Real men moisturise

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Simon Duffy is wearing three days of facial hair when he meets me in a café/bar under Bulldog Skincare’s West London offices. But he is not sporting the stubble as a fashion statement; he’s grown it for research purposes.

“We’ve got some new shave prep products that we’re testing out, ” he explains. “I’m waiting to test-drive them.”

Both Duffy’s hands-on approach and Bulldog’s modest premises are an apt introduction to the male skincare company that Duffy and his friend and business partner Rhodri Ferrier founded in 2006. Bulldog, as Duffy describes it, is a down-to-earth brand for the man who “is not super-ripped, not David Beckham, not a gorgeous guy, and who’s probably a little bit overweight”.

Bulldog’s launch timing was unfortunate: it went to market in 2007, just a year before the collapse of the global economy. But its ambitions were large with a proposition that sought to revolutionise the men’s facial skincare market with naturally-formulated products for men. It was ...