The skin of men and women differs in many morphological and physiological characteristics related to its thickness, facial and body hair and protective hydrolipid acid film on the skin surface. Therefore it is necessary to use cosmetic products designed specifically for men for care, protection and cleansing of men's skin. Men use a wide range of cosmetic products, namely shaving products, hair care products, personal hygiene, skin care products, and perfumes.
In the first part of the thesis, we studied cosmetic products for men and performed a comparison study to cosmetic products for women. Firstly, we focused on cosmetic products for shaving, as shaving is considered a man's daily routine, therefore we analyzed the composition of shaving creams, shaving foams and aftershave waters. We were interested in the ingredients that appear most often in the product and their role. We also studied in more detail the role and function of those ingredients that are found in at least two of the studied products. Our results show that shaving creams and shaving foams are similar in composition, namely both types of products contain similar basic ingredients, the biggest difference between the studied types of products is the use of propellant gases in shaving foams. Aftershaves contain more water phase, preservatives and fragrances than the aforementioned types of shaving products. In the following, we examined the differences and similarities in the formulation between selected products used by both men and women. In the set of studied products, we included moisturizing creams, shower gels and antiperspirants for men and the corresponding number of moisturizing creams, shower gels and antiperspirants for women from the same manufacturer. We found that the products for men and women differ in price, number of ingredients and in the individual excipents and cosmetically active ingredients used.
In the second part of the task, we studied the habits and preferences of male volunteers for purchase and usage of cosmetic products through survey research. The survey was fully completed by 40 respondents, and the results showed that a quarter of them use cosmetic products irregularly, most of them spend up to 15 € a month to buy cosmetics and use three to five products in their daily routine, the most important factor for purchase being the price to quality ratio, and most of the respondents are satisfied with cosmetics for men on the market. We gained an insight into their consumer habits as part of a survey of employees in three units of the Public Institute of the Ljubljana Pharmacy with an open-ended questionnaire. We found that men rarely visit a pharmacy with the intention of buying cosmetics, in most cases they buy one product for which they deduct between 15 and 25 €, and the most important factor in the purchase is the advice by the employees. Based on the findings obtained in our thesis, we can conclude that cosmetic products for men are in most cases properly formulated and adapted to the specific morphological and physiological characteristics of male skin, and that men's attitude towards cosmetics is developing rapidly.
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