To cash in on the $44 million cosmetics, skin and hair care market in India, Men and boyS, a division of Arus Retail, founded by Amit Bagaria of Asipac Group, has recently opened an exclusive store catering to men’s grooming needs.
The first store, opened at the Mantri Square mall in Bangalore in May this year, offers a wide range of men’s shaving products, regular and special cosmetics, skin care products, hair care and styling products, deodorants, colognes, fragrances and the world’s first range of cosmetics specially made for teenage skin.
Men and boyS, after an initial launch trial, is now planning to grow multifold through shop-in-shop counters strategically placed in some of India’s most popular department stores. The company plans to have 30 retail outlets by 2012. The products are also available online for delivery to most places in India.
Despite the domestic cosmetics, skin and hair care market growing at over 25 per cent annually, with men’s skin and hair care care growing at 46 per cent, the Indian market was “missing” cosmetics and styling products made exclusively for men.“Most cosmetics brands sell over-scented products created for women, but packed in male components,” Amit Bagaria reasons.
Bagaria says he started Men and boyS, because “men make up half of the human inhabitants on this planet, because it is not right to label women’s products as pour homme, because men’s skin is different from women’s, because men’s skin is 24 per cent thicker than women’s skin and because men don’t have the patience to find their products among a sea of unisex products.”
After testing 18 brands from around the world, Bagaria says, he hand-picked products from 10 highly-acclaimed and award-winning brands from the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, France and Switzerland, including 4VOO, Amenity, Billy Jealousy, Dermalogica, Eyre Biobotanics, Kyoku for Men, LS&B Grooming, Osmium for Men, Polaar and Task Essential. Most of these brands are being retailed in India for the first time. Eight of the 10 brands do not make products for women at all. Another 6-7 brands are currently being tested.
“You won’t find these products at a supermarket or a duty-free shop at the airport – these brands are retailed at Harrod’s BHV, Galeries Lafayette, Daimaru, Selfridge’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sephora, Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Barney’s and Harvey Nichols,” adds Bagaria.
The range of products sold at Men and boyS includes face washes, cleansers and scrubs, facial clay, lava and mineral mud masks, purifying and energizing masks, facial moisturisers, exfoliation scrubs, detoxifying exfoliating masks, anti-breakout gels, pore-reducing serums, pre-shave oils and guards, hot towel pre-shave treatment, electric pre-shave optimisers, shaving creams, foams and lathers, after-shave creams, soothers and moisturisers and after-shave balm, among others.
— IndiaRetailing Bureau
