February 10, 2010
Posted by copley
Ever had a million dollar idea? A few years ago, my boyfriend was convinced he had struck imaginary gold with the idea of marrying a deodorant and hair removal product. “Think about it, you already rub something under your arms every morning; well this would eliminate the need for an extra step of shaving or waxing,” he explained to me, and anyone else who would listen. I countered with the fact that you would need a pretty potent chemical to burn off underarm stubble. Would you really want that sitting on your skin all day? Nevertheless, my words of warning could not deter him. But before he had time to source a mad scientist or file a patent, Unilever announced the launch of a revolutionary hair-minimizing deodorant. Read more...
January 29, 2010
Posted by marta
I came across a range of haircare products called Amazon Beauty and was impressed by the short ingredients list and the absence of any silicones, fillers, sulfates or preservatives that can clog up many a shampoo. In fact, I was about to hit the buy button for Ruhua Shampoo ($32) featuring ruhua nut extract and then I stopped in my tracks. Ruhua nut oil is listed in the ingredients, but the word ‘ruhua’ has been registered. That’s like trademarking ‘peanut’. A smelled a rat.
Amazon Beauty’s products come with an origination myth that is remarkably similar to that of Ojon, another haircare line. Like Ojon, Amazon Beauty has scoured the rainforests to find a remote tribe – in Amazon’s Beauty’s case, the Quechua Shuar tribe who use a special oil that is responsible for their thick and lustrous hair (Ojon’s tribe is the Tawaka – roughly translated as people with beautiful hair). Naturally rahua nut oil is extremely rare. So rare, that it exists only in the imagination of Amazon Beauty’s Equadorian born founder, Fabian Llguin. There is no such thing as a rahua nut – and I spent ages trying to track one down. Read more...
September 30, 2009
Posted by marta
Here in the Dept of Daft we were beginning to think that the haircare industry was taking itself too seriously when relief came with the newly launched Blago Volumizing Shampoo and Conditioner. Forget OOKISA, don’t waste your money on Kronos Phyx, if you want really BIG hair look no further than Blago, inspired by and, indeed, named after our favorite disgraced, but well-thatched politician, Rod Blagojevich.
“It came to me in a dream”, said Dennis Fath, owner of Delta Laboratories. Sounds more like a nightmare to me. Still, you have like the fact that Mr Fath cheekily added to his new shampoo the epithet “Its Bleep’n Golden”. Don’t assume that Blago shampoo is a cheap gimmick. A roll-call of superior haircare ingredients keep it honest: silk protein, keratein, panthenol (ProVitamin B-5) , vitamin E, green tea, rosemary, comfrey and orchid. Read more...
August 12, 2009
Posted by copley
The news that Billy Mays had cocaine in his system at the time of his rather untimely death might explain his signature manic delivery. (And all that time, you thought it was the cleaning fumes!) When looking back at all the infomercials that made him a household name, Mays never got to grace the realm of grooming…which is unfortunate, since what a superb shaving specimen he would have made! His affinity for playing Mr. Fix-it never translated to the crowded beauty category in TV land.
As a rule of thumb, flashy commercials for cosmetics tend to come from multi-brand conglomerates with hefty advertising budgets and mass-market products. But the long-format cosmetic infomercial is a separate breed. It tugs on your heart strings with depictions of real people turning their lives around or amazes you with staggering beauty feats. Though sometimes staged by these same companies (Guthy-Renker being a regular), infomercials and direct response TV ads tend to be associated with oddball novelties, longstanding fixtures, and celebrity-endorsed newcomers. Read more...
