Alternatives to Lab Series, Every Man Jack and Horace: an honest look

Three names come up again and again when men start looking around: Lab Series, Every Man Jack and Horace. It is a telling trio, because they sit in three completely different places. One is a research house from the late eighties sold at beauty counters. One is a Californian mass-market brand built on naturally derived ingredients. One is a Parisian range that treats grooming as a matter of taste.

If you are looking for an alternative to any of them, the first step is working out which of those three things you were actually buying. What follows is what each does well, who it suits, and what a man might want instead. We make a competing range, so read it as a view with a stake in it.

Lab Series

Lab Series launched in 1987 with, in its own account, "a LAB dedicated exclusively to understanding men's physiology and unique skin needs", and it still leads with that: "over 30 years of research and development", products "designed for men and tested on men" ¹. It is part of The Estée Lauder Companies ², which is why you find it at counters rather than in supermarkets.

The range is organised into named series, each aimed at a concern: Max LS for firming, All-In-One for everyday simplicity, Daily Rescue for dry skin, Clear LS for oily and acne-prone skin, Grooming for shaving, and Instant Fix for immediate visible results ³.

Who it suits. A man who wants a long-established range with a defined answer to each concern, and who values being able to stand at a counter and ask someone.

What he might want instead. Usually one of three things: a shorter routine than a full series implies, fragrance-free formulas, or clearer visibility of where the active ingredients come from rather than what they are called.

Every Man Jack

Every Man Jack was founded over fifteen years ago in Marin County, California, and describes itself as "one of the original men's care clean brands focused on using Naturally Derived Ingredients and making sustainably minded choices" ⁴. The stated ambition is "the cleanest, most effective, and affordable men's care products", with a clear list of exclusions: "No parabens. No phthalates. No dyes. No GMOs", never tested on animals, and packaging using recycled content ⁴.

The range runs across body wash, deodorant, hair care, skin care and beard care, with outdoor-inspired scents, and it is sold through the major retailers as well as directly ⁴.

Who it suits. A man who wants the whole bathroom covered by one brand, at a price where nothing is a big decision, from a shop he is already standing in.

What he might want instead. Depth rather than breadth. Face care is one part of a wide catalogue here, and men who become interested in what a serum can do tend to start looking for brands where the face is the whole business. Scent is the other reason. The outdoor-inspired fragrances are a feature for most men and a reason to look elsewhere for the few with reactive skin.

Horace

Horace is Parisian, sells across face, hair, body, shaving and fragrance, and has boutiques including one in London. Its stated philosophy is co-creation: "our products are co-created by you. We hear what you need, and we formulate the treatment", under the line "look good, smell good, be you" ⁵.

The brand states that all its products are "at least 80% of natural origin", excluding SPF 50 sunscreens, and that they are "made with love in our factories across France" ⁵. It is also unusually explicit about inclusivity, saying its products are for all skin, complexions and hair types ⁵.

Who it suits. A man who cares how the bottle looks on the shelf, wants hair and skin from the same place, and likes the French approach of good manners over hard claims.

What he might want instead. Numbers. Horace leads publicly with origin, formulation and design rather than with trial figures, which is a legitimate way to run a brand. If what you want is a percentage with a panel size and a duration attached, you are shopping for a different kind of company.

All three are good at breadth. If what you want is depth in two or three steps, you are not looking for a better version of these brands. You are looking for a different shape of brand entirely.

What to judge any of them on

Four questions do most of the work, and none of them is about price.

Where the actives come from. A plant name is not a specification. How the material was grown, processed and stabilised decides how much of it is still active by the time it reaches your face.

Whether it was measured on men. Men's skin produces more sebum and behaves differently at the surface, measured in vivo across 300 people ⁶. Results from a general panel do not transfer automatically.

Whether skin tone was considered. Around the eye especially, because the causes of dark circles differ by tone and respond to different things ⁷. Almost nothing in men's skincare accounts for it.

Whether fragrance is optional. A preference, not a rule. It matters if your skin reacts, since fragrance allergy is second only to nickel as a cause of allergic contact dermatitis ⁸.

Where we sit

YCODE is a narrow proposition by comparison. We work on the face and the eye area, on microalgae, and every formula is fragrance-free.

The Chlorella vulgaris in our formulas is grown in closed photobioreactors in Iceland and Barcelona rather than harvested from the sea, then cold-pressed and stabilised, so it cannot carry heavy metals, pesticides or microplastics from open water. That is a sourcing decision before it is a story, and the detail is here.

The Mattifying Moisturiser is a moisturiser first: deep hydration that holds all day, formulated for every skin type, with oil balanced and the look of pores refined. Used with the face serum as a regime, across 50 men over four weeks, 90% said their skin felt deeply hydrated and 90% that it stayed moisturised all day.

YCODE Mattifying Moisturiser, independent consumer trial ADSL 2025-0057, 53 men, four weeks.

The Advanced Eye Serum comes in three formulas matched to skin tone. Its figures are from published ingredient studies run by Eurofins Dermscan on 111 volunteers of mean age 42, at 15 minutes and 15 days, rather than a consumer trial of the finished product, and we would rather label that clearly than blur it: 90% dark circles visibly reduced, 89% under-eye bags reduced, 86% fine lines and wrinkles smoothed. The point of it is simply that you look less tired.

How to choose without wasting six months

Work out what you were buying. Breadth, advice at a counter, a low price, a beautiful object, or measured results on your face. Most disappointment in this category comes from buying one of those and expecting another.

Then change one product at a time, give it a fortnight, and judge it in daylight at the end of a working day.

Our two-minute skin analysis will narrow it to a single product if you would rather not do the work. We have also written the same sort of piece on alternatives to Bulldog, alternatives to Cardon and alternatives to Lumin.

Written by

Freddie Sheridan

I started YCODE because most skincare was never designed for men’s skin. What I write here is what the formulators taught me, and what the trials actually found.

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