Another day, another new beauty brand. With incubators bringing brands to market at lightning speed and investors on the hunt for the next viral phenomenon, beauty is overrun with newness. Navigating an oversaturated landscape, companies will stop at nothing to break through the noise.
Spend enough time at Sephora or on TikTok and you’ll notice that “genderless beauty” – a brand or collection of products that is said to be made for all genders – is gaining popularity. At surface level, this breaking down of binaries is great – beauty has always been for everyone. People of all genders have been wearing makeup for as long as we’ve been recording our own history, from ancient Egypt to ancient Rome, King Louis XVI to David Bowie.
Seeing people express themselves through beauty no matter their gender is powerful, transformative. It’s something that should be celebrated – but it’s also something that can be commodified.
Beauty may not have a gender, but it does have SEO terms. Brands have begun to cash in on “genderless” by using the label as a mode to stand out from the crowd – a way to seem more forward-thinking and inclusive, and therefore morally and ethically superior. But “genderless” is just the latest in a long line of buzzwords that have never amounted to much.
It started with the “wellness” trend of the ‘80s and ‘90s which birthed “natural” beauty products, touting labels plastered with “non-toxic,” “chemical-free,” and “safe.” This ushered in “clean” beauty, a category that throws around attractive yet vague advertising jargon like “natural” and “no harmful chemicals.” The clean beauty market is expected to reach $10 billion by 2026, but it’s difficult to determine what clean really means. The FDA does not regulate this term, nor any like it, so its definition varies depending on who – or what brand – you ask. Retailers like Sephora and Credo have their own clean standards, but companies that are trying to meet a bottom line should not have the authority to tell you what’s safe for you to use.
The same applies to so-called “sustainable” beauty, a category that’s booming amid a global climate crisis. An estimated 120 billion units of beauty packaging are produced every year, giving some consumers pause when considering adding yet another product to their routine. After all, no one wants to think that their buying habits are damaging the environment. That’s where jargon like “sustainably sourced,” “carbon-neutral,” and “recyclable” come in – but similar to “clean” and “natural,” these eco-friendly buzzwords are also largely unregulated.
Armed with a wealth of knowledge sourced from dermatologists-turned-social-media-stars, consumers are beginning to question brands using these blanket terms. Sephora is currently faced with a class action lawsuit alleging that their Clean at Sephora program is misleading to consumers. “Clean” and “sustainable” are beginning to lose steam, but another beauty buzzword is quickly gaining traction: “genderless.”
As a marketable concept, genderless beauty emerged around the mid 2010s. Factors such as the rise of male and non-binary beauty influencers, a left-leaning political climate, and the launch of Fenty Beauty and its 40-shade range of foundation (unheard of at the time) forced the beauty industry to reexamine inclusivity from all sides. Consumers, too, started experimenting with makeup, no matter their gender. A rep from Google tells Highsnobiety that search interest in gender-neutral makeup and cosmetics has increased 400 percent over the last 10 years, with “eye makeup looks for men” and “natural makeup looks for men” being among the most-searched topics.
Beauty brands are widening their scope, expanding their marketing campaigns beyond thin, cis, white models and casting people of different genders, ages, skin tones, skin types, and body types. Beauty is beginning to look like a more welcoming place, and consumers are responding. A survey by Deloitte found in The Wall Street Journal tells us that “...young consumers (ages 18 to 25) take greater notice of representative advertising when making purchase decisions than do older ones (ages 46 and over),” and that “More than half (57 percent) of consumers surveyed say they are more loyal to brands that demonstrate commitment to addressing social inequities in all their actions.”
To stay relevant among these young buyers, both Gen Z brands and legacy brands are turning to the word “genderless” to indicate their stance on inclusivity without ever having to clearly define it.
But doesn’t labeling a brand as “genderless” further perpetuate the binary that beauty is supposedly seeking to curve? When customers have become so savvy, do products need to be defined in terms of who they’re for?
“I hate to say it, but they still need to,” says Colby Smith, a celebrity makeup artist for the likes of Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, and Demi Lovato. “Consumers can be quite literal. Products have to tell you where they go and who they’re for so people don’t get confused.”
It may be happening imperfectly, but beauty embracing any sort of gender diversity does feel like a step in the right direction. Smith expands on the evolution he’s seen in the industry throughout his career: “MAC used to be the only brand that would feature a boy in ‘guyliner.’ Now, it’s refreshing to see brands use all types of faces, genders, and body types in their campaigns.”
But what the industry considers inclusive can often strike customers as another version of conformity. For Ryan Potter, an influencer who rose to prominence with his beauty YouTube channel in the mid 2010s, brands’ attempts at fostering diversity often feel superficial.
