Gen Z Is Blowing Open the Market for Men’s Makeup

When Yota Nakamura’s girlfriend said he should spruce up his look, he went shopping. The 22-year-old university student in Osaka purchased toner, moisturizer, and a tinted face primer—yes, makeup—made by a Japanese brand called Fiveism x Three. Now Nakamura, a neuroscience student, is thinking ahead to next year, when he’ll start a job as a consultant in Tokyo. He wants to make sure he has the right foundation and concealer lined up. “When I start working, I’ll be meeting with clients a lot, so I think I would like to use makeup,” he says. “Maybe it would be embarrassing to say you’re using lipstick, but things like face primer or foundation? No one would think anything of it.”

Nakamura is on the leading edge of Generation Z, the postmillennial cohort that’s grown up in an era when the boundaries of gender and masculinity are less rigid than ever. He’s not the first of his friends to use makeup. For several years in parts of Asia, guys have been dabbing on color cosmetics and buying products such as BB cream—or beauty balm, a tinted moisturizer. Now such products are slowly catching on with men in big cosmetics markets such as the U.S. and China, creating a potentially massive opportunity for beauty companies.