What Percentage Of Males Wear Makeup

Brands

Every bit Beauty Norms Blur, Ane-Third of Young Men Say They'd Consider Wearing Cosmetics

Men'due south makeup brands say stigma has fallen equally rising of social media fuels interest in appearance-enhancing products

Getty Images / Morning Consult illustration past Samantha Elbouez

Oct 28, 2019 at 12:01 am ET

Come up on boys, vogue! The youngest generation's greater willingness to encompass nontraditional gender norms has opened up a new market within the beauty industry: men'southward makeup.

Ane-third of young men said they would consider wearing makeup, according to Morning Consult polling, while 23 pct of all men said the same. Founders of men's cosmetic brands credit the increased interest amidst young men not just to a wider acceptance of the idea that gender is fluid but also to the pressure to be movie 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'southward makeup brand Formen Inc., with the country's youngest consumers taking upwardly 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 ii,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, just it's only recently that men'due south cosmetics has slipped into the mainstream. In August 2018, Chanel debuted a line of men'southward makeup, called Boy de Chanel, that includes a foundation and an eyebrow pencil. CoverGirl named social media influencer James Charles as the beginning male face up of the brand in October 2016, and Maybelline followed adapt three months later on when it made Manny Gutierrez, another influencer, as its first male person New York ambassador. A Google Trends graph of online searches for "men'south makeup" shows a greater interest in the topic in the final 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'south 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.

"Yous're taking selfies and sharing videos and on FaceTime — meaning y'all never know when you're going to need to be 'camera ready,'" Kahan said.

The anonymity and discretion that comes with online shopping, which nevertheless simply accounts for about x per centum of all retail sales, has also helped fuel the sub-manufacture, Formen's Grella said.

Yet, he's at present seeing a segment of male consumers ready to sally from the privacy of their bathrooms and shop in spaces, such as pop-up stores or stand-lone 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 at that place's widespread agreement on caring about 1's appearance. Men ages eighteen-29 are more than likely than their elders to decline the thought that it'southward taboo for men to wear makeup and they are less likely to study discomfort over using products primarily marketed toward the reverse gender. Younger men are also 15 points less likely to concord that makeup is for women.

Male influencers who apply makeup are also becoming more than prevalent. 6 of the 25 pinnacle dazzler influencers on a February 2019 list from Izea Worldwide Inc., a engineering platform that connects marketers with influential content creators, were men. That included makeup maven Jeffree Star, who was amid the highest-paid YouTube stars, according to Forbes' 2018 ranking , with $eighteen million in earnings.

But there'southward 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 confront of makeup, jewel-toned eyeshadows and simulated nails; the products sold by most men'south makeup brands are strategically low-key and largely used to encompass up "imperfections."

"We're doing products that fix the problems on the face" such equally scars, discoloration or everyday blemishes, said Grella.

Formen sells seven individual products, including iv corrective items: two concealers, blotting pulverisation and CC (color correcting) cream. Stryx offers 2 products, a concealer and a tinted moisturizer. Both are direct-to-consumer brands, and prices are roughly cogitating 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-3 pct of men said they'd be more likely to endeavour makeup if brands had dedicated products just for men, and 18 per centum said they'd exist probable to try it if stores had dedicated employees to explain and test men's makeup.

Although new perceptions of gender — more than specifically, the greater credence of gender fluidity — have also opened the door to immature men's greater credence of more traditionally feminine products and services, marketing for cosmetics for men withal retains a heavily masculine sensibility.

For instance, British male person cosmetics line War Pigment used a promotional clip in May that featured a toned and tattooed homo putting on a skull ring later on applying the brand's eponymous makeup. (The video faced criticism for promoting "toxic masculinity" and has since been taken downwardly.)

Sales in the men's personal intendance market place are projected to run across steady growth, reaching $iv.5 billion this year in the United States, co-ordinate 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 manufacture is set up to reach $166 billion by 2022, per an October 2016 Centrolineal Market place Research study , with a chemical compound annual growth rate of v.4 percentage 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 only never thought were suited for them.

"Women grew up with makeup — information technology's a multibillion-dollar industry," Grella said. "Whereas men, they oasis'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 bath." Irresolute that might take a few generations, he said.