I’ve always been attracted to packaging. I don’t work in the package design industry – I don’t think I have the brain particles necessary for 3D design. I didn’t take to 3D software very well, unfortunately. It would have been great to get into video game design, which is actually a good segue way into my topic as the video game market appears to be predominantly male.
Lately in the pharmacy I’ve noticed the shelves containing more skin and hair care products designed to attract the male consumer. Darker toned packaging, like the Dove or Vaseline Intensive Care bottles, and the edges aren’t as soft as products are that are geared toward females. Take the body scrubber thing that Axe has created for men to use in the shower, while using the sexy, masculine scented line of body washes, of course. It is not just a soft little ball of mesh attached to a soft colored string. No, the scrubber thing for men is contained. It has two sides, one to clean and one to buff. When I look at it I think, you could wax a car with that. I also think that it would be easier to hold and guide to where you’d want it unlike the unstructured mesh poufs that litter the skincare aisle.
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I have always thought that I have a masculine ‘streak’, I guess you would say. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the typical shoe indulgence (in fact I have overindulged a time or two. or three.) or jewelry (I have cut myself off) but just an edge. I like suits styled like men’s suits, vests, pick-up trucks and have a marginal fascination with guns. So when I see these skin care products aimed at the male consumer dressed in navy blue, black and dark red packaging, I always pause in front of them, longing to dress my shower shelves in more masculine colors. After smelling them, however, I sigh and walk away. I do not care to smell like “Active Sport” which, in reality, probably smells nothing like that sharp, fresh, tingly, smell. Someone active in sports probably smells more like a gym locker. I have yet to find a product in the male body care section that is unscented so, until that future time, I shall leave the ‘Fresh Sport’ scent with its lovely dark packaging for the male consumer and continue to buy pastel colored bottles with soft curves to adorn my shower. I will not, however, use products that are scented like Spring Rain (nope, smells nothing like fresh earth) or Rose (nope, wild roses don’t smell that way either).
