How Do Women Feel About Makeup Of Men

Technology

Men Should Habiliment Makeup

This is my final column for Slate, then I'1000 going out on a limb. Guys, pick up the airbrush already.

"You know, you don't really need makeup," Rose Hill told me when we first met. Nosotros were at Hill's studio in Los Gatos, Calif., where I'd come to see what a good makeup artist could do for a man (i.e., for me). Hill, who's 60, has been doing makeup for film, television, theater, and commercial photography since she was a teenager. She's worked on Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, every tech executive y'all can name, and Hugh Jackman—"my most favoritest person in the whole world," she said as I thumbed through her portfolio.

Studying my face, Hill told me she didn't encounter any obvious areas of business organisation. As I'd long suspected, I've got a expert mug on my shoulders. Of course, she went on, nobody actually needs makeup, non any more than than one needs a fitted suit, a fancy auto, or deodorant. Only modern cosmetics are amazing. They remove blemishes, redness, signs of aging and fatigue, cuts or nicks from shaving, and most other indications that y'all've had a well-lived life. And they exercise then without looking like cosmetics. "When men recollect of makeup they recollect it's heavy, that it'south unnatural, simply we're living in a new century," Hill says. The most advanced cosmetics are designed to be photographed close-upwardly with loftier-definition cameras, so they need to add together pigment while leaving one's pores visible. "Today's makeup looks like skin," Colina says. When I asked her what I'd look like with makeup, she was definitive: "You'll simply wait meliorate. It'south a big divergence."

She was right. This is what I looked like when I entered Hill's studio:

Farhad Manjoo, no makeup.
Courtesy of Rose Colina

Mostly I looked OK. Only there were some obvious places where my face could be improved. My forehead has a few light blemishes, and there are a few more under my optics. I'd just shaved, and there were some red marks across my skin, plus some nicks. I had a but-visible pimple nether my left countenance.

Over the adjacent hour and a half, Hill put me through a series of makeup sessions. She applied "high-definition" makeup with an airbrush, a gun that sprays a very fine mist of color at your confront, so fine that the dyes blend into your skin in a way that looks and feels like yous have nothing on. Later on on, she practical makeup the quondam-fashioned way, using brushes and sponges. Some other time, she made me up using inexpensive, drugstore-counter foundation. After each session we stopped to photograph my face. Across the range of applications, I could see the good and the bad of makeup, from just enough to besides much.

The bad makeup looked worse than no makeup, just the skillful makeup? It looked awesome. With some quick, piece of cake-to-utilize fine-tuning, I discovered that my pretty face tin can become even prettier. Here's me looking best—this is after the commencement awarding of makeup, a light layer of HD foundation applied with an airbrush.

Farhad Manjoo, airbrush makeup. — Farhad with airbrush makeup.
Courtesy of Rose Hill

At that place are very few differences between this picture and the 1 above. Merely the differences are enough—overall, with a light layer of foundation, my pare looks more than even, less patchy, and less shiny. The ruddy spots and blemishes are still visible, but they're more subtle. I wait more put together; the effect is roughly the same as if I'd combed my hair or put on a well-ironed shirt. Compared to wearing no makeup, with merely a bit of colour, I await like I took the fourth dimension to carp well-nigh my appearance.

Which prompts the question: Why don't I wear makeup all the time?

Men should wear makeup. I hateful to say: Obviously men should wear makeup. It'southward sort of crazy that we don't, actually. Homo beings have been adorning themselves since forever; evidence of the application of body paint dates back at least 50,000 years and is taken to be i of the first signs of modern homo behavior. For near all that time, both men and women indulged in cosmetics. As recently as a few hundred years ago, it was common for upper-form men in Britain and France to wear rouge and powder. It was only effectually the turn of the 19^th century that facial adornment for men began to go out of mode—though at the same time, other cosmetic enhancements for men, especially hair-intendance products, took off. This makes little logical sense (though, granted, it's folly to utilise logic to fashion trends). If it'south seen equally necessary for a mod man to comb and sculpt his hair, why isn't he expected to make upward his face, too?

