Face it! Men's makeup is a booming beauty business

For the longest time, men wearing makeup have been used as a comedic trope in Indian films. With plump red lips, unruly wigs, and rosy cheeks, they either impersonated women to fool cops in heist thrillers or were made the butt of 'gay' jokes in scenes with a roaring laugh track. Cut to 2025, however, and the world of

men's makeup

is on our screens for a different reason.
In an episode of popular startup pitching reality show 'Shark Tank India', Ahmedabad's Rahul Shah stood in front of the judges, pitching

Yaan Man

- India's first makeup brand exclusively for men. Shah, who worked for five years as a cosmetic formulator in the US, returned to India in 2018 to break taboos.
"In the US, I saw a lot of heterosexual men from Asia and other parts of the world using makeup to hide their dark circles, acne, and improve their skincare. But in India, most brands who even catered to men were only focusing on beard and hair care," Shah says.
The path was not that easy, though. When he discussed his idea of selling concealers, foundation, and tinted moisturisers for men suited to Indian skin tones and weather conditions, people around him, including his friends, laughed. Most of them were reluctant to even use a proper face wash or apply sunscreen, forget anything else. Despite the taboos, he knew there was a growing market for it. After all, traditional players like Lakme India and MAC Cosmetics have introduced products for men, while representation has been growing - thanks to the glassy skin of K-drama heartthrobs and the videos of

male beauty influencers

like Ankush Bahuguna raking in millions of views.

In fact, data by consumer research firm Mintel shows that one in every five beauty and personal care products launched in India since July 2022 was targeted at men - the biggest share for the category in the Asia-Pacific markets. Though the Indian market is smaller than that of China and Japan, the report adds, it is growing at a much faster rate, with the Indian male grooming category valued at more than Rs 10,000 crore.
Social media has been the main catalyst for this shift, says Mumbai-based makeup artist Karan Chugh. "For the longest time, heterosexual men associated taking care of their physical appearance to only going with the gym and oiling their beards. However, with access to trends from across the world, they realise now that this need not be the case." In terms of products, concealers and tinted lip balms have become quite popular in the last year or two, he adds.
A number of brands Chugh works with are also hiring male models for campaigns centred around beauty. A recent social media campaign he worked on for Nykaa Cosmetics, for instance, features 28-year-old Hindi film actor Gurfateh Singh Pirzada wearing nothing but an apron (and makeup). Centred around Valentine's Day, Pirzada stars as 'Pookieman', posing with a bunch of gender-neutral lip products, with names like Lip Glaze, Lip Cloud, and Butter Bomb - quite a shift from the matte black 'machoness' that male grooming products have traditionally relied on.
This shift is not just limited to the sets of a reality show or the glittery world of Mumbai. Mohammed Maaz Khan, who hails from Rampur village in Uttar Pradesh, says he was more into fashion than all the other boys in his college. During Covid, he started posting grooming content online. A few of them went viral, and he was even featured on Instagram's official account. A chemical engineering graduate, Khan went on to pursue a course in cosmetology. However, the journey wasn't smooth as body butter. "Initially, I faced a lot of criticism. A number of people asked me if I was transgender and used slurs. They couldn't digest what they were seeing," Khan says.
His attempt to normalise makeup led him to start posting the beauty routines of Bollywood and TV actors. "Many men admire actors and aspire to look like them but aren't aware of the products they use to look that way," Khan adds. He soon began posting about the benefits of using face serums, BB creams, CC creams and tinted lip balms, along with advice for tackling dark circles and wrinkles.
Soon, his inbox was flooded with requests from curious men who wanted to know more. Several grooms-to-be reached out too, to enquire about the right products to look good on their wedding day. "A lot of them would never have walked up to someone in real life and asked these questions out of fear of being ridiculed. But messaging someone online helped them overcome that," points out Khan, who has over 6 lakh followers on Instagram today.
Meanwhile, Yaan Man founder Shah says the broader shift in Indian men's mentality will not happen overnight, but the response from users has been far better than expected. "A lot of men are still hesitant to post public reviews or talk about it. But they're buying more and more products," he says. Now, he wants to double down on them, with four more products already in the pipeline scheduled to be launched later this year.