Brian'S Best Beard Balm

Brian’s Best Beard Balm brings you the best natural ingredients in our products to give your beard that extra special attention it needs to stand out.

Great Scots Male Grooming Co. is a modern, yet traditional approach to male grooming. Handmade in Scotland by a bearded man for bearded men, Great Scots delivers a core range of high quality grooming products for men without all the fancy stuff that make us men feel uncomfortable and quite frankly claustrophobic.

As the owner and founder of Great Scots Male Grooming Co. I (Wilson) am extremely proud to be bringing my range of high quality male grooming products to market as it has been quite a journey to get to this point. As a young man travelling the world and enjoying the backpacker lifestyle, this led me to sunny beach destinations and just like many young Brits and Irish abroad I neglected to protect my skin adequately from the harsh UV rays that were the source of many good times.

Alas this was not going to last forever and I returned to sunny (not so) Scotland where the severe change in weather affected my skin in an ever so unexpected way. All of a sudden I broke out in red patches on both of my cheeks and my friends jokingly blamed it on too much drinking whilst abroad. I ignored this for a while but as the stresses of modern life in Britain accumulated, the red patches started to migrate all over my face and forehead and became lumpy and bumpy and much like a severe acne.

Distressed, I attended my doctor's surgery where they diagnosed a combination of Rosacea and Acne, gave me some antibiotics and said it should clear up. They did. . . . for a little while and at a cost too, for my gut had been obliterated by the antibiotics and I had constant stomach problems. Over the course of 6 years I have had various different long term antibiotic treatments, umpteen visits to the dermatologist and all have left me with constant stomach problems and I was still left with red patches, albeit slightly better than when I first started treatment. The point is nothing the doctors prescribed was or has really worked for me.

I started to become pretty desperate. I was never a self conscious person growing up but all of a sudden I wouldn't like pictures of myself as they always highlighted the severe redness I was afflicted with. As a result of trawling forums on the issue I came across people with Rosacea and Acne saying that they had some successes with tea tree oil and so this sparked the real beginnings of what would lead me to my brand Great Scots Co. The more I read up on the benefits to my skin of carrier oils and essential oils the more I became excited at the prospect of finding something that might just help. I started to add a few drops of essential oil to moisturising cream to apply at night and in the morning but I of course got my girlfriend to go out and get it for me. Obviously I couldn't be seen doing such an unmanly thing as buying moisturiser.

Eventually I learned that other males with similar skin conditions grew beards which meant the naturally occurring sebum (the natural oil) on the skin was utilised to nourish the beard and so reduced over production on the face and led to reduced inflammation and redness. Reading this inspired me to learn more about this and that is when I came across beard oils and balms and the benefits to the health of beard hair and skin. I decided to experiment with making my own products and fragrances and here we are today.

I must say that since growing a beard I have noticed a massively significant reduction in redness, soreness, itchiness and flakiness. All the things those with skin conditions know all too well.

Once I grew a beard I realised just how messy it could look and wiry it felt and knew at this point (being a professional) I also needed to take control of my beard and ensure that it was well groomed, maintained and smelled great at all times. To create a perfectly styled, well groomed beard would take patience and effort on my part, but after 6 years of hunting for a solution to my problem, patience was something I had.

The hand crafted and personal nature of my products means that you can be certain that a good deal of care and attention went into making them.