The Changing Face of Male Beauty Standards

Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty took the world by surprise when they revealed that Best Actor nominee Daniel Kaluuya wore their best-selling Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Loungewear Foundation at the 2018 Oscars with the caption “Who said men don’t use #FENTYBEAUTY?! 😏 “ Kaluuya was absolutely glowing and everyone on the internet was living for the look. This came at a time when people were having conversations about the redefinition of masculinity, and the beauty industry is at the forefront.

Men wearing makeup isn’t an entirely new concept. The age of beauty bloggers and vloggers gave rise to popular male social media personalities like Manny Gutierrez, James Charles, and Bretman Rock. However, their viewership remained majority female and LGBTQIA, so the trend still seemed to unintentionally exclude the cisgendered male.

There still seems to remain a societal stigma to walk into a beauty store to ask for makeup products. Even the careful selection of skincare products rather than just picking the first thing off a drugstore shelf is sometimes viewed as taboo. An interest in beauty products shows a man concerned with grooming and his looks, which does not fit into society’s standards of what “real men” should be doing.

It is believed, however, that this might be changing due to the next generation. Gen Z and Millennials have grown up in generally more accepting environments, where they feel safer in being authentically who they are. We decided to explore whether these sentiments hold true and to explore the discourse around men wearing makeup. Using our AI model, we also accessed how current male makeup brands were reaching their target audience and what their responses have been.

After reviewing over 1000 Instagram posts relating to male makeup brands, including War Paint For Men, House of Formen, Shakeup Cosmetics, MMUK Man, and Stryx, and related keywords, we found that the most common makeup products mentioned were foundation, contour, and eyebrow pencil, to create a more “no-makeup makeup” look.

Our semiotic analysis of these brands’ images and text captions revealed that they tend to have more pictures of well-groomed men, which highlight the feature-enhancing aspect of makeup, with some of the most popular labels being “coverage”, “conceal” and “tan”. Labels addressing men’s skin concerns are also featured frequently on their social media, like “skin”, “pores”, “protection” and “SPF”.

There’s also an evident shift in the way these brands are speaking to their consumers. Traditionally, marketing toward males tends to highlight traditional masculinity, including one’s physical strength or financial success. Beauty brands, however, take a more “value-driven” approach towards them. We see videos of ambassadors openly talking about their insecurities, and posts about their advocacy for mental health initiatives. By being open and vulnerable, these brands are creating a judgment-free, safe space for their consumers, which is reassuring for consumers.

Another key observation we made was that many posts were actually created by Asians. More specifically, and somewhat unsurprisingly, China and South Korea.

Shifting male beauty standards have helped to normalize makeup amongst men in these places. K-pop idols and young Chinese celebrities, the xiaoxianrou (“little fresh meat”), with their flawless skin and delicate features have become the look that many of these men want to achieve. Stars like Wang Yuan, G Dragon, and EXO’s Kai and Sehun were also ambassadors for beauty brands like L’Oreal, Moonshot, Dr Jart+, and, Bobbi Brown, which helped accelerate this trend.

Through our Culture AI, we found a darker, subtle color palette of grays, black, and hunter green. Since these images feature mostly product packaging and advertising, these tones may infer that men may still want to be discreet about their makeup purchases. Darker colors don’t bring attention and are still considered more “manly” by society standards.

In comparison, We Are Fluide, TooD Beauty and Noto Botanics, and Jecca Blac, brands that market their products for all genders, feature a rainbow of brighter, bolder colors. Google Ads show that these brands are still being searched for more by women, leaning 74% female as compared to males.

Our model also detected both Solitude and Affiliation as the top emotions of the posts, extracted from the various pictures of brand ambassadors and advertising. The other emotions were Sensuality, Creativity, and Fear, perhaps signifying the brands’ attempts to serve the different needs of these men, from expressing their creativity to facing their fears of being judged.

Our research showed us that aside from the rise of natural-looking makeup amongst men, social media posts relating to “male makeup” are still dominated by groups of talented creators doing innovative, glamorous makeup looks. However, most of them are still openly associated with or members of the LGBTQIA community. This implies that makeup still may not be an acceptable form of creative expression for the cis-gendered male, even in this day and age.

In studying the comments left on these posts, we found that the sentiments towards male makeup brands and other related keywords were actually overwhelmingly more positive (97%), as compared to negative (3%), with some of the most common words and phrases being “love”, “beautiful” and “wow”.

The negative sentiments on the other hand, mostly come from men. While there are only a few comments poking fun at the men for being “feminine”, the majority of the comments actually argued that no one should wear makeup, as it was hiding behind a mask or even “catfishing” others. In fact, it’s very similar to the kind of comments women get for wearing makeup as well.

The discourse around men wearing makeup certainly still is divided, but we have seen huge strides in it becoming more acceptable globally. Our advice to beauty brands would be to highlight how their products will be beneficial and why they should be an essential part of their grooming routine. Their messaging also needs to be inclusive and comforting when conveying the idea to their consumers, so as to ease any fears they may have.

While the conversation around men in makeup is mostly supportive, and systemic views on “masculinity” certainly are changing, it remains a slow burn. Ultimately, the best way to draw consumers would be to offer reassurance, create “value” for their customers, and be transparent in what they stand for.

Write to anurag.banerjee@quilt.ai to learn more about the latest beauty trends and AI-powered research.

Originally published at https://www.quilt.ai on May 30, 2022.