The Shape Up: The Best April Releases in Men’s Grooming

When it comes to hair, scalp health should never be ignored. That’s the primary drive behind The Root Project, a full-fledged haircare ecosystem that starts on the scalp. This trio includes everything you need to give your scalp some much-needed TLC, including a detoxifying hair cleanser, hair mask, and hair moisturizer. Plus, they package it all with 100 percent up-cycled materials so it’s as healthy for the environment as it is for your dome.

This new serum by F. Miller, backed by a collection of useful amino acids, regenerating hollyhock flower extract, and antiaxidant-rich centella asiatica, helps restore hydration, calm irritation, and boost collagen production to improve skin elasticity. Only two to three small drops are enough to cover your face, and the application feels refreshingly silky. After two weeks of use, our skin felt more resilient and intensely nourished, with a noticeably more even tone and smoother texture.

Sure, it’s fair to balk after seeing one bar of soap for nearly $20, but we promise this stuff is worth the price tag. With 95 percent naturally-derived ingredients, and no harmful sulfates or additives, it was safe for our sensitive skin and cleansed with the best of them thanks to its calendula extract and almond oil-backed formula. Not to mention, it’s super foamy and provides a strong, wide-reaching lather that helps one bar last truly for weeks, which helps offset the price as well.

If we were to sum up Cremo as a brand in five words, they’d be luxurious scents at bargain prices. And the brand’s latest drop of three aluminum-free deodorants certainly keeps this stance alive. All three scents—palo santo, Italian bergamot, and vintage suede—smell more like a fancy cologne than deodorant, but none more than the palo santo option. This deodorant smells so good that there were days we’d wear it in lieu of cologne. Plus, it was gentle on our skin, never irritating our pits or leaving residue on clothes.

Speaking of quality scents, Huron has long brought cologne-quality fragrance to body washes, so whenever the brand announces a new scent, our ears (and noses) perk up. The latest body wash edition, Sea Salt and Driftwood, more than matches our hype, with a rich, woodsy fragrance flavor of ginseng, black walnut leaf, and witch hazel, which makes you smell like the most well-groomed version of someone who can build a fire from scratch without a lighter (to be clear, we cannot).

This ultra-lightweight moisturizer is enriched with a blend of ceramides, peptides, and amino acids to provide lasting hydration while strengthening the skin’s barrier. After a week of use, our skin looked radiant and plump, as well as feeling super protected and healthy.

You could say mushrooms are having a bit of a moment right now. But in a sea of trendy edible things like mushroom coffee or mushroom-led vegan dishes, it shouldn’t get lost how useful the fungus is for skin as well. At least, it wasn’t lost on Origins, which devised this moisturizer to hydrate skin and even skin tone. With a smooth, quick-absorbing application, we used this as our primary night cream for two weeks and saw noticeable improvement both in moisture and tone.

This cream is like the 2010 Miami Heat, combining three Hall of Fame-level components to create something unbeatable. There’s caffeine to tighten blood vessels and improve circulation, niacinamide to brighten skin and reduce dark circles, and ferulic acid to attack fine lines and wrinkles. I’ll let you decide who is the Chris Bosh in this scenario, but regardless, the cream performs at a championship level.

When it comes to busting acne breakouts, there are few better ingredients than salicylic acid. The only issue is that this stuff can be drying or pretty harsh on skin when used in higher doses (0.5 to 2 percent, typically) needed to take out pimples. Innis’s new acne-fighting toner pads combat this common drawback by surrounding the hero ingredient with soothing green tea and moisturizing hyaluronic acid, as well as niacinamide to further reduce redness and other blemishes.

If you’re sensitive to fluoride or just looking to try something new, this natural toothpaste is for you. We not only found its coconut oil fronted formula gentle on our sensitive teeth, but they were also noticeably whiter after two weeks of use. Additionally, the subtle mint flavor was a welcomed taste first thing in the morning.

Hey Sweet Cheeks is a new brand barely a month old, that’s already making waves by filling in the intersection between sexcare and skincare. Among the line’s skin-friendly lubricants and lotions, we dug this body wash that packs a powerful skincare combo of salicylic acid to thoroughly cleanse and clear pores with oat milk to hydrate and calm the skin, leaving it looking smoother and feeling healthier. If you battle any lingering body acne, this will certainly help squash that real quick.

Dial’s new face and body wash hits two of our favorite things to keep an eye out for when searching for hydrating and exfoliating skin care products: a charcoal-led ingredient list and multipurpose use. Free from any parabens, phthalates, or silicones, and gentle enough to be used on both the face and body, this wash left our skin feeling fresh all day without any reaction or lingering dryness. Plus, it comes packaged in a 100 percent recyclable container that was made with at least 50 percent post-consumer recycled plastic.

Of course, there is one major eye cream hero ingredient we’ve yet to mention: retinol. And this new cream from Eight Saints is all about the versatile and effective ingredient. This cream uses its retinol-led formula to stimulate collagen production to smooth crow’s feet and fine lines, boost skin elasticity for a firmer, youthful look, and accelerate cell turnover to reduce dark circles and even skin tone. Not to mention, it’s fragrance-free for those sensitive.

Hands down, Freaks of Nature is my favorite sunscreen for jogging or other outdoor exercise released in the past 12 months. So a few weeks ago, when the brand dropped a stick version of its incredible Peak Performance SPF 50, we were already on board. Just like the OG SPF 50, this sunscreen does an incredible job of protecting skin from UV rays, crucially, without any residue or risk of dripping into your eyes from sweating. Plus, the new stick application makes it even easier to apply.