Hundreds, if not thousands, of companies have produced thousands, if not tens-of-thousands, of articles on skin care. Not one of them can compete with our illustrations, however. That would be Janette Littledove in the header image, for example, as she appeared with Tracey Adams in the December, 1986, issue of Penthouse Magazine. Great skin, right? That’s what you were thinking?
Skin Care for the Semi-Devoted
We will not have broken any philosophical ground by telling you that life simply comes down to a matter of priorities. None of us has enough time to do everything we’d like to — or at least feel like we should like to — accomplish. In that vein, many of us might put skin care into the persistent “remainder at the end of the day” category. Consequently, Penthouse decided to help with some easy steps. Naturally we also decided to conclude with some historic examples of excellent skin care, because we, well, care.
The Repair in Skin Care
We’re all aware our skin requires extra maintenance to protect it from the summer sun. But as we try to survive in (mostly) cooler weather, your skin requires a similar amount of attention if you want your face to look and feel like the man you aspire to be.
A change in climate can wreak all sorts of havoc on your skin, and if you’re not careful you’ll end up with a blotchy, haggard-looking mug. But we have good news in a simple, three-step daily routine — bolstered by quality products — that can help you avoid this least wanted appearance. First up, think about face wash. Many guys choose standard soap in the shower to briefly wash the part of the body most people will see for the day. Instead, get your hands on a good quality face wash and give your face a full five to 10 minutes of attention with the cleanser and some lukewarm water.
After your skin is properly cleansed, apply a quality moisture cream specially formulated for the colder months to reduce dryness. Winter creams will keep you protected from sun, wind and dust that can irritate your face and cause problems further down the line.
If you are fond of shaving each morning, there are a couple of other tips you may want to consider. Invest in a top-quality razor. Disposables and low-quality razors may damage your skin and leave you feeling sore and dry. It makes very little sense to use them.
Once you have your preferred razor of choice, choose a shaving cream rich in tea tree oil. This will make your shaving experience easier and leave your skin feeling unbelievably fresh. Don’t let lousy weather get in the way of your good looks. Give your face the respect it deserves.
The man you aspire to be sounds grammatically incorrect, right? But so does “the man to which you aspire” — which adds a completely unrelated nuance to the conversation. We’re going to climb out of the English language rabbit hole, though, and simply say that perhaps simply investing in some higher quality soap for the shower and growing a beard would save the most time here. Call us crazy, but the concept of “simple” and spending 10 minutes washing one’s face every day hardly resounds as a winning sales pitch. It seems like the people who would follow that regiment probably already do and thus don’t really need the advice.
Making Scents with Skin Care
If Instagram is the closest you’ll get to a European vacation this year, let us engage one of your other senses to really crank up the FOMO.
Designer Tom Ford says of one of his signature fragrances, “Costa Azzurra Parfum is a deeper expression of the original scent, capturing the feel of a hedonistic Mediterranean escape. I think we all need an escape right now.”
Technically referring to a fragrance that didn’t really fly in the private blend collection, that pitch says a lot about this adventure individually, however. Not only that, but remember these things sit on counters — hopefully where some of your new encounters might see them — so the fact that the fragrance bottle design for Costa Azzurra also looks and feels truly luxurious add a definite bonus.
The elevated parfum opens up with a recognizable Costa Azzurra freshness, providing a big burst of Italian lemon and a slight ozonic, aquatic quality. This provides an invigorating, warm and sea-salty wind breezing through the cypress trees moment. An aromatic fougere type of concoction from lavender accompanies the sensation.
Will this fragrance really transport you to hedonistic pleasures on a sun-drenched coastline? Sure, we think so.
It gets a little deep in there, perhaps, but then some writers really do like their descriptions. Rather than risk parfum perfidy, then, we shall simply point out that smelling good is good. And Tom Ford has known how to help folks smell good for a very long time..
Skin Care the Traditional Way
Wear pants. Sounds simple, but we have lots of skin, and protecting different parts of it can benefit from different techniques. We do not wish to paint this simple foundation with an oversized brush, though. No-no. … If one chooses to wear pants, one should still choose comfy pants.
As we head through autumn and winter, our wardrobe becomes less playful and more classic. Away go the bold, bright hues and out come darker, more understated tones such as military green and Bordeaux red. Consider corduroy as one twill weave fabric that helps hold these colder climate colors together. Yes, waled pants may have crept their way into some of our spring collections, but corduroy lends itself to a certain time of the year.
The fabric has made quite the comeback with vintage-loving generations picking up old French-made garments from the ‘70s, when it could be seen on everyone from college professors to bell-bottomed hippies. But this rediscovery has also sparked a surge in production from designers around the globe. Although we see many variations of corduroy in the shape of shirts and jackets, pants are the real winner. They’re comfortable and look as good with a pair of boots or shoes as they do with rolled cuffs and a pair of sneakers.
Enjoy the fun to be had with color, adding a playful nature to a classic look. You can always be a bit more daring with your choice of corduroy pants, which compliments should you have a more flamboyant personality.
Age never seems to be a factor either. There are as many teens and 20-somethings wearing the fabric these days as dads and grandads, so it reigns as truly versatile in that sense. If you don’t already have a piece of classic corduroy in your collection, now would very much the be time to snap up some stylish pieces.
As a bonus, let us offer a bit of advice you may be too young yet to appreciate: If you can spare the storage room, always hang on to old favorite pants and jackets. They may fall out of style, sure, but you have great odds that they will fall right back into it again too. Only the truly gentrified can tell you the joy of having someone comment positively upon something they are wearing which they have owned literally longer than this new admirer has been alive. Every generation thinks they invented everything. Remember that, and you will be kinder to young folks — and you may dazzle some eventually too. … And THAT, Penthouse Friends, provides an excellent segue into today’s Skin Care bonus illustrations. … Granted, not a single one of these models from our Penthouse Vault collection happens to be a man, but we hope you will excuse that minor slight. They still have excellent skin, even though wearing pants never really fit within their job description.
So it comes down to this: We almost never get the chance to do everything we’d like to do, and we absolutely never get the chance to do every ONE we would like to do. That’s just how life works out. Still, a Penthouse Magazine Subscription certainly should not hurt your appreciation of life, and if your interests span a more historical range, the Vault section of PenthouseGold just might be fun for a bit. Life can control what (or whom) you do, but it cannot limit what you can think about doing. So that’s a plus.
Oh! We understand that Tania Rusof here — she of the Pet of the Month fame from September, 1996 — does not really fit into our other set of Penthouse Vault photographs because she does not happen to be in a bathtub. We get that. … After due consideration, however, we basically decided, “Yeah, but look at that picture!” … So we decided to run with it. One need be diligent about skin care examples, after all.
