What’s with all the men buying intimate beauty products for their wives?

It turns out that men are more honest reviewers than we could ever be

You need only look out the window today to see why hair removal products are at the top of everyone’s wishlists right now. Amazon, Boots and pretty much anywhere that sells razors are seeing us women flock to the (virtual) tills with products to trim the fuzz.

If you’re the type of woman who likes to keep body hair out of sight during hot weather (many women go against societal beauty norms by letting their hair grow freely, and more power to them), it’s likely you’ve been snooping around at the best products to keep it at bay. And, as it turns out, so have the men.

If you venture into the review sections of various Amazon products that are normally marketed towards women, you’d be amazed at how many men put forward their own opinions on the pros and cons of these beauty tools. Hair removal, especially, seems to be men’s beauty venture of choice, with many of the reviews on popular brands on Amazon giving more detail than the women.

“I felt like a new man, my manhood looked bigger in its new spacious surroundings and I felt clean and tidier,” one Amazon customer commented in his review of Veet hair removal cream. “As a man that has used this regularly, I go from a gorilla to a normal human within 10-15 minutes,” said another.

And of course, my personal favourite: “If you’re not already physically supple you will be after using this. I see now why women do yoga.”

As you move through the jungle of Amazon product reviews, you discover even more male POV’s on traditionally female products — and often, it’s men reviewing products on behalf of their wives or girlfriends.

On everything from cellulite remover to (ahem) vaginal tightening cream (yeah, we know), boyfriends and husbands have offered their two cents on how well the product in question works for the women in their lives.

Some reviews are friendly, honest accounts, but some, often listing their wives or girlfriends’ supposed ‘flaws’ that are in need of repair, are a little more disturbing.

“She is very slim, but even after eating very sensibly, she has still accumulated a little cellulite,” one review wrote. One man reviewed the vaginal cream stating that it improved the look of his girlfriend’s vulva: “external appearance is prettier also.”

This is not to suggest that something as simple as Amazon reviews could be a complex illustration of male/female relationship power dynamics, but it is a little unsettling to read these men taking it upon themselves to explain the benefits of a beauty product on behalf of those that use it. The woman are surely well able to offer a review themselves, and to buy the products they need rather than them being curated for them.

If a woman wants to buy a cellulite removal massager or a vaginal tightening cream (after proper consultation with her doctor, please and thanks), then go at it, all guns blazing. But if your man is buying it for you, and then regaling the tale to other Amazon users, then maybe it’s time to start the returns process.