“Can we convince men to wear makeup?” has been the question understandably plaguing the modern cosmetics industry for years. After all, if half the population is just sitting right there, money in their pocket, but never buying your product. That fact is a bit demoralizing to the supposedly near-infinite powers of advertising. Generally, the answer to that question has been “broadly, no.” However, the cosmetics industry has still managed a few wins here and there; they’re all pretty proud of the decades of work it took to convince half of men to occasionally wash their faces. According to Mintel, the percentage of men surveyed who used a skin-care product rose to 52 percent in 2024. That number is up from 31 percent in 2022, a real feather in the cap of the $20 billion industry, even if that does count stuff like acne treatments and beard care. Young men experimenting with daring beauty concepts such as “wearing sunscreen” and “honestly, it’s mostly just wearing sunscreen, but we’re taking the win” have made the 18- to 27-year-old cohort a key driver of men’s cosmetics.
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