Male grooming trend: a closer look

Google highlighted men’s beauty and skin care in its recent Beauty Trends 2017 report, which used data for the most popular searched terms globally.

Here, we take a closer look at male grooming as it currently stands, digging behind the surface to consider what opportunities and challenges it could pose.

Trend overview​

Google’s report finds that although male grooming searches are lower in volume at this point in time than its report’s other key trends,​ men’s skin care is a trend demonstrating sustained growth in all three focus markets (Japan, France and the US) and is likely to continue growing over the years to come.

“While men’s body- and soap-related searches continue to grow, there is a lot of interest in skin care products for the face, including face wash, moisturizers, and branded facial brushes​,” the report states.

“As searches for men’s skin care-related products are evolving from more general terms like “men’s skin care” to more specific terminology such as “men’s face wash,” there is opportunity to educate men (and those who shop for them) on the different nuances for each product type.”​

Double digit​

Indeed, the ever-expanding and increasingly personalised men’s grooming market has been posting double-digit growth rates in many European countries in recent years, on the back of the typical millennial male who is not ashamed to spend more time and money on his personal care routine.

It’s certainly a trend that small and major player alike are paying attention to: indeed, in its recent annual results,​ L’Oréal’s travel retail unit picked the segment out as a core reason behind its strong growth over the past year.

Cosmetics: in on the act​

While it’s primarily skin care driving the growth in male grooming, brands have now also begun marketing colour cosmetics at men. Mintel recently posted a blog on the gathering momentum behind the category,​ describing it as  “​a revolution that has been buoyed by social media, Youtube stars and beauty bloggers, where sharp eyeliner flicks, glowy highlighters and eyebrows on fleek are not just women’s prerogatives.”​

L’Oréal made headlines last year for its True Match campaign ‘Yours Truly’:​ the first major campaign for a cosmetics brand that featured a man - Gary Thompson - as one of its fronting models.

About the Google Beauty Trends report​

The Google report identifies and compares consumer habits and demands​ across three key global markets: the US, France and Japan.

To compile the report, Google pulled top volume queries related to the beauty category and looked at their monthly volume from September 2014 to September 2016.