you can find a way to masculinize some hand lotion (maybe don't call it moisturizer or lotion, but like fist salve or something idk), and make it not smell too overly like a smell, I think that would go over tremendously well.
posted by phunniemee at 2:59 PM on December 5, 2013 [13 favorites]

Best answer: You can make Bay Rum aftershave without too much trouble, and in enough quantity to take care of multiple gifts at once. The hardest ingredient to find would be the West Indian Bay Leaves, but they can be found online. (I haven't made any yet myself because I'm holding out until I can get my hands on some Everclear 180, which I have read works better than lower-proof spirits for making fragrances. Only problem is I can't get it in my state.)

There's also DIY Moustache Wax, if applicable.
posted by usonian at 3:11 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

How about a sea salt scrub? Just sea salt, a light oil like almond or grapeseed and 5-10 drops of essential oils for scented, if you want. Mix until the consistency is moist but not runny. Put it in a manly, water-proof container and they will love it--I don't like glass containers for something that goes in the shower and that he'll be handling with oily hands. If you have a sensitive-skinned man in your life, use sugar instead of salt and no scent.
posted by agatha_magatha at 3:29 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

Can you make a mechanic's-style soap that does some exfoliation and gets crud off? Basically homemade Lava soap would be sufficiently manly to pass lumberjack muster.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 3:55 PM on December 5, 2013

Best answer: I came across this recipe for a manly lotion today:

1/3 cup coconut oil
2Tbsp beeswax
5 drops essential oil (maybe orange, sandalwood, coriander, clove, cedar, or other "manly" scent)

Melt ingredients in a double boiler, pour into a bowl, mix with electric beater as it cools, scoop into container.

I haven't tried it yet, but I think maybe I will.
posted by instamatic at 4:28 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

My (manly but metro) dude likes fancy soap, as well as hand-lotion that is not heavily scented but has a good emollient but non-greasy texture. He has never expressed interest in scrubs or beard oils.
posted by matildaben at 4:32 PM on December 5, 2013

Soaps would be good; so would a lip balm. And actually, a shaving soap sounds good too; just skip the brushes. If you make the guys a hand lotion, consider calling it something like 'skin salve' instead --- it sounds more manly, if you see what I mean, for the same product.
posted by easily confused at 5:01 PM on December 5, 2013

One of the plays I worked on required all the guys to grow beards (it was a period piece), and so for their opening night gifts I made them all shaving soap in mugs with some shaving brushes. One actor told me it was hands-down the best opening night gift he'd ever gotten in his life. If you don't want to mess around with lye, try using a glycerin soap base from a craft store (that's what I did), but pouring it into the bottom of a mug like in the first link is a nice touch (and also easier on you because you won't have to unmold it).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:31 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

My dad actually requests handmade soap each Christmas, but he likes the soap with scrubby things in it: coffee, or grains.
posted by DarlingBri at 6:03 PM on December 5, 2013

lip balm is unisex and very much needed in winter months
posted by Jacqueline at 7:14 PM on December 5, 2013

Yep, shave soap (which I understand can be hard to make) or -- even better -- aftershave balm. Yes to the waxy stuff to rub into our manly, bramble-torn mitts. Or witch hazel with something nice added to it, in a nice bottle bearing of picture of, say, Teddy Roosevelt.

Peppermint is also a good scent. Get some bars of Dr. Bronner's Crazy Soap and wrap it up along with your homemade scent/lotion/whatever, and print out a few pages from http://www.artofmanliness.com.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:23 PM on December 5, 2013

Also, back in the day, lavender was once considered a manly scent, and I admit to loving it. You never know who might enjoy it. But rosemary is also awesome.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:24 PM on December 5, 2013

Love lavender, rosemary, and RAW PINE TAR (whatever that super legit magical wintery someone's-having-a-wood-fire scent is that comes in natural men's products). Seriously though. Pine.

My boyfriend works outside and his hands are always cracked and painful so I second some kind of really heavy-duty waxy hand salve. Someone may have to force him to use it though, so make the decision with care. Shaving soap is a great idea as well.
posted by stoneandstar at 8:32 PM on December 5, 2013

Response by poster: I probably won't end up doing beard oil, but damn, how manly is THAT? That's, like, Xerxes manly. Like Odysseus and Ajax sitting around the campfire telling each other about their scars manly.

Thanks all for the good advice, looks like no matter what I choose I need to get me some beeswax!
posted by theweasel at 9:08 PM on December 5, 2013 [5 favorites]

Best answer: RE: Packaging/presentation, you can get reproductions of old Sears catalogs (and I'm sure a Google image search for "victorian gentleman clipart" would turn up some as well) that are a treasure trove of old-fashioned manly spot illustrations, like this one. With a little bit of cutting and pasting, a Victorian-looking font, and some Full-sheet labels you could probably come up with some fun 'theweasel's celebrated [grooming product]' labels.
posted by usonian at 6:21 AM on December 6, 2013

You got a recipe for Bay Rum cologne upthread already, but have another one (that one approved by the Art Of Manliness site). You gotta do Bay Rum - it's like, the Old Spice of the 1800's.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:47 AM on December 6, 2013