Blue Princes, hullo. It has been a minute since I last wrote—and by minute, I mean a many few weeks. But the gap has been intentional, I promise.

We’ve been busy at the Print House; summer has largely focused on building out a bunch of brand content, which I’m excited to share here. One reason I didn’t want to write weekly newsletters was because I thought the constant stream of “check out this thing that somebody paid us to create” would start to feel very un-editorial.

After all, I’m building an editorial outlet here, so it can’t all be sponsored. But we do need to keep the lights on... So let’s have this newsletter serve as a little showcase of what paid media can look like at our budding outlet, followed by some of the organic goods we’ve been producing too.

And, there’s lots of exciting news in this update, including onboarding some freelance writers, an NYC event in late October, and the launch of our podcast around the same time. Oh, and just this past week we hit 30K subs on YouTube… cheers to that!

Brand Spotlights:
Uppercut Deluxe, Prof. Dr. Steinkraus, MDhair

We got a trio of sponsorships all at once, too, which was music to our ears. These partnerships came from longstanding relationships with brands and their founders.

• Uppercut Deluxe has long been a resource for me in the men’s hair space (and hooking me up with the coolest barbershops around the globe). In terms of brand identity, they fall squarely under the “good hang” kind of barbers.

• Prof. Dr. Steinkraus is one of my faaaavorite skincare brands (a true under-the-radar smash), and I am endeared to them perhaps because they were born in Germany while I was living there. I think I can safely say I was the first US journalist to cover them—and one of our launch articles even professed that love.

• MDhair is run by Dr. Yoram Harth, a staple in clinical research who has been an expert source for my skin/hair articles for many years.

All three approached us to cover their brand in different ways, and largely for that much-needed SEO/LLM juice that is requisite for brands to build awareness and own their story in today’s digital landscape.

For Uppercut:

We got Uppercut’s Texture Cream in the hands of 5 guys and showcased how it performed for different hair types. I also did an overview of my 10 favorite SKUs from them, across skin, hair, shave, and fragrance.

For Prof. Dr. Steinkraus:

A video love letter on the brand, with explanation about their founder, their ethos, and their “TetCode4” principle that is the backbone of their regimen—then I highlighted my favorite SKUs with which one can build a high-performance regimen.

For MDhair:

An overview of their AI-backed scalp scanners that help prescribe specific hair-growth products, building a tailored kit to their clients. Plus a spotlight on their shower filter head, as well as the certifications it carries with its 20-stage filtration system. And of course, a tie-in to why I trust Dr. Harth and our established rapport.

With each of these, I’m intentionally showcasing the sponsorship as relationship-based. I wouldn’t want to discourage any new brands from seeking sponsored opportunities with Blue Print, but those videos would take on a different form.

These were all personal relationships, more or less, who came to us because of the longstanding or meaningful tie. (Genuinely, they each came to us; I’m not in sales mode over here, and they wanted these assets for their own reasons.) It was very easy and organic to create content that spoke to my genuine affinity for their angle and offerings.

Fragrance Spotlights:
Creed + Blind Barber

These ones are organic (unpaid); I’m toying a lot with how to present fragrance on YouTube. In terms of gaining subscribers, it’s a big reason we hit that 30K marker, but in terms of engagement, it’s proven to be a difficult category to crack, since we haven’t honed in on the community aspect of Blue Print. (In other words, fragrance is high volume traffic, low vocal engagement, aside from strong opinions.)

Our best performers/best affiliate stuff has been the utilitarian content (fine hair shampoo + electric shavers + beard trimmers etc), but fragrance is the most fun to cover. And there is engagement to be found in the big-name brands like Creed, even if people just want to complain about how much it costs, lol.

For Creed Oud Zarian:

I built out two versions of the same video—one short/vertical (90 seconds), one “medium”/horizontal (4.5 mins). Truth is, we get way more revenue from ads on the horizontal ones, and I didn’t want to leave that off the table in exchange for the pennies that non-viral vertical videos provide.

But moreover, I want to A/B test two versions of the same idea and see how they pan out in the long haul. The vertical 90-second one drives way more engagement and subs in the short term, so let’s see how time impacts both videos, and informs our dedicated reviews moving forward.

Speaking of Creed Oud Zarian, I also spotlighted the scent for Robb Report. Genuinely, this fragrance rules. A banner scent for the year. Thank you to team Creed for the access to both Erwin Creed and CEO Nathalie Berger-Duquene for that one.

For Blind Barber’s Fragrance Trio:

I also gave a little video ode to the fragrance launch trio from Blind Barber, which is so fantastic, even before knowing that each of these baddies is under $98, too.

Am I… Team Speakeasy, Team Shinjuku Mood, or Team Only You, Babe? There’s only one way to find out. I’ll let you watch the video and decide which of the three you oughta pick up, too.

What’s Next For Blue Print

As we near our first birthday in three months, here’s what’s coming up in the next chapter of Blue Print.

• Freelancers! 
  We commissioned our first 7 (!) pieces already, with a budget for another 18 by year’s end. There will be some familiar author bylines on our site very soon, with lots of brand love to be shared.

• Podcast! 
  We onboarded a freelance producer (a Vox vet!) who is helping us produce the Blue Print podcast. Likely launch is October 24, but keeping that loose. Think journalistic approach to various men’s grooming topics—but in a package that my most experienced beauty editor peers will also find engaging. I want it to feel like true “inside baseball” for this category of the men’s wellness industry. We have a cheeky name picked out, as well as some very high-profile industry sponsors of the first 10+ episodes.

• NYC Event! 
  Save the date: October 23, 6-9pm, a happy hour in the East Village. More details to come, but it’ll be a boozy, groovey time. (Yes, I’ll be in town, farling NYers—mostly for video shoot/event stuff; I hope I can at least see you at the event that night!)

New on the Site

In the meantime, we’re working on more hair transplant series content, plus a bunch of organic stuff, including a big Vitamin C buying guide coming later this week. It’s a companion video to our Vitamin C article (hat tip to cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos for helping to simplify details on a very valuable yet unstable ingredient):

And soon we’ll get those first freelance articles up too.

Also new on the site: A column on why we should trust hair loss compounds and hybrids (like those offered from Hims, Happy Head, Ro, etc) despite their lack of FDA approval:

We launched three more Blue Ribbons (aka Best Grooming Products Ever):

• Panasonic Body Groomer: Specifically the ER-GK80-S, though the article compares/contrasts it against the ER-GK60-S. You’ll see this featured in a vidoe soon too.

• Prof. Dr. Steinkraus Triple Peel: So you want marble-smooth skin, eh? (this was shot/written well before the brand commissioned a YouTube explainer video, fwiw)

• SmartMouth Original Activated Mouthwash: With honorable mention to their A+ toothpaste and full range of rinses…

And there’s plenty more to come. It certainly won’t be a month before the next newsletter, promise.

Take care, and please share our profiles/content with anyone who might find it useful, eh?

And brands/PRs: Should you be auditing your EOY numbers and have some budget left over… and should you want to fuel the future of men’s grooming coverage… you just get in touch, yeah? Let’s find something that works for what you, and that helps us pick up even more momentum going into year 2. (For promotion, freelancers, edit support, podcast production, and more.)