Culture-Trends
Makeup: For Women Only?
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 is getting bigger and bigger, and you can easily see men’s corners in cosmetics stores now
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 were 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’ were 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 is 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 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 uncomfortable 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 is 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?
Men-s groooming_교정.docx