A deep dive into men&rsquo;s grooming culture in 2025.

The future of men&rsquo;s skincare sits on a knife edge, either glowing with promise or collapsing under the weight of vanity. Think about it: bronzed six-pack sculpted by endless crunches, the floppy, shampoo-commercial hair, pore-less skin glazed with lotion, eyes chilled under gel packs, and that minty green face mask peeling away like something out go sci-fi. Patrick Bateman&rsquo;s obsessive morning routine in American Psycho, immortalised on screen in 2000, remains the most savage satirical snapshot of male grooming ever put to film. It was not just a scene; it was prophecy.
Two decades on, Bateman does not look so deranged. Scroll Instagram and you will see legions of Bateman lookalikes with equally militant routines. Naturally, the industry is cashing in. Beauty spending among Filipinos is up 13 percent a year, according to IMARC Group. Meanwhile Mintel reports men&rsquo;s skincare launches have surged nearly 15 percent in just three years. The monster has come out of the mirror, and he&rsquo;s wearing eye cream.

Men&rsquo;s beauty is not just booming, it is exploding.

A new wave of players in the men&rsquo;s beauty fame is cashing in, flooding the shelves with products that make a lonely bar of soap look like an antique. Still sticking to just soap and moisturiser? Please. You need an upgrade. In 2025, the arsenal includes eye balms, serums, tinted moisturisers, retinol, LED masks, and exfoliating pads. Not to say that the celebrity stamp of approval is loud: Harry Styles dropped his nail polish and fragrance line Pleasing, Travis Baker went wellness with CBD-powered Barker Wellness Co., and Pharell Williams, whose skin has seemingly entered a pact with time itself, built Humanrace into a cult skincare brand. Closer to home, Camou, founded by James Lee, Brian Tee, and JR Santiago, has become the go-to for men&rsquo;s skincare. Put simply, men&rsquo;s beauty is not just booming, it is exploding. Boom!
But not all trends are coming up roses (or hyaluronic acid). On TikTok and Instagram, the self-improvement rabbit hole runs deep, and sometimes dark. Between shredded influencers preaching protein shakes, more extreme practices are surfacing: mewing (pressing your tongue to the roof of your mouth for a sharper jawline) and the frankly deranged &ldquo;bone-smashing&rdquo; (yes, actually hitting your face to reshape it). The latter, seriously, why? These ideas, born from meme culture and incel forums, are now leaking into the mainstream, preying on male insecurities with a force we have not seen before.
How these hyper-online beauty hacks will shape masculinity in the years ahead is anyone&rsquo;s guess. What is clear is that the way brands talk to men is already shifting. Alpha-male messaging, the stuff that once dominated the grooming aisle, now feels like a relic. Take War Paint for Men: when it launched in 2017 with concealers, tinted moisturisers, and brow gels packaged in matte-black stealth mode, it felt disruptive. Fast forward to today, and that kind of heavy-handed masculine brandling looks clumsy, even cringe, just a step removed from novelty soap folded into the shape of grenade. Which, by the way, actually exists. Try Google One Man Army on Amazon, and scroll down, and you&rsquo;ll find a tagline that reads, &ldquo;FEEL LIKE A MAN, SMELL LIKE A PATRIOT.&rdquo; Hard sell? More like a parody. Even if that copy was meant as a wink, it still reeks of a deep-seated insecurity: are some men really only comfortable moisturising if the product screams war zone?

&ldquo;Skincare is a tough category. Selling skincare products to men is even more difficult.&rdquo;

That is not to say the opposite approach, gender-neutral branding, is a guaranteed win either. Yes, it has been trending upward, but broadening appeal too far can mean connecting with no one. Case in point: Disco. The minimalist, naturally branded skincare label raised $7.3 million before going bankrupt in 2023. Founder Benjamin Smith admitted on Twitter, &ldquo;Skincare is a tough category. Selling skincare products to men is even more difficult. Our neutral brand and positioning, while aesthetically pleasing, never resonated with men at scale.&rdquo; Translation: the cool beige labels did not move the needle. Smith has since rebranded himself, now touting a &ldquo;testosterone support company.&rdquo; Levelling up, in the most on-the-nose way possible.
So, which brands are actually cutting through the noise? Parise-based Horace is the name on everyone&rsquo;s lips. Founded in 2016, it is now France&rsquo;s biggest men&rsquo;s skincare label and a blueprint for how to win in this space. The playbook: skip the tired masculinity tripes, lean into relatability, and cast widely. Horace&rsquo;s campaigns embrace diversity without going too far into left field, and the product range follows suit, accessible, effective, but not intimidating. &ldquo;In a way, it is wishful thinking, because it is impossible to represent everyone, but to have this as a goal is super-powerful because it forces us to rethink every time we do a casting,&rdquo; says co-founder and CEO Marc Briant-Terlet. The strategy is paying off. Horace has quietly expanded into everything from hyaluronic serums and SPF to fragrance, and now runs 18 boutiques which 17 of them are across France and one in London.
Then there is Obayaty, a Swedish upstart making waves in men&rsquo;s makeup. Established just last year, the brand&rsquo;s hero product is a tinted moisturiser housed in a sleek, reliable metal case, more objet d&rsquo;art than bathroom clutter. Creative Director Pontus Frankenstein shows the challenge is not just selling makeup, but reframing what it means for men to use it at all. &ldquo;We know there are people who use these products, but we also know where is a big group of men who don not admit they use beauty products, at least in the Western world,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It is a bit different in Japan and South Korea, where men are more open to cosmetics, but in the West it is more stigmatised.&rdquo; The mission, he adds, is a much emotional as it is physical. &ldquo;If I am on my way to the office and somebody tells me I look fresh, that can make my day.&rdquo;

If you&rsquo;re confident, you are kinder, sharper, and easier to be around.

Men are also inching toward more extreme treatments that of well beyond what is in the bathroom cabinet. A report by Milieu, a global research and data analytic company reports that 1 of 10 Filipino men have undergone cosmetic enhancement procedure. The big draws? Laser hair removal, micro-needling, and chemical peels targeting acne, scarring, and early signs of ageing.
Meanwhile, brands are pushing a more holistic message: that the rise of men&rsquo;s skincare and makeup is not just about looking better, but feeling better. At its best, grooming is not vanity, it is personality, confidence, and the ripple effect of being more at ease in your own skin. If you&rsquo;re confident, you are kinder, sharper, and easier to be around. Someone should have told Patrick Bateman.

Inside the New Era of Men’s Grooming

Recommended posts for you

Hommes

Gigie Bear, Jezreel Noel, and Sean Da-anton Prove There’s More to Tattooing Than Ink

Hommes

An Interview With Daniel Arsham on His Splashy New Creation for Hublot

Hommes