How Many Men Wear Makeup Regularly

A pretty-male child esthetic popularized by 1000-popular idols in S Korea is helping to fuel the $7-billion Korean cosmetics industry. Not just is makeup for men already mainstream, industry experts say it'due south only trending upwards.

Young June Park, 26, after applying BB foam. He says the goal among most men, including friends who wear makeup or concealer, is to achieve a natural await. (Matt Kwong/CBC)

Information technology'south not about scruffy, or swarthy, or rugged. For men, it'southward all nigh that "chok-chok" radiance.

The de rigueur look in Due south Korea, literally translated equally a "dewy" glow, has long been associated with femininity. But a pretty-boy esthetic popularized by One thousand-pop idols is helping to fuel the $7-billion Korean cosmetics industry. Not simply is makeup pour homme already mainstream, industry experts say it's just trending up.

Afterward parking his machine in an aisle in Seoul's Songpa commune, 26-twelvemonth-erstwhile Young June Park demonstrated his regimen.

He started with a x,000 won ($12 Cdn) tube of limited-edition Tony Moly tinted BB foam, or "blemish lotion." He squirted a dollop onto a pink applicator sponge: "Just a puff," he said. Then he blended with a practiced efficiency using his rear-view mirror.

Young applies a dollop of BB cream to a blending sponge. The actor and model says it's common for men in South korea to wear makeup. He plans to begin selling a line of beauty facial masks. (Matt Kwong/CBC)

The actor, model and restaurateur said he wears BB cream for job interviews, when hit the clubs, and definitely on a engagement. Information technology smoothes his complexion, fills in his pores and protects his confront from ultra-violet rays.

Young applies BB cream with a blending sponge in his auto. S Korean men are believed to spend the most per capita on cosmetics products of all men in the world. (Matt Kwong/CBC)

Skin care is big business concern in South korea, where the M-beauty industry is estimated to be valued at around $7.2 billion, built largely on pricey formulations such equally "snail mucin," or purified snail slime.

Millennial men are helping to drive sales and reportedly spending more per capita on skin intendance than men anywhere else in the world. S Korea accounts for nearly i-fifth of the global market for male cosmetics.

David Cho, who co-founded the Soko Glam Korean beauty website with his wife Charlotte, said male cosmetics has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Only as "metrosexual" now sounds like an antiquated term for a man who appreciates grooming and way, Cho said, it could be a matter of time before the male makeup movement goes outside Asia.

"I practise believe men in North America are just behind on this," he said.

The trends in Korea are defying heteronormative expectations in a club sometimes viewed equally socially conservative and where traditional gender roles often prevail.

War machine service is mandatory for men, and K-dazzler is then much a part of the culture that designer cover-up is available to servicemen seeking a gentler product, possibly with peel-tightening properties.

Actor Song Joong-ki, left, shown in a 2016 file photo with actor Song Hye-kyo, is a idol in South Korea and is known for his polish complexion. (The Associated Press)

Park, scrolling through his phone, recited the names of some popular brands of Army cover-up: "Dandy Guy Perfect Camo Cream," he said. "And this one has some SPF: Farthermost Power Camo Foam."

At cosmetics shops around Seoul, men's sections characteristic posters of male models with alabaster skin, shaped eyebrows, and what looks like more than just a dab of lipstick.

Male idols include the 40-year-sometime actor Won Bin, described by the news culture website Korean Exposé every bit "boyishly handsome," and the 32-twelvemonth-old thespian Song Joong-ki, who reportedly attributes his off-white complexion to washing his face with milk every dark. Besides, the iv 20-something singers in the male child band SHINee are known for wearing eye makeup.

A screenshot from a website shows a brand of cover-up for the face up that is marketed to military machine servicemen in South Korea. (Screenshot)

On a visit to Seoul last month, male grooming commentator David Yi, founder of the Very Good Light men's beauty website, said he saw multiple Army servicemen carrying cushion compacts — BB foam in compact form — on the metro.

"Generation Z no longer sees this gender binary," Yi said. "Immature men are actually into their eyebrows, into their hair, and they'll always put on BB cream."

He said Republic of korea's ethnic homogeneity might have bred a hyper-competitive culture in which "your pare, your advent can give yous a leg up." And a youthful face can project energy and professional obedience.

Tony Medina, founder and CEO of Seoul Guide Medical, says many people seeking plastic surgery in Seoul are in their 20s and 30s. He said it's too mutual for men to wear makeup. (Matt Kwong/CBC)

Job applicants are unremarkably expected to submit headshots with their resumes in a country that's known as the plastic-surgery uppercase of the world. A 2015 report past the International Order of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery estimated that surgeons performed effectually 20 procedures per 1,000 people in the Korean population.

Walk through the fashionable Gangnam neighbourhood of Seoul and it'due south likely you'll see people walking in and out of the commune's many plastic-surgery clinics with bandaged noses, eyes and chins.

"Alpine nose, bigger eyes, and a chiselled jawline are very popular for men," said Tony Medina, the Canadian CEO of Seoul Guide Medical, a medical tourism company in Gangnam. Western "macho" ideals aren't as conventionally beautiful to many South Koreans, he said.

A human with a bandage on his chin rides the elevator at a plastic surgery dispensary in the Gangnam district of Seoul. South Korea is known as a cosmetic surgery capital of the earth, with many clients in their 20s and 30s. (Matt Kwong/CBC)

"You lot don't have to exist 250 pounds of rock-hard muscle to be manlike," he said from one of his clinics. "Macho can hateful you lot accept care of your pare."

In Seoul, skin-perfecting BB foam is so ubiquitous that many men don't even consider it makeup. In fact, Medina revealed, "I'm wearing BB cream right now. A mixture of BB cream and almond cream."

"Very natural!" remarked a friend and customer who was visiting the clinic, a 29-yr-old Canadian YouTube celebrity in Republic of korea who only goes by the name "Haeppy."

Haeppy dismissed stereotypes about men who wearable makeup.

"It's like, 'He's wearing makeup, he must be gay,'" said Haeppy, whose YouTube channel has a 300,000-strong following in South Korea. "Information technology's not that situation here at all. Afterward I started shaping my eyebrows and ended up putting makeup on and stuff when I get out to clubs, information technology's completely different. It's ridiculous, actually, the attention I'll get from girls."

K-popular idol group SHINee performs in Seoul in this 2011 file photo. Grouping members are often seen wearing centre makeup. (Jo Yong-Hak/Reuters)

The YouTube star'southward co-host and business partner, Xander, who was also at the clinic, quoted a line from the film American Beauty to explain the tendency: "In order to be successful, one must project an image of success."

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/korean-men-makeup-cosmetics-mainstream-1.4552761

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