Makeup: For Women Only?
Men-s groooming.docx
Have you ever heard of the term “grooming-zok”?
It refers to the males who don’t mind spending a significant amount of
money on their fashion, style and aesthetics. This word is derived from the
word grooming, which originally meant “cleaning and combing of a horse by a
horseman.” The market targeting these people are getting bigger and bigger, and
you can easily see men’s corners in cosmetics stores mow
In
2015, the content creator “Beatwo” made a video which asked the question “What
do foreigners think about Korean males?” and posted it on his YouTube. In this
million-viewed video clip, many foreigners expressed various opinions about
Korean men. Among those opinions that was generally agreed upon by the
interviewees was that Korean males were far more concerned about their
appearance that other people. According to statistics in the Wall Street
Journal, the expenses of purchasing cosmetics per month of Korean males’ was
ranked the first place in 2014 by thirty thousand won, and also second place in
market size. According to the National Statistics Office, the market size of
male cosmetics almost doubled between 2010 and 2016, from 736.5 billion won to
1293.6 billion won. This clearly shows that Korean males are interested in
cosmetics, and this interest is on the increase.
A
number of major factors that are thought to be responsible for this astonishing
statistic of 1 out of 10 color cosmetics buyers being males. First, the use of
cosmetics and makeups are thought to be a way of strengthening an individual’s competitiveness.
“This phenomenon shows the dark aspects of Korea’s society, where appearance
has become the standards of evaluation,” a researcher from Kyunghee university
stated. In other words, making yourself appealing by grooming is an easy way of
being competitive. A researcher of Iwha Women’s University also said that many
men groom themselves to survive in life’s competition.
However,
a survey of grooming-zok revealed that the biggest reason of using makeups is “To
gain confidence,” followed by “for my competitiveness.” For example, a beauty
creator and Youtuber LeoJ, who a large number of subscribers first started to use
make ups since he was in Middle school, while he was concerning about his
pimples. Another male beauty creator and comedian Kim Gi Su said in an interview
that he was happy to express himself by putting on makeup. For “grooming-zok”,
makeup seems to be one of the ways to express themselves and fight their
complexes.
As
we can see from the example of LeoJ, makeup can help conceal things like
pimples or freckles that spoil the aesthetic aspects of your skin, and this is
possible by few simple steps. First, apply the toner, essence, and cream in
order. Whether cream should be applied first or toner should be applied first
is still controversial, so the order of application depends on your preference.
Plus, if you have an oily skin, add primer into this procedure.
After these basic steps, you can lighten up
your skin tone by using BB cream and foundation. In case of males, it is good
to use products with dark tones or products of professional brands with their
shops in department stores, which usually have separated product lineups for
men. On each cheek, apply your product in the size of a pea, and on your
forehead, apply it 2-3 times. It is also important to make sure to apply on spots
that are easy to miss, like the sides of your nose, under your eyes or on your eyelids.
After masking small blemishes, it’s time to eliminate big and highly visible
blemishes like pimples and freckles using concealers. Just gently touch the
spots you want to conceal.
By this, your skin tone will have become
brighter, and cleaner-looking. But skin is not the only thing you can improve
by grooming. If you want sharper impression, try grooming your eyes and
eyebrows. Comb your eyebrows and cut the hairs that are too long or uncombable
with an eyebrow razor, first in the direction of hair growth, and then against
it. Next, use your mascara or eye-lining pencil to fill out the
empty spots of your eyebrows. Then, use the brush to give little blur. In the case
of eye-lining, you might your own preference, but lining the tips of both eyes
and giving a slight blur will be enough.
Basic and
simple makeups like that can help making brighter and refreshing impression, and
this is why male population who choose to wear make-ups are on the rise. However,
there are still many people who think this is the face of appearance-oriented
society. Nevertheless, according to one survey, 81% thought that the number of grooming-zok’ will increase. Why don’t
you start grooming yourself too and become more
confident about yourself?