Posted on 10/28/2019 7:14:31 AM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
Come on boys, vogue! The youngest generation’s greater willingness to embrace nontraditional gender norms has opened up a new market within the beauty industry: men’s makeup.
One-third of young men said they would consider wearing makeup, according to Morning Consult polling, while 23 percent of all men said the same. Founders of men’s cosmetic brands credit the increased interest among young men not only to a wider acceptance of the idea that gender is fluid but also to the pressure to be picture perfect at any moment, thanks to social media.
“The stigma associated with buying and purchasing this product is starting to diminish,” said Andrew Grella, founder and CEO of the men’s makeup brand Formen Inc., with the country’s youngest consumers taking up the mantle of socially normalizing men’s use of cosmetics.
Thirty-three percent of men ages 18-29 said they would consider wearing makeup, while another 30 percent of men ages 30-44 reported said they’d be open to the idea as well. The data collected from 2,142 men in a Sept. 24-26 survey of 4,400 U.S. adults has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Men have dabbled with makeup throughout modernity, but it’s only recently that men’s cosmetics has slipped into the mainstream. In August 2018, Chanel debuted a line of men’s makeup, called Boy de Chanel, that includes a foundation and an eyebrow pencil. CoverGirl named social media influencer James Charles as the first male face of the brand in October 2016, and Maybelline followed suit three months later when it made Manny Gutierrez, another influencer, as its first male New York ambassador. A Google Trends graph of online searches for “men’s makeup” shows a greater interest in the topic in the last few years.
“The rise of social media, and just the ubiquity of it, should not be underplayed,” said Devir Kahan, co-founder of the men’s makeup brand Stryx. Every moment is capturable — and postable — for the generations who have grown up with smartphones in their hands and new definitions of privacy.
Related: Most Americans Liked Gillette’s Ad on ‘Toxic Masculinity’
“You’re taking selfies and sharing videos and on FaceTime — meaning you never know when you’re going to need to be ‘camera ready,'” Kahan said.
The anonymity and discretion that comes with online shopping, which still only accounts for about 10 percent of all retail sales, has also helped fuel the sub-industry, Formen’s Grella said.
However, he’s now seeing a segment of male consumers ready to emerge from the privacy of their bathrooms and shop in spaces, such as pop-up stores or stand-alone shops, specifically meant to sell makeup to men.
Young men’s attitudes about beauty differ from their male peers overall, according to the survey, although there’s widespread agreement on caring about one’s appearance. Men ages 18-29 are more likely than their elders to reject the idea that it’s taboo for men to wear makeup and they are less likely to report discomfort over using products primarily marketed toward the opposite gender. Younger men are also 15 points less likely to agree that makeup is for women.
Male influencers who apply makeup are also becoming more prevalent. Six of the 25 top beauty influencers on a February 2019 list from Izea Worldwide Inc., a technology platform that connects marketers with influential content creators, were men. That included makeup maven Jeffree Star, who was among the highest-paid YouTube stars, according to Forbes’ 2018 ranking, with $18 million in earnings.
But there’s an important distinction between the makeup tutorials Star creates and the products sold by brands such as Formen and Stryx. Star usually wears a full face of makeup, jewel-toned eyeshadows and fake nails; the products sold by most men’s makeup brands are strategically low-key and largely used to cover up “imperfections.”
“We’re doing products that fix the issues on the face” such as scars, discoloration or everyday blemishes, said Grella.
Formen sells seven individual products, including four cosmetic items: two concealers, blotting powder and CC (color correcting) cream. Stryx offers two products, a concealer and a tinted moisturizer. Both are direct-to-consumer brands, and prices are roughly reflective of cosmetics for women from DTC companies.
Male consumers like this more subdued approach, according to the poll: Coverup, concealer and tinted moisturizer ranked high in a list of products men would try, while feminine staples such as blush and mascara ranked lower.
