Brands
French Essence launches men’s grooming brand MENZ
Mumbai: French Essence, a perfume brand recognised for its quality, has launched MENZ, a new entity focused on premium grooming products for men. With this expansion, French Essence Perfumes enters the men’s grooming market, offering a range of products including shaving foam, aftershave, hair spray, and other essential grooming items.
The MENZ brand is designed to meet the needs of modern men seeking high-quality grooming solutions. Each product in the MENZ range is crafted with the same commitment to excellence that French Essence is known for, ensuring a luxurious grooming experience. MENZ provides everything a man needs, from smooth shaving foam and invigorating aftershave to versatile hair spray.
French Essence founder & CMO Nidhi Gupta expressed her views, “We are thrilled to introduce MENZ as part of the French Essence family. Our goal with MENZ is to provide men with grooming products that not only meet their daily needs but also elevate their grooming routine with a touch of elegance and refinement. We believe MENZ will become a trusted name in men’s grooming, just as French Essence is in the category of fragrances.”
The MENZ grooming range is now available in stores as well as in online marketplaces. French Essence Perfumes invites every alpha male to explore this new collection and experience the perfect blend of quality, style, and care that MENZ offers.
Brands
Kansai Nerolac tests paint in stratosphere for durability proof
Excel Everlast sent to 86,000 ft, survives -64°C and extreme UV exposure
MUMBAI: If walls could talk, this one would say it’s been to space and back. Kansai Nerolac has taken product testing to dizzying new heights quite literally by sending its exterior paint into the stratosphere in a bid to prove durability beyond the lab. In what the company calls a first for the Indian paint industry, a stratospheric balloon carried a payload coated with its Excel Everlast paint to an altitude of 86,000 feet above Earth. Up there, conditions are less “extreme weather” and more “near space”: temperatures drop below -64°C, ultraviolet radiation hits unfiltered, and atmospheric pressure is only a fraction of what it is at sea level.
Most materials struggle to survive such a hostile environment. This one didn’t. According to the campaign, the painted surface returned intact no visible damage, no compromise effectively turning a marketing claim into a high-altitude experiment.
The initiative, conceptualised by ULKA, moves away from simulated lab tests to something far more theatrical and verifiable. The campaign film documents the entire journey, positioning the exercise as proof rather than promise.
The test also doubles as a showcase for the Excel Everlast range, which includes features such as nano-silica-based protection, 30 per cent higher toughness and crack-bridging capability, along with a 20-year warranty claims now dramatised under conditions few buildings will ever face.
For Kansai Nerolac, the stunt is less about spectacle and more about signalling intent: in a category often dominated by functional messaging, it’s an attempt to turn durability into something tangible and memorable.
Because when your paint survives near-space, the neighbourhood monsoon suddenly feels like a very small test.
