Yield Growth (BOSS.C) is currently developing a line of products exclusively for men featuring tobacco and amber, two ingredients with ancient origins and “masculine fragrance notes.”
The market for male grooming products is experiencing rapid growth and Yield is taking aim: $6.9B was spent on men’s grooming products in 2018 in the U.S. alone, while men’s skin care was the fastest growing segment of the skin care market, seeing product sales increased by 11%.
“We have had great response from men using the Urban Juve products, which inspired us to formulate products specifically for men,” says Bhavna Solecki, Director of Product & Content at Urban Juve. “We incorporated amber and tobacco essential oils, not only for their luxe, masculine fragrance notes, but also for their Ayurvedic properties.”
The men’s grooming and wellness market is absolutely on fire right now. Albeit anecdotally, I know a number of men who have recently started incorporating skin-care routines into their grooming rituals–something which would have been beyond the pale just a few years ago.
In 2017, Forbes reported that barbering was the fastest growing profession in the U.S. and that grooming played an increasingly important role in conveying a culturally redefined masculinity:
“Men today are being marketed masculinity in ways never seen before,” [Kristin] Barber said.
Today’s barbershops are helping to define, enhance and critique traditional notions of what it is to be a man.
Going to the barbershop and getting a beard trim is as close to a spiritual experience as most of us will get in the West these days. And so, Urban Juve’s incorporation of tobacco and amber as the cornerstones of their inaugural men’s line seems only natural given their ritualistic uses and healing properties.
The essential oil derived from amber is indeed ancient, having been used as a commodity since 8,000 BCE.
Urban Juve uses the amber derived from the fossilized resin of the giant prehistoric conifer and certain cases have been dated at 345 million years old.
Amber oil is an incredibly popular ingredient today–having notably been worn in place of perfume by Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell to the Emmy’s in 2016–but the compound has far more to it than its scent.
Amber oil has Ayurvedic benefits and is known to promote mental clarity, rejuvenate skin and strengthen the appearance of hair follicles. As an additional benefit, amber has pain-killing properties and can work as an aphrodisiac.
Similarly, the tobacco leaf is an herb with health-boosting properties which saw extensive use in various purification ceremonies stretching back hundreds of years. The plant has been used to treat skin conditions and has healing properties, according to Ayurvedic teachings.
Today, tobacco is being studied at the John Innes Centre in a E.U. funded project to develop vaccines and new drugs:
Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) is a crop used to produce cigarettes. With overwhelming scientific evidence that smoking is harmful, even major cigarette companies are now committed to end smoking.
Tobacco plants can, however, also be used for other purposes that are beneficial for health. Instead of drying the leaves to make cigarettes, researchers have found promising New Plant Breeding Techniques (short: NPBT) to turn tobacco leaves into efficient plant factories for medical, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.
Urban Juve will be combining these ingredients with their signature hemp root oil produced with their proprietary extraction technology. The resulting products will undergo testing in the summer and are anticipated for release in early 2020.
Yield has a market cap of $62M and closed at $0.71 today.
–Ethan Reyes
Full disclosure: Yield Growth is an Equity.Guru marketing client.
