一位中年男士的护肤心得
Man meets moisturiser
What are you doing in there?” So shouts my wife after I’ve spent getting on for 40 minutes in the bathroom. “I’m, er, exfoliating,” I call back merrily, while walking my fingers along the pots and potions crowding the windowsill. Holy Saint Francis, as Friar Laurence puts it in Romeo and Juliet, what a change is here! “你在里面折腾啥呢？”我在卫生间呆了足足40分钟后，我妻子在外大声喊道。“呵呵，正在去死皮呢，” 我一边用手找摸窗台上堆放的各种瓶瓶罐罐，一边愉快地回复道。就是《罗密欧与朱丽叶》(Romeo and Juliet)中劳伦斯神父(Friar Laurence)所说的Holy Saint Francis这类东西，如今的化妆品可谓琳琅满目，真是今非昔比！
And not just here: men’s beauty products — moisturisers supposedly optimised for male skin and sold in butch-yet-metrosexual tubs in science-fictional silvers and blacks — have been undergoing a boom. According to Mintel, sales of men’s skincare products rose last year to ?95.1m, up from ?85.4m in 2012, and are forecast to reach ?96.2m in 2014. Men also appear to be hell-bent on not just washing but “cleansing”, not just rubbing but “gently massaging”, on introducing the skin not just to water, but to a very superior scientific product called “aqua” And — that holy grail, that precise incantation marking the line where the marketing departments of cosmetics companies fought the Advertising Standards Authority to a standstill — on “reducing the appearance of wrinkles”. The comforting idea that, as men age, they become more attractive seems not to be endorsed here; anti-ageing is the thing. The holy trinity of Tom Ford’s bumf, for instance, is: “Deep clean, soothe and rejuvenate.” 不仅仅我家的卫生间如此，男士美容用品销售一直很火爆。这些自诩最适合男士皮肤使用的润肤霜，以科幻影片中那种银灰与黑色的男性化都市美男形象销售。据市场研究机构英敏特(Mintel)统计，去年英国男士护肤品的销售额上升至9510万英镑，而20xx年的销售额为8540万英镑，今年的总销售额有望增至9620万英镑。男士们似乎也不再满足于单纯冲洗，而是“彻底洁净”；不再单纯搓洗干净，而是享受“温情按摩”服务；不再单纯用水冲澡，而是使用名为“aqua” 以及“能彻底消除皮肤皱纹”的高科技爽肤产品——即所谓“圣杯”。化妆品公司营销部门正是凭借这神奇产品来对付英国广告检测委员会(Advertising Standards Authority)。它们并没有宣扬这样的“迷魂汤”：男人使用这款产品后，随着年岁增长，会越发帅气之类，而是宣扬抗衰老理念。就像汤姆?福特(Tom Ford)的产品宣扬的那样：具有三位一体的优点：“深度清洁、轻柔舒适以及重焕生机。”
…… …… 余下全文
