The Glorious Now Of Men In Makeup

Billy Idol the man didn’t become Billy Idol the image—all spiked hair and surly sneer—by accident. When he arrived on the London punk scene in the mid-’70s, Idol started doing his own stage makeup: a little shading to emphasize his razor-sharp cheeks and some liner to frame his piercing blue eyes. “I didn’t always blend as well as I should have,” he admits. But his DIY routine formed the basis of his soon-to-be-timeless look. “That was the fun of it, really,” Idol recalls. “The fashion and makeup, it made a statement, which was that you can control your own image. You can create yourself.” If the English glam rockers and punks showed the way toward radical self-creation 40 years ago, we have now, finally, reached Full Male Beauty. A dialed beauty routine, whether on the level of Idol’s subtle glow-up or David Bowie’s more theatrical transformations, can be as important a part of that self-expression as clothing. “I see constant support for men wearing makeup,” says model Casil McArthur, 20. If you don’t believe him, consider this: Chanel rolled out a men’s makeup line last year. Not to mention the legions of people who have long embraced beauty products regardless of to whom they are marketed. Daniel Kaluuya became one of the 56 percent of American men who, according to one survey, wore a cosmetics product in 2018 when he showed up to last year’s Oscars with a face of Fenty Beauty foundation. By next year, it’s predicted, the male grooming market will be worth over $55 billion. Read more at GQ.