Chances are that if you’re reading this, you already pay a fair amount of attention to your grooming, and rightly so. Nonetheless, far too many men fall into the trap of either buying bargain-basement grooming products or paying exorbitant amounts for designer skincare from a flashy department store.
Thankfully, as with alcohol, clothing, and just about everything else worth having, a host of passionate artisans from here in Australia have started to change the game, producing top-of-the-line grooming products accessible to all men down under.
Natio Men Plus
It’s no longer good enough for Australian blokes to have that one soap bar for everything. You know the one: it sits in a little basket in our shower, a permanent soggy bottom. And we wonder why we have bad skin. For more than 30 years, Natio men plus has provided its Australian community with premium quality natural skincare solutions that are affordable and produce noticeable results.
Australia’s men can now maintain healthy, youthful skin with effective, natural solutions tailored to their needs and best-selling products like Natio men plus Age Defence Moisturiser and BHA Tight & Tone Exfoliant.
Jackson Miles
Built on “built on the principals of minimalism, timeless design and exceptional quality”, the Aussie-made Jackson Miles boasts a full suite of grooming products that are free from Parabens but still do a proper job of helping you revive your long-neglected looks. Given that sustainability is the watchword of the day, you’ll also be happy but unsurprised to hear that they use recycled plastics wherever they can and all their printed packaging is biodegradable.
Their ‘Face Kit‘ is a perfect starter pack for blokes looking to kickstart a skincare routine, while their full-flight ‘Complete Collection‘ offers everything you need to level up your dermis at a very competitive price point.
Brutal Truth
Brutal Truth is an Australian skincare brand using only natural, native ingredients throughout its entire range and yet, doesn’t come with the high price tag of other premium brands. Not only is it, therefore, one of the most accessible and effective skincare brands available to Australian men, but Brutal Truth also supports the men’s health charity, Movember, to help fund important projects and initiatives in Australia.
Offering a comprehensive collection of skincare products, including anti-perspirants, body washes, moisturisers and shaving gels, to name a few, Brutal Truth is a grooming brand all men can – and should – get behind.
PATRICKS
Slicker than any average hair product you’ll ever find on a supermarket shelf, PATRICKS has ascended the world of men’s luxury grooming with its own distinct flavour of flair and masculinity. The man behind the name is Bondi local and entrepreneur, Patrick Kidd. After owning his own barber and witnessing men having to continually use mediocre products, Kidd decided to embark on his own quest to create male grooming perfection.
The PATRICKS line of hair styling products was eventually born with a serious dedication to delivering impeccable hair aesthetics and vitality via a fastidious secret formulation. Besides hair styling products, PATRICKS also does shampoo and conditioner with reputed international stockists ranging from MR PORTER to Barneys NY. Talk about impressive Australian grooming brands…
Tomorrow Skincare
Tomorrow Skincare is a relatively new Australian grooming brand, having only been founded in 2021. Whereas other grooming brands offer a variety of skincare products that you can pick and choose to use individually, Tomorrow Skincare has developed what it calls a “health system,” that is designed to “remove the Monty from daily hygiene routines.” In this regard, Tomorrow Skincare offers a four-step grooming routine, with each of the four products in the range numbered in the order it should be used. These include a foam cleanser, a liquid toner, a structure serum and a final gel moisturiser.
The brand says it merges “active ingredients, luxury and utility,” and packages it into a routine that is simple and affordable (at $115 for the entire range, we’d have to agree). Having invested in thorough skin research, Tomorrow Skincare only uses “active ingredients that actually work,” which includes its very own Vegan Collagen (the entire range is vegan) along with Vitamin C and Niacinamide, which not only helps to rebuild skin cells, but protects them from daily environmental stressors.
Uppercut
As anyone who had a haircut in the noughties would tell you, the land of decent men’s haircare products was relatively baron. Uppercut was born out of this vacuum, the product of two Queenslanders who were frustrated at the lack of quality local products to suit the old-school barbershop they wanted to run. The rest is history, and Uppercut is one of the most popular men’s haircare (and now, skincare) ranges in Australia. Chances are you’ve seen Uppercut being sold in at least one store or barbershop around, but make no mistake; it’s still one of the best Australian grooming brands.
Charles + Lee
An absolute newcomer on the scene, Charles + Lee exploded onto the scene about a year ago with the goal of making skincare effective, affordable, and most importantly, free of marketing jargon or bullshit in any form. Charles + Lee’s entire range is cruelty-free, made in Melbourne from organic, natural ingredients, and only made with RSPO certified sustainable palm oil. What more could you ask for from this Australian grooming brand?
Grown Alchemist
While Grown Alchemist is more of an all-encompassing skincare brand for both genders, their entire philosophy makes them worth a mention on our Australian grooming brands list. Grown Alchemist combines a fervent desire to inject the best botanicals into all of their products with a fierce scientific determination that controls every aspect of the way the Grown Alchemist range comes together. Even the bottle materials are carefully chosen to ensure that nothing contaminates their carefully crafted concoctions.
Hunter Lab
Another Melbourne-based brand, Hunter Lab was born out of the desire to make men’s skincare simple, masculine and effective once more. Infused with the kind of style and packaging that could only come out of a place like Melbourne, Hunter Lab’s entire range is designed to restore a man’s face to the money maker it should be through the use of the best natural ingredients.
King Brown
As notorious as its scaled namesake, King Brown Pomade is fast becoming a favourite pomade brand around the barbers and bathrooms of Australia. Every tin of King Brown is poured in Australia, with a range of classic and matte finishes available to suit your particular tastes.
Valor
Valor takes the Viking approach to shaving and beard care, as evidenced by its thoroughly Nordic-themed packaging. What does the Viking approach mean? It means natural, organic, timeless products that endorse traditional brush and razor shaving. Every Valor product, from their shaving soap to their body wash, is handcrafted in Byron Bay and free of Palm Oil, chemical fragrances, parabens or synthetic foaming agents.