Australian cricketer Shane Warne. Photo: AFP
So it's official. Shane Warne has his own set of beauty products. That's smoking, drinking, Maccas-loving, world's best ever cricketer, true-blue Aussie hero Shane Warne. A man's man if ever there was one.
A month or two ago Liz Hurley, the champion leg-spinner's actress girlfriend put his slightly weird new look was down to diet and exercise and nothing more. ''His eyes were born that way,'' she tweeted. And ''neither does he wear lip gloss''.
Warnie, who in the past has been happy to admit to taking his mum's diet pills, and has been a proud spruiker of surgical hair treatments, dismissed reports that he'd had a facelift, saying that moisturiser was the secret to his crease-free complexion.
But now the news is in that Hurley has told the UK’s Easy Living magazine: "He has his own set [of beauty products] now. He uses the girls' ones - they're much better, as I'm sure you know. Every guy I've ever known has used my beauty products and continued to do so."
So the cat's out of the bag. And, believe it or not guys, he's not the only one. Many of us use products to "freshen" our skin or even up our tone. We just call it ''bronzer''.
And some went even further in their youth. My mate Simon often wore a bit of eyeshadow down the pub - mostly to cover up the black eyes he got for wearing eyeshadow down the pub. But in the past it was more a going-out thing than a day-to-day habit. More Friday night than Monday morning, although there were some exceptions.
Talking to Virginia Trioli on the ABC the other day, comedian Judith Lucy remembered her father. ''He wore a great deal of make-up,'' she said. ''Basically he wore a lot of powder, a lot of eyebrow pencil, a lot of foundation. And the day I did turn to him finally and just say, 'Dad, what's going on with the foundation?' He just said, 'It's sunblock'."
We are living, after all, in the home of the tan - and that golden hue has long been seen as the mark of a man. But tans take time and they're dangerous to acquire, don't forget. So men are now looking elsewhere for that bronzed Adonis glow.
If you look around the city on any given day you're bound to notice at least one man who's "done his face" that morning, with concealer or bronzer, in an attempt to look younger and fresher.
These products are a bit of a Trojan Horse for men. A makeup that isn't really makeup - not lipstick or eyeshadow - just something to make us look better than we might otherwise.
"Men aren't shy of grooming any more but no guy's ready to look obviously made up," says Gordon Espinet, from MAC international. "Men don't have a problem with looking good - they spend more time in front of the mirror than women do - and they've caught on that these products do make a difference, something celebrities have known for a long time."
TV chef ''Fast'' Ed Halmagyi - who wears under-eye concealer in front of the camera - says trying to look fresh is his single biggest issue. "The only reason I care is that if I look tired, I look disinterested and why would people want to watch someone who looks disinterested?"
And the cosmetic companies have caught on to the trend. Clinique for instance has released a masculine-sounding M Cover concealer.
Siobhan Kelly from Napoleon Perdis' creative team in Melbourne says she's seen a surge of men giving it a go too. ''We've seen an increase in interest in products that will make a man look naturally groomed,'' she says. ''Matte bronzers (such as our Mosaic Bronzer) and lip balms (Auto Pilot Lip Service) are popular products to achieve this groomed look without seeming too 'done'."
And all the experts are unanimous: take it easy. The reason that you'll have spotted that guy in makeup is because it had been badly applied.
Hair and make-up artist Bradwyn Jones says. "They don't know what they're doing. The typical bloke just doesn't have that subtlety."
Call me unreconstructed, but you'll never see me in makeup, not even subtle shades, but I'll happily use sunscreen, cleanser and moisturiser.
So where do you draw that line between what's OK and what's not for a man to use on his face?
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