More beauty brands are turning towards gender-free marketing than ever before.
Back in 2019, a fledgling cosmetics company called War Paint came under fire for its over-the-top rebranding of traditional makeup to make it more “manly”. The company’s founder pointed toward the importance of reducing stigma for men who want to buy cosmetics, believing that edgier marketing and packaging would make the product more accessible to men.
While makeup for men has yet to cross over into the mainstream in the U.S., it’s more common now that it ever has been before thanks to the ongoing conversation around gender identity. And in countries like South Korea and Japan, men’s makeup has been on the shelves–and regularly used–for decades.
Now, thanks to a newly announced collaboration between cult favorite makeup brand Anastasia Beverly Hills and high fashion brand Dundas, the concept of gender-neutral makeup is in the public eye again. But a glance around the beauty industry will quickly tell you that genderfluid makeup is slowly making its way towards the mainstream.
Why Makeup Is Becoming Unisex
Called Dundas Enhancers, the new makeup line is toted as “enhancing rather than covering up skin.” Enhancers is the first product in the line, which launches in 2023, Women’s Wear Daily reports, but there will be more to come in the collection in future.
Gender has become a big topic in retail over the last decade, leading many stores to adjust company policies and product lines to allow for more inclusivity in branding and marketing.
Estee Lauder (EL) – Get Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (The) Report brands MAC and Tom Ford Beauty have successfully embraced cosmetics as marketable to all genders. Cover Girl hired its first cover boy, 17-year-old influencer James Charles, in 2017. In 2021, just after the mega-star Harry Styles dropped his non-binary beauty line, searches for men’s beauty products jumped up by 393%.
Meanwhile, stores specifically catered to cosmetics like Sephora (LVMHF) and Ulta (ULTA) – Get Ulta Beauty Inc. Report also sell numerous brands that incorporate genderfluid marketing.
A Quick, Gendered History of Makeup
Makeup has an interesting history, particularly with regards to gender, and cosmetics have popped up throughout and been used by all kinds of people.
Influential men in China used a form of natural nail polish as far back as nearly 3000 BCE (a tradition that’s making a return in the country today). Ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Koreans of all genders, but particularly men, used makeup like rouge and lip tint to signify wealth, power, and social standing.
In late 19th-century France, makeup was once again a sign of status, wealth, and even excess. After the French Revolution, the use of makeup fell out of fashion — especially for men. The Enlightenment movement valued transparency and plainness, which gave way to the favoring of “natural” and “inner beauty”, and makeup was considered a form of dishonesty.
This ideology would continue into the conservative Victorian era. To be seen buying makeup was quite the scandal. It wasn’t until the 1920s that lipstick and rouge would come back into favor thanks to actresses and suffragettes. But the idea that makeup was exclusively for women carried over from the more conservative Enlightenment days.
Closer to the turn of the century, the 1970s-1990s saw the use of makeup for men as a signal of rebellion. It was reserved for rock stars like David Bowie or Prince. The 1990s and 2000s gave way to the cringeworthy “metrosexual” trend, which tried to make self-care “manly” again.
But major labels were exploring ways to break the gendered cosmetics mold then as well. Calvin Klein’s enormously popular fragrance CKOne was marketed to both women and men, and MAC Cosmetics debuted a collaborative makeup line with drag celebrity RuPaul.
In recent years, many companies have swerved to avoid the PR trainwreck War Paint created. Instead of marketing to men who would not buy anything labeled “makeup for women”, why not acknowledge that makeup, as a product itself, has no gender. Perhaps the best move to remove stigma isn’t to make the product itself “more manly”, but instead acknowledge – and market to – the wide variety of people who’ve been using makeup all along.
