If the industry is any indication—with the plethora of recent detail-fixated men’s grooming blogs like the product obsessed Manface or SkinCareForMen, Birchbox’srecent subdivision into gender and an ever-increasing availability of ways to trick out your facial hair for the selvedge denim set—style matters. And style begins with the body and does not include acne, under-eye circles and overall pallor (barring, perhaps, the most recent Saint Laurent ad campaign).
“The world has come to a different place now when it comes to men taking care of themselves, I think men spend more time looking in the mirror than women do,” the MAC makeup artist John. S purrs in a recent ++men’s cosmetics instructional video++ () on MAC’s website. Online vendors of men’s cosmetics (Menaji, 4Voo and KenMen) have all reported annual surges in sales, while tony department store brands like Jean Paul Gaultier, Yves Saint Laurent and Clinique all produce men’s cosmetics. Boutique companies like the British Ilamasqua and the New York based Enter Pronoun aggressively market to both sexes and offer androgynously packaged product to match. Enter Pronoun’s creator, Natalia Ramirez, touts her product’s ability to cover everything from “pimples to bruises to 5-o’clock shadow to tattoos.”
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