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These days
when a woman
runs out of
moisturiser, she is most likely to ask her boyfriend
or husband, ‘Honey, can I borrow yours?’
Men's
cosmetics and toiletries are the fastest growing area of the
huge
beauty and skin-care industry.
In the past, men have thought of cosmetics as strictly for
women. The cosmetic companies
catered for
women and their success in this area is measured by the
number of products available. Recently cosmetic companies
have decided to appeal to
men's
vanity,
and have been surprisingly successful. With profit margins
of up to 1000%, the cosmetic companies are eager to satisfy
the growing demand.
We recognised that a man's skin is different to a woman's,’
says Emma Dawson of Clinique. Clinique was one
of the first to make men's cosmetics 20 years ago. ‘We've
also changed the name of our products to make them more
attractive to men. For example, women's 'Gentle
Exfoliator'
is men's 'Face
Scrub'.’ Clinique have made the packaging
simpler with
manly colours such as navy blue, dark green or
grey.
There are a number of reasons for this change in male
attitude. Young men have more money to spend these days.
They are much more likely to buy their own clothes and
toiletries than their fathers. Thirty years ago, men left
such things to their mothers and then, when they were
married, their wives.
The enormous success in Europe of men's magazines -
lads'
mags
- such as GQ and FHM, has helped make beauty
products for men seem ‘cool’. There is no danger of feeling
like a girl reading about exfoliating lotion if it is part
of an article about Formula One racing cars.
The cosmetic companies have another reason to love their
male customers too. Men
use up
the products more quickly than women. ‘We
splash out
twice as much as we need,’ says Peter Waterman, a market
analyst, ‘so we have to buy a new bottle
twice as often.’
Another attraction is that men are very
loyal.
Clinique have just four men's products. Contrast this
with their women's range where they regularly
launch
new products to stay in competition.
Slowly the
trend
is
catching up
with older men too. Your father may make fun of
your toiletry collection, but today's father is likely to
have in his bathroom cabinet a
tint
to
remove
the grey in his
chest
hair. |
