Huh?
Make-up for men, you ask? Yes, you read correctly.
It
began with the world of skin-care opening the door to male-centered
products and services ranging from simple skin-care lines
and shower products to extensive spa services and many
more in-depth male grooming practices that have
conventionally been associated with the female of the
species – a movement that has coined these men as “metrosexuals”.
But how far will the metrosexual movement go? Will
cosmetics for men become the future norm for males in our
society? Or will the make-up industry that is gearing its
new products towards the male population in the hopes that
it will cash in on the metrosexual movement, disappear as
quickly as it surfaced?
How
Are Men Responding To the Idea of Wearing Make-up?
However
comfortable men may have become with investing much more
time and money than traditionally expected, many men still
cringe at the thought of applying make-up, let alone
wearing it out in public. Cosmetics, for many men, have
just been too long attached to femininity. You may be
surprised to learn however, that the introduction of male
cosmetics hasn’t produced too shabby a response. As the
association between beauty treatments and feminine
sexuality becomes looser and male primping becomes more
accepted, make-up for men has increased in supply and
demand. Despite the fact that there is no shortage of the
traditional “macho” view that make-up is strictly for
girls only and that any man that uses cosmetics lacks
masculinity, to date, the response to male-geared
cosmetics has been sufficient to keep the movement rolling
along. In fact, close to one-thousand new products in the
category have been introduced in the past several years.
Breaking Them In Slowly
One of
the reasons that cosmetics for men has gained enough
momentum to be successful in sticking around may be the
fact that its marketing has taken a completely different
approach than cosmetic lines geared towards women.
Obviously, there is no way make-up for men can be
successful if it doesn’t find a way to appeal to the
everyday man. Marketing strategies that have proved
successful have included ditching the terms “make-up” and
“cosmetics” altogether and replacing them with “corrective
products for men”. Other cosmetic vocabulary that has
undergone the gender-focused shift include what most women
know as foundation, bronzer, and concealer – now known as
Improver, Enhancer, and Confidence Corrector to cosmetic-sporting,
metrosexual men. Simply changing the presentation of
cosmetic products may be primarily responsible for
engaging even the most resistant men.
If
Your Interested In Giving It A Try
If
you’re open minded enough to give “corrective products for
men” a try then you have a few options. The most talked-about
and celebrity-frequented product, called Menaji, produces
all of the corrective products referenced above for men
and boasts clients such as Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt.
However, in actual tests involving men from the general
public, more seemed to prefer a line called 4VOO. The good
news is that if you’re a little apprehensive about
searching out corrective products at the cosmetics counter
at your local mall – (someone you know might see you,
after all) – both companies sell their men’s corrective
line through their website.