No major drugstore brand carries a line of makeup specifically marketed to men, even CoverGirl and Maybelline. Twenty-three percent of men said they’d be more likely to try makeup if brands had dedicated products just for men, and 18 percent said they’d be likely to try it if stores had dedicated employees to explain and test men’s makeup.
Although new perceptions of gender — more specifically, the greater acceptance of gender fluidity — have also opened the door to young men’s greater acceptance of more traditionally feminine products and services, marketing for cosmetics for men still retains a heavily masculine sensibility.
For example, British male cosmetics line War Paint used a promotional clip in May that featured a toned and tattooed man putting on a skull ring after applying the brand’s eponymous makeup. (The video faced criticism for promoting “toxic masculinity” and has since been taken down.)
Sales in the men’s personal care market are projected to see steady growth, reaching $4.5 billion this year in the United States, according to a September report from market research firm Mintel Group Ltd. The report said sales are primarily driven by products such as shampoos and deodorants but predicted that brands would benefit from a “new prioritization presenting a healthy appearance.” Globally, the industry is set to reach $166 billion by 2022, per an October 2016 Allied Market Research study, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.4 percent between 2016 and 2022.
Educating men about products and getting guys to experiment will be key to growth of the makeup category, Grella and Kahan both said, and re-familiarizing men with products that they know of but never thought were suited for them.
“Women grew up with makeup — it’s a multibillion-dollar industry,” Grella said. “Whereas men, they haven’t grown up with it. They haven’t had it on the counter. Their fathers never used it. They don’t have it in the bathroom.” Changing that might take a few generations, he said.
Lol Ann Coulter is weird anyway.
It would take many of these guys to force make up on my sons and their daddy!
I think they should.
That way...we’d see’m coming.
But wouldn’t their mascara run when they cried?
They must have “polled” a disproportionate number of fags.
I wore makeup once.
I was being filmed for a tv show.
Careful... That is how Shemp Smith started. Next thing you know you are dancing in a G-String and Chaps on a stage at a gay bar.
That pic looks like an over the hill gay boy band who cut up grandma’s lace table cloth to sew their own costumes.
It was about five years ago and I’ve managed to stay out of gay bars since then. I think I’m safe
They’d have to ask their mommies if they can wear lipstick first.
If it has been 5 years you are probably safe. Make sure you do look out for the first warning signs. If you start belting out show tunes or adoring Liza Minnelli immediately join an MMA club and have it beat out of you. You can never drop your guard. It is like dropping the soap in prison. Very very risky.
And when you’re long gone - and nobody remembers James Bond &c - your descendants will have completely different temporal notions of ‘style’ than you did, or your children do today -
(as it ever was, and as *meaningless* as it ever intrinsically was :-)
Please God NO.
Women do NOT want their men to wear makeup, dresses, or anything like that.
We want MEN.
Someone who can truly be our ‘other half’.
Not us.
Correct.
It is horribly evil and forever unforgivable to wear makeup to imitate someone that is is a different culture, even if in admiration of that person.
But if they wear makeup to imitate someone of a different sex, everyone is FORCED to PRETEND, HONOR, GIVE EXCEPTION and repeat EXACTLY their desired words they insist we say. All at the cost of permanent retribution in academic success, job, reputation, ability to support your family, and freedom.
I went through high school during the 1970s - the disco era. Boys would come to school in platform shoes, women's blouses, girly necklaces and long hair styled in a very feminine manner. Think Andy Gibb (pictured below). There were kids in my high school that emulated that look. Then the 1980s came with all the "hair bands" like Motley Crue who literally could pass for women, well from the backside anyhow.
What I'm saying is it's not the end of civilization and it's not the end of manhood. Almost all of these "pretty boys" grow out of it.
At least the guys with the pretty hair,etc. seemed to actually like girls. And let them run their fingers through their hair, etc. Now the guys want other guys to play with them.
I don’t remember any guys altering their voices to try sound like they they think a woman talks. Unless of course they were making fun of them.
All this pretending of being women, when you think about it, is making fun of them. The Stereotyping women voices and over animating female gestures and walking. Totally ridiculous and pathetic.
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