You may have already seen this memorable blood-red peel from The Ordinary on TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram, without necessarily remembering what it’s called AHA 30% + BHA 2%. This name, like a laboratory formula, refers to the active ingredients concentrated in the product.
If you know nothing about cosmetics, this might seem like nonsense. However, The Ordinary is part of a growing trend in the beauty industry, together with Paula’s Choice, Typology or even SVR: those ofmarketing emancipated from gender norms, to better sell the effectiveness of the formulations right from the name of the products. Which is not so obvious for the sector and for part of the general public!
Separate beauty departments to reassure men’s fragile masculinity
In the women’s beauty section, this isn’t immediately apparent: brands rarely include the term on their packaging “woman” because they are the default objective of this sector that generates a lot of money: in 2019 alone the L’Oréal group achieved a turnover of around 30 billion euros, for example.
But in the men’s section there are “for Him”, “for Men”, “Men Expert”, “Dark Temptation” and other “White Now Men” (yes, we will never forget the special whitening toothpaste for men).
However, this excess of masculinity is becoming obsoleteaccording to Bonnie Garner, founder of beauty media Btyaly :
“When I started, men’s packaging abused black and metallic effects, with formulas full of alcohol for an effect intended to be invigorating and a texture that penetrates quickly, even if it stings. As if sweetness was to be avoided. »
Many products that try to best flatter the male virility with woody scents and taurine extracts that the human epidermis cannot digest.
Think better about skin type rather than gender
Why from a physiological point of view, men’s and women’s skin are not so oppositeexplains Cyrille Laurent, doctor in stem cell biology:
“Their minimal differences seem less relevant to me than classifying them by skin type and specific problems. Whether you are a man or a woman, it is less important whether you have dry, oily, dehydrated or acne-prone skin.
Men are not programmed to have much oilier and more resistant skin than women. It is rather because they generally take little care of it that it thickens as a defense mechanism. And this has its limits. »
Bonnie Garner, who has worked in various sectors of the industry, confirms:
“During my cosmetic studies that began in 2000, I was taught that men have thicker and oilier skin, with later and more rapid aging than women. But while providing in-cab assistance to customers, I noticed it a much less binary reality.
Plus, I’ve been writing about beauty for ten years, and my readers ask me exactly the same questions as my readers, so experience shows me that we’re not that different. »
Because they do not correspond to such distinct physiological realities, these gendered approaches rather aim to respond to psychological desires. Fewer and fewer against?
Demystifying beauty marketing
Through his YouTube channel in which he demystifies beauty, Cyrille Laurent realizes thismen and women are now fed up with false cosmetic promises :
“Now we can find information much easier, so there is growing distrust of marketing from brands that oversell the effects of their products.
Society has realized that taking care of oneself has nothing to do with sexuality, and now it also realizes that it has nothing to do with social gender. More and more men want to take care of their skin without wanting to buy anything. »
And it is in this sense that some brands stand out: by ceasing to make people believe that you can buy femininity in a pastel pink bottle or virility in a metallic gray jar, with names to hide behind and mysterious new ingredients. .
If The Ordinary, Typology, Cerave or even SVR are becoming fashionable, it is partly because they are dedicated to praising the scientifically proven effectiveness of their products… And because young people are tired of being ripped off.
Degenerate beauty against the pink tax
Cyrille Laurent also cites the significant example of Paula’s Choice between these brands have focused on what works clinically, rather than imagination :
“Although she has a “PC4Men” range, the founder has already admitted that these are the same formulations as her other products, just packaged differently to appeal to those for whom it would be relevant. »
Furthermore, when the same products are packaged differently in the men’s and women’s sections for marketing purposes, this is often accompanied by a price gap. To the detriment of women. This is what we call the “pink tax”: surprising when it happens within the same department, but much less visible when everything is compartmentalized by gender.
According to a New York Department of Consumer Affairs study published in 2015, women pay 13 percent more for similar products than men in cosmetics aisles. The degeneration of beauty could eliminate this gap in prices paid by women.
Making beauty more inclusive
Good news, men are less and less blocked by the idea of not having products “for them” : According to research firm Mintel, ⅔ of American male consumers use or want to use gender-free products.
As a further sign of the democratization of this gender-free cosmetics trend, stars have launched their own brands such as Rihanna with Fenty Skin and Pharrell Williams with Humanrace, claiming that all genders can use them. And we know the power of celebrities to emulate!
While 22% of French people aged between 18 and 30 feel neither male nor female, according to the controversial report by Reserved area on non-binary, genderless beauty would also better include transgender and non-binary people.
In Asia, which the West sees as the future of beauty, cosmetics are already much less gendered, according to Bonnie Garner:
“In Korea, men-specific products are mainly military service cosmetics. Otherwise, all genders generally use the same cosmetics, reflecting more on their skin type.
I think that this is the future of skincare and will soon become the standard for all cosmetic brands. »
Do you like our articles? You’ll love our newsletters! Sign up for free on this page.
Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
