New unisex skincare brand Context taps gender neutrality and simplifies the skincare routine for both men and women. Launched backstage at New York Fashion Week, the brand has aligned itself with high fashion values.

Context aims to simplify the skin cleansing and care process for both men and women to just six necessary products, which comprise a cleanser, exfoliant, toner, moisturiser, eye cream and a night cream.

There is the argument that male and female skin behaves differently – men produce more sebum than women, and women’s skin is more susceptible to wrinkles. The brand’s moisturiser is oil-free, contains cinnamon, which controls excess sebum production, and also boasts SPF properties to protect against sun damage.

The line was launched backstage at NYFW in September 2015, where the products were used to prep the skin of both male and female models walking the Public School catwalk. This strategy aligns the brand with high fashion values, and immediately generates a covetable buzz. See The Economy of Cult Beauty for more on how brands tap the allure of backstage beauty in their quest to achieve cult status.

The brand is an example of gender neutrality we explore in Fashion & Beauty: Liberating Gender, where brands are bucking gender signifiers and offering a more minimal approach to beauty. That said, the future of unisex skincare (see our report Unisex Beauty) will be interesting to track over the coming year as we expect hyper-personalisation to drive beauty brands away from umbrella products such as these to target individual concerns.