www.astonmitchell.com was set up in October 2008 and was born out of a desire to work in the burgeoning male cosmetics market, which was getting lots of media attention following the launch of Manscara and Guyliner. We felt that we could offer a service to men which was both discreet and helpful, and which offered a wide selection of products from the best suppliers across the globe.
Prior to astonmitchell there were several sites offering men’s make up but they either sold it as an addition to their large skincare ranges, or alternatively they only stocked their own range. Men would need to shop around comparing products on different sites – quite a daunting prospect if you’re a guy who is just trying to find out what it’s all about. We have several hundred customers, many of whom are now coming back to place second or third orders.
We have two very different types of product to suit two very different types of customer. 1. Discreet, natural looking products which help to conceal, disguise and perfect without anyone knowing 2. Very obvious makeup for guys who want to look gorgeous and don’t care who knows! The discreet products would include concealer, antishine, bronzer, lip balm and maybe foundation. The second category includes eyeliner, mascara, tinted lip balm and even blusher and eyeshadow but the market in the UK is not quite ready for that yet.
Michele Probst, founder of Menaji
The website stocks several brands. We have Menaji from the United States, which is our biggest seller and is designed by Michele Probst, who is one of the US President’s makeup artists. She uses the Menaji range on him and he loves it – quite a recommendation.
The Menaji range offers very discreet makeup – in fact they call it skincare as they don’t want to frighten guys off. They produce an antishine powder which doubles up as foundation. They don’t advertise this fact, but we do! Michele talked me through how she developed the range and mentioned the fact that she used the powder as a wet foundation on many of her clients – what a great idea. So we jumped on it and we tell all our customers that they can use it either as an antishine dry, or as a wet foundation, which they can mix with water or with a little moisturiser to give a light, natural-looking coverage. We can’t get enough of it, it sells like hot cakes and we have never had a return.
Menaji Antishine Powder doubles as Foundation
Menaji also produces their Camo Concealer – a traditional stick concealer for use on blemishes and under eye circles, but designed with men in mind. As with all Menaji products it comes in black packaging with clear instructions for use. Menaji makeup was designed around the fact that men have 20% oilier skin than women and therefore cosmetics for men have to deal with this. In addition to these two ‘cosmetic’ products, Menaji also produces the fantastic 911 eye gel which is used by loads of celebs, including Sharon Stone! It’s great for under eye bags and again, is very popular. The Menaji skincare range also includes a facial bronzer, a lip moisturiser, a face scrub, an aftershave tonic, a toner, face masque and anti ageing serum – it’s powerful stuff!
Fontana Contarini Earthglow Bronzing and Antishine Powder
Another range we stock is the Fontana Contarini (FC) range from Italy.We are sole UK distributors for this range and it’s extremely popular. The FC range is much more about makeup and less about skincare, although they do produce an eye gel. FC has a fantastic men’s foundation which is akin to a tinted moisturiser, but gives guys a wonderful healthy glow without looking as though they are wearing makeup. It worked wonders on DJ Scott Mills when we made him over. The packaging is again black and funky and very masculine. Their Earthglow bronzing and antishine powder is brilliant for giving a temporary sunkissed bronze effect while helping to give a matt finish too. The FC range also includes mascara which comes in black and clear. The black is perfect for guys who want to add definition to their eyes and suits those with medium to dark complexions. The clear mascara is perfect for giving a gloss and for separating and defining the lashes, and can also be used as an eyebrow grooming gel. FC do 4 different shades of lip balm, an eyeliner, concealer and a selection of application brushes.
We also stock some UK ranges – Taxi, makers of the original Manscara and Guyliner, MYEGO who produce a wonderful kohl eyepencil and a highlighter/concealer a la Touche Eclat and we’ve got also got the Max Skincare range which is shaving and skincare focused but fits really well with the other products. Finally we’re just doing deal to become UK stockist of Made For Boys, a fantastic skin and bath range from Canada which is going to suit any guy who loves pampering themselves. In terms of where we’re going with the business, we have ambitious plans. We are already planning on producing our own astonmitchell makeup range which will have much more choice in terms of products and shades available.
Taxi Manscara
We have a real mixture of customers – all age groups, gay and straight, all skin colours – men’s makeup appeals to anyone and everyone. Some customers have specific skincare problems which they are trying to deal with, such as acne scars, blemishes, eye bags or similar. Some just want to look more polished and professional. Some want to really show off and, to be honest, look miles better than we do when we’re fully made up! We get fantastic feedback from our customers. In many cases our products can give guys confidence when they learn how to use them to look better.
We try to make the website a real font of knowledge. We know that men often have no-one they can ask when they need to know how to use mascara, how to apply foundation or even how to choose what shade of concealer they need. The website gives lots of information about how to apply the products and we always reply personally to emails giving specific information if guys get in touch. We’re just working with a makeup artist who does demonstrations on YouTube – he’s reviewing our products and we’ll post the films on our site to show guys how to apply them. We think that this will really help. In addition we have our own in-house Beauty and Skincare expert, the lovely Angela Bartlett. Our ‘Ask Angela’ section attracts lots of questions from guys who want help with makeup or skincare.
We’ll be posting articles, news and useful snippets on here so just watch this space! We’re also on Twitter and Facebook – just search for astonmitchell.
