Mavericks Skincare Regimen

Fun fact: Right now, there are about 3,200 skincare products in your local drug store.

Try figuring out what you need from that.

One guy did.

Aided by science, big data and a bit of Sinatra, said guy just launched Mavericks, a new line of men’s skincare that narrows your grooming regimen down to three products and about 90 seconds of prep time.

Named after a popular surf spot near Silicon Valley, Mavericks is the brainchild of former software engineer/investor Brad Yim.

“It was with a friend of mine who used to work at NASA,” says Yim. “He was trying to up his wardrobe and style a bit, and he said he didn’t know what to put on his face. It’s interesting, one of the smartest guys I know, and he didn’t know the first thing about skincare or grooming products.”

Inspired, Yim starting do research, including several stops in the skincare mecca of Korea. Realizing there was a business opportunity at hand and a pain point to solve, he dove into the industry with an engineer’s sensibility.

His motto: Identify the essentials. Eliminate the rest.

Recruiting an array of medical researchers and fellow engineers — and a few skincare industry vets — Yim decided to only use ingredients that had undergone rigorous scientific testing to prove their benefits. “We said, ‘Let’s stick to science; we’re all engineers.’”

He also wanted to make the grooming products as easy as possible to use. “We wanted it to get people in a simple routine,” he says. “Something as easy as brushing your teeth.”

To that end, Mavericks is a single face kit containing three products (a shaving cream is coming shortly). The regimen is simple:

Protect. That’s your morning sunscreen. Wake up, rinse face with cool water (don’t wash; that’ll strip your skin), towel dry and apply the SPF 30.
At night, cleanse with the minty face wash/exfoliant. Pat dry.
Add moisturizer. As you sleep, the ginseng/retinol-infused lotion will rebuild your skin.

After a week of testing, the products — which come in a black box embossed with a Sinatra quote inside (“You gotta love living, baby! Dying’s a pain in the ass.”) and three matte black non-aerosol canisters that meet FAA carry-on regulations — feel very lightweight on the skin (no gooeyness). There’s a subtle, cooling mintiness as well, which is great for summer. And I had my regimen locked in by day three.

All in all: a no-brainer.