The trend of selling genderless products is changing the face of the beauty industry, with younger generations less inclined to buy into the stereotype that makeup is only for women.

“Times have changed,” said Yuki Ishikawa, 36, a male hair and makeup artist.

Men looking at cosmetics for sale is a sight more commonly seen over the past few years, according to staff at retailer Loft Co.’s store in Osaka’s Kita Ward.

An advertisement for lipstick on a store shelf features both male and female models.

Koki Yamamura, 23, a company employee, picked out one of the lipsticks.

“Makeup makes me feel good,” he said.

Yamamura began using beauty products such as concealer about two years ago, when his favorite hair wax company began selling cosmetics for men.

He said his male friends use lipsticks marketed for women.

“I can become the person I want to be with makeup,” he said. “I think the stereotype that makeup is only for women is old-fashioned.”

Beauty products promoting genderless ideas from other countries started hitting store shelves around spring two years ago, according to the retailer.

MAKEUP FOR ALL

Cotisuelto, a Tokyo-based cosmetics company, has the slogan on its homepage: “Makeup choices for all!”

The company launched nail polish in 12 colors under iLLO, a gender-neutral cosmetics brand, from March of last year.

The company now has four such genderless beauty products, including an eyebrow pencil with a simple black design.

“Men are enjoying coloring their nails as easily as wearing a ring,” said Ayana Yano, 29, president of Cotisuelto.

She first became aware of genderless cosmetics when she was planning and promoting brands for cosplayers at a beauty company. She saw men enjoying and studying makeup as a matter of course.

But many of them felt uncomfortable buying products packaged for women.

She thought some women might also prefer simple products and so decided to go independent.

“I want to make cosmetics that anyone can enjoy,” she said.

Tokyo-based cosmetics company Cella Inc. began selling an eyebrow mascara with pictures of men and women on its packaging in October 2021.

The company targeted men who cared about how their eyebrows looked as remote meetings increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Osaka-based Naris Cosmetics Co. changed the packaging for its facial powder, which was designed for women, in February 2021. Sales tripled when it changed the color from pink to white.

Major department stores also followed the trend.

Isetan Shinjuku in Tokyo, for example, featured both male and female models on the cover of its cosmetics catalog in 2022 for the first time. The theme was “borderless beauty.”

The market for men’s cosmetics started growing around 2017, according to research firm Intage Inc. The market rapidly expanded during the pandemic as more people became concerned about their appearance in online conferences.

Estimated sales from January to October 2022 were 34.9 billion yen ($269 million), up 4 percent from the previous year.

Although Ishikawa applies makeup to celebrities and models, he only uses lotion on himself.

About 15 years ago, however, he said a friend of his said that even lotion “should not be used in front of women because it could be a turn-off for them.”

Now it’s different, however. When he introduced the cosmetics he uses for work in an online meeting a magazine company hosted, some men said they followed his tips.

He said he thinks cosmetics are still uncommon for men who are not celebrities or people involved in the beauty industry.

“Our society could be much more interesting if people were no longer surprised to see men using makeup,” Ishikawa said.

BREAKING STEREOTYPES

Izumi Yonezawa, a professor at Konan Women’s University who researches makeup culture, said that in the 1980s makeup for men was seen as something “special” musicians or people dancing at a disco would wear.

Even in the 1990s or early 2000s, when more male athletes trimming their eyebrows were seen, generally men were just shaving their legs, at best.

When men took care of their skin, they were sometimes mocked and called “feminine men.”

“Men were reluctant to apply makeup for a long time,” Yonezawa said.

But more men have been donning makeup since the late 2010s.

Yonezawa pointed out that people are more aware of gender issues now. South Korean idol group BTS performing with makeup became popular worldwide, for example, and makeup information became accessible through social media.

“It represents that diversity is being more respected,” she said. “Makeup is like a mirror that reflects how far society has come in becoming genderless.

“We are finally breaking free from a rule by which we have been bound since the Meiji Era (1868-1912): makeup is only for women,” she said.