Note that I'k not advocating for men to wear lipstick, blush, or other obvious signs of makeup. Blood-red lips and cheeks and dark eyes are perceived as feminine because they cannily simulate female fertility—when a woman is ovulating, increased blood flow reddens her lips and cheeks, so lipstick and rouge are a fashion to mimic that issue. Just peel tone isn't sex activity-specific; studies show that when humans are presented with faces with fifty-fifty color distribution—faces whose skin tone looks the same from region to region—we find them more attractive than faces with uneven color. This has been shown in female and male faces. (The theory is that even color distribution is a token of youth, and youth, in plow, signals fertility.) Study subsequently study has shown that people are disarmed by makeup—fifty-fifty though information technology's obvious when a woman wears makeup, she'southward judged as more attractive (by both men and women) than when she's not wearing makeup.

It stands to reason that men could do good from the same issue, especially if the makeup isn't obvious. When y'all're trying to print someone—prospective dates, prospective employers, business associates, your spouse, your family unit, your employees—at that place's no reason not to wear a little foundation. Actually I'd go farther: Yous should vesture makeup. Nosotros're in a tough economic system that rewards youth and dazzler. We live in a world constructed of bamboozlement—where not just magazine covers but even snapshots are now retouched, filtered, presented in the best calorie-free possible. You might admirably, justifiably recoil from this trend, yous might yearn for a fourth dimension when people had no trouble accepting a homo for what he really looked like. But if there ever was such an age, information technology'south gone. Nosotros live in a Photoshop world. Think of makeup as a real-earth digital-effects organisation. The foundation airbrush is like Photoshop for your face—armed with this gun, you can trick the globe into loving you.

There are signs that some men are showtime to sympathise this. Over the past decade in South korea, makeup for men has become a culturally accepted fact of life. The conservative, male-dominated society was prompted to cover male cosmetics in part because makeup worked—men who wore makeup found that it gave them a leg upwards romantically and in employment markets. Hill says she's heard the same affair from some of her clients. "I've done makeup on corporate executives for photos, and then they see how they look, and they'll phone call me to inquire if I can guild makeup for them," she says. "Particularly if they're single—they only experience improve nigh themselves and look better." Over the by few years the market for skincare products for men has been booming, though cosmetic companies have been wary of products that resemble traditional makeup. Lately that seems to be irresolute. Marc Jacobs recently unveiled a line of makeup for men, including a concealer to cover up bags under your eyes. But even he'southward wary of advocating for foundation for men—that seems to be deemed too feminine.

I can see why. When it's overdone, on a man, makeup can look very strange. Here'southward me with two colors of foundation that Colina applied on my face by brush. This application covers up many blemishes and cherry-red marks, merely to me it looks too pretty.

Farhad Manjoo, manual brush makeup. — Farhad with manual brush makeup.
Courtesy of Rose Colina

This one is even worse: After a quick awarding from a canteen of Revlon foundation—that is, not the high-definition stuff designed to look like you're not wearing annihilation—I expect mode likewise orangish, like I've been colorized.

Farhad Manjoo, cheap makeup. — Farhad with cheap makeup.
Courtesy of Rose Loma

Just I plant that it'southward like shooting fish in a barrel to avert this fate. As you know, I'm a sucker for engineering science, so about the end of our session, I asked Hill if I could use her airbrush on my face. She showed me how to use it—concur it like a pair of chopsticks, press the button to shoot. It was totally easy and fun, very much like using the airbrush tool in whatsoever photo editing software. Starting with a clean confront, I managed to make myself up in nearly iii minutes' fourth dimension. Later that day, I bought an airbrush kit online for near $100, and I've since tried it out a couple times at home. I think I'm proficient at it—I can quickly do my face up in a fashion that improves the skin without looking plain touched upward.

I'm married and I have a job—though nosotros'll see what happens afterwards this article runs—and so I don't think I'll be wearing makeup every day. Only if I e'er need an extra boost, the airbrush volition be correct there waiting for me. Here's my face up with a bit of airbrushing by yours truly. This is not a face you tin can easily pass up.