Drake's Summer Mink, Blue Print's Raison d'Être, and Supply's Civil War

Hullo! I’m sat still on a sunny weekend, having “ruptured” my calf muscle on a Saturday run. The urgent-care doc (and former Olympian pole vaulter!) used the word “ruptured” to describe my slight tear, so I’m really leaning into that term.

I’m hobbling around the apartment, trying to lay low. Should be fine in a few weeks’ time, and well enough for this week’s trip to Istanbul (for, yes, a hair transplant that we’re documenting), as well as an upcoming London visit for the Barnes Fragrance Fair (get your tickets, London!).

Don’t feel bad for me; I’m bingeing movies, Golden Girls, and stuffing my face with popcorn. And now I’m writing this newsletter, so let’s talk shop, shall we?

Water Cooler Chatter: Drake’s New Fragrance, Hair Loss Shampoo, Supply vs. Supply, and more

As previously mentioned, this month we’ve been focused on posting daily content across our socials, after building up our YouTube/newsletter in Q1. We need to “live in” those channels more, to work the muscle—not so much that we rupture it, of course.

And here’s what we’ve been covering this week:

1. Hair Loss Shampoo! It’s a myth, but one shampoo ingredient is worth your while. We even awarded our 13th Blue Ribbon to a favorite shampoo with that ingredient (a dandruff fighter).

@blueprintgrooming

Hair loss shampoo is not a real thing. But one key ingredient (found in many dandruff shampoos) could be useful for fighting male pattern ... See more

2. Supply’s new SE Max Razor launched: How does it stack up against the Blue Ribbon-winning original (the Single Edge SE)? Choose your fighter, Blue Princes.

3. Per usual, we are trying a bunch of new (and new-to-us) products. Check those out here, from spa skincare to a trio of Guerlains to some top-tier body scrubs.

4. Drake’s first EDP, Summer Mink, launched from his Better World Fragrance House brand. And I got one of the few samples! Here’s my initial spin:

@blueprintgrooming

Summer Mink, from Drake’s Better World Fragrance House: First impressions and quick review. #summermink #fragrance #betterworld #betterwor... See more

And the people demanded (ok like 12 of them asked for) a more thorough review, so I just now posted that too—and am showing my age with the wonky title embedding:

@blueprintgrooming

Replying to @Casino here’s a more thorough Summer Mink review, from Drake’s Better World Fragrance House. (For what it’s worth, I review t... See more

5. Lastly, I daydreamt of forest bathing in Yakushima, recalling the absolute top highlight of our 6 weeks in Japan earlier this year. (Thank you for the memories, Kaleidoforest.)

As many opinions as I have about social media, I do appreciate this: I can feel our powers growing—and bit by bit, can see the Blue Print vision, the “men’s grooming conversation”, taking greater shape. Which leads me to my next topic…

Blue Print’s PR Blitz—And Reinforcing Our “Why”

It’s been a “proof of concept” month for Blue Print, not just in building out our social channels but also in sharing our thesis, our raison d'être. I’ve had the privilege of being spotlighted by industry-insider newsletter The Beauty Loop as well as the terrific men’s skincare line Jaxon Lane in the past few weeks. I’ve shared my grooming industry come-up and discussed the way that digital content and men’s editorial grooming coverage has evolved—and in my opinion, devolved, in the past years (despite demand for the category constantly trending upwards).

And then this week, two more spotlights went live: a podcast with Skin Anarchy and a YouTube sitdown with Guy Fox, both recorded in the past ~6 weeks. Here are those:

Listen on: Apple Podcasts // Spotify

As I continue pitching and scaling Blue Print in these early stages, one name keeps coming up: That of my former employer, Birchbox. (Wtf is Birchbox anymore? Apparently it still exists but…?)

More specifically, I’ve been referring often to Birchbox Man in these spotlight interviews. I was Birchbox’s men’s editor from 2013-2016. Here’s a throwback to my last video for them before they laid off the men’s edit team—despite us taking share of men’s traffic from 5% to 25% in those 2.5 years… lol.

In some ways, what we’re building here is a void that Birchbox Man left behind: A dedicated place for men’s grooming coverage, where it isn’t going to play second-fiddle to style or fitness, nor be defined by Google’s search algorithm. Once we scale, this will be where you can find reviews and conversations about the latest noteworthy fragrance or electric shaver. It will be a place where brands can count on coverage and get eyeballs on their most newsworthy launches, readers and viewers can become smarter consumers, and they’ll find meaningful interviews with founders, formulators, cosmetic surgeons and the likes. Of course, this will require many voices and perspectives contributing to Blue Print… and that is the goal.

I have grown so sick of telling publicists “I can’t do anything with this brand’s new product launch until I get the right SEO roundup assigned for it.” or “Unfortunately, my client doesn’t want an exclusive interview with [world’s most respected perfumer] because it won’t generate instant revenue.” :( That’s not true of all my clients, but it’s the defining sentiment.

My hopes for Blue Print are big, and we’re a few evolutions away from getting there. We’re off to Istanbul this Friday for week, to produce a 24-part video series about hair transplants that will roll out over the next year. Which means less time to write articles, react or stoke same-day conversations on social, or even receive new products and try them out. We have serious limitations. We won’t drop the ball on other categories of coverage, but think of what we could do with 6 or 10 or 15 people, paid handsomely (even as freelancers or project-rate contractors), to cover all of the job functions necessary to realize this goal?

I don’t mean for this to turn into a pitch for cash or anything, but I do think we’ll get to this eventual point of having other perspectives in the mix, and maybe even full-time employees. I look forward to that day, and I hope we aren’t the only outlet doing so. At the current rate, though… it could be the case. And if you want to help us get there sooner than later, my door is open, my light is green, my mantra is YES. 

That’s it from me, dear readers. I wish you a terrific week ahead, and will say hello from Istanbul next time. Take care!