“It's been interesting to witness how the industry has changed over the years,” Potter says. “I started posting beauty content online when I was about 16 or 17. At the time, seeing a man wear a full face of makeup was fairly buzz-worthy.”
Potter and other male and non-binary YouTube creators have experimented with cosmetics for years, a form of expression that is now flaunted by celebrities of all genders on the red carpet: take, for example, Lil Nas X, Sam Smith, Olly Alexander, and Emma D'Arcy, regularly photographed in colorful glam.
Gender-diverse beauty is becoming increasingly visible – so for Potter, brands banking on the apparent absence of gender feels disingenuous. “Gender inclusivity often feels like another box brands are seeking to check for marketing’s sake. We've progressed past the point of it being taboo... We're frequently seeing men in beauty campaigns. But the men that are featured tend to be cisgender, a palatable way for brands to show diversity while not quite showing true diversity.”
The brands that get inclusivity right are the ones who don’t go out of their way to spotlight it – they simply live it. Since Halsey’s about-face launched in 2020, the makeup line has let its work speak for itself.
“All genders were part of the about-face community since inception,” says Jeanne Chavez, about-face’s co-founder and chief innovation officer. “Our user-generated content and branded content have reflected this since our launch, not because it is a trend, but because it is part of our brand DNA.” Indeed, about-face has continually included people of different genders, skin tones, body types, and abilities in their campaigns, showing them without prescribing their attributes as defining features.
“There are so many options today for customers to choose from when making cosmetic purchases… [They will] go where they are celebrated rather than tolerated,” Chavez continues. “Beauty brands that move with that philosophy and encapsulate a more global view will continue to grow and capture the market as it grows. Those who do not will be stagnant and relegated to the old guard consumers. They will not sustain or thrive in the future.”
Meanwhile, one of the fastest-growing fragrance brands in the industry is flipping the concept of genderless beauty on its head, instead coining the term “genderful.” “‘Genderless’ can be very neutering – removing any recognition,” says Matthew Herman, co-founder of fragrance and scented candle brand Boy Smells. “Genderful is a celebration of all the different ways we show up.”
“There is a lot of sexism in fragrance,” he continues. “Traditionally, women are supposed to smell like flowers and fruit, because those ingredients are delicate and tender. Men are supposed to smell like musk and wood because they are virile and tough. [Boy Smells] loves the dualities of life, embracing the spectrum within us all. I am both tender and strong, my femininity multiplied by my masculinity makes me my best self. Genderful is the bountifulness and beautifulness of identity today and releasing yourself from the gender constructs of yesterday.”
A marketing term, sure, but Boy Smells is a queer-owned brand with a track record to back up its genderful strategy. In addition to partnering with and donating substantial proceeds to The Trevor Project, Boy Smells uses its platform to speak out about the ongoing battle for women’s rights and trans rights.
For Herman, it’s about ensuring his values are reflected in every move his brand makes. “First and foremost, welcoming everyone to the table is critical. They have to feel celebrated for who they are… If you can do that with your creative, your message, and your values, it will be impactful.”
For Potter, an early advocate of gender-diverse beauty, the invisible workings of a company are just as important – if not more important – as the consumer-facing when it comes to building an authentically inclusive brand. “It’s about diversifying your team so you are approaching each campaign from all perspectives,” he says. “It's easier to get it right when you're not guessing, and you can enlist individuals who live the experience of being queer, gender-fluid, or trans. Some brands might fear not getting it right, but in order to learn [they] have to start somewhere.”
In the age of TikTok and Instagram, the power structures of the beauty industry have radically shifted. A brand’s success no longer relies on an expensive campaign, a celebrity face, or the right influencer. Since everyone has a platform, brands are no longer deciding what’s hot, what trends, and what sells. We are. It’s no shock, then, that brands have started to reflect the diversity of their consumers.
But in the business of beauty, profit always comes before values. For a brand to enter any space, whether it’s clean skincare or genderless makeup, it must be deemed “safe” enough to still drive income. When anything trends, it’s important to ask ourselves: Why is this happening, and who is this benefitting?
If we give brands the power to make the industry more inclusive, then we give them the power to shut us out when it no longer serves their bottom line. After all, many of the brands shouting inclusivity are owned by conglomerates and CEOs that have helped finance conservative agendas actively harming the very same people they claim to represent.
Inclusivity should be table stakes, not a talking point. Beauty has always been for everyone – we never needed a brand to tell us that. Seeing ourselves reflected in today’s beauty campaigns can be affirming, yes. But it shouldn't be taken at face value.
