How Beauty Brands Are Navigating a Post-looksmaxxing Market

In recent years, men‘s grooming has seen a surge of interest as internet-native young consumers immerse themselves in the category, while their older — increasingly longevity-minded — counterparts are finally coming around to more intricate upkeep routines.

Data from NielsenIQ shows that men’s personal care sales in the U.S. increased 4.2 percent in 2025, outpacing total beauty’s 3.3 percent growth. Specific categories like hair growth products, hair sprays and skin exfoliants/scrubs, are growing at faster, 15-plus-percent clips, while Circana data shows that men’s prestige fragrance sales were up 5 percent during the last 12 months, making up 32 percent of the market.

The post-pandemic fragrance boom is just one of many factors bringing men into the beauty realm. While many in the industry once theorized that a 2010s-era shift toward unisex brands would be the catalyst for a men’s boom, instead a confluence of fragrance wardrobing, short-form video, the rise of the “manosphere,” and self-optimization culture have more quickly and meaningfully played that role.

At a time when “looksmaxxing” — or, the pursuit of maximizing one’s looks, sometimes via harmful measures — and manosphere-driven hypermasculinity are taking hold across age groups, it has become a simultaneously lucrative and fraught time to navigate the market as a men’s beauty brand. But key players are developing nuanced ways to reach — and in some cases, redirect — their target audiences.

“There’s an opportunity to seize, but it’s also important not to be perceived as opportunistic. The biggest challenge is finding the right narrative,” said Clément Boisseau, chief executive officer of luxury strategic and creative agency Maison BETC. 

Biosseau worked alongside YSL Beauty licensee L’Oréal to develop the campaign for the brand’s woody-floral Myslf Eau de Parfum, which is fronted by Austin Butler and has become one of the biggest colognes globally since its 2023 debut. In April, the scent comprised nearly 9 percent of all U.S. prestige fragrance sales, data from Daash Intelligence shows. 

“Myslf is one of the best successes we’ve had, and it was really about the message; it’s not very usual for brands to say to men that they can be themselves,” said Biosseau, who helped develop the campaign for the fragrance, which has since gained several flankers. 

For Dr. Squatch, which was acquired by Unilever for $1.5 billion in 2025 and ranks as the number-four beauty brand by social media resonance among Gen Z men, per Nectar Social, levity has been the name of the game. 

“Humor is the best way to earn a guy’s attention,” said Irv Slobodskaya, director of brand marketing at the company, which is best known for its clean soaps and deodorants. “If we can get you laughing, then we can get you to stop and read and maybe take you from laughing to thinking more critically about, ‘OK, is this product of natural origin? Does it perform?’”

A vast mass retail footprint; limited-edition drops like its recent 2026 FIFA World Cup collection, and an increasing focus on digital and social commerce platforms like TikTok Shop — where the brand has sold more than 387,000 products so far — have also been key to Dr. Squatch’s momentum.

“We’re not interested in 10-step care routines…it’s very much about meeting [our customer] where they are, and then pushing them to make a slight improvement,” Slobodskaya said. “It is a little scary to see the type of content and messaging that young men are consuming today; we do feel a responsibility to shift the narrative away from extremism toward a healthy love and respect for yourself. That’s the line we straddle. We never want to be overly preachy, but the idea of bettering yourself — totally fine, healthy, and something everyone should be doing in some capacity.” 

While Dr. Squatch is focused on “going deeper, not broader,” in terms of its assortment, Harry’s, which Nectar ranks as the number-eight brand by resonance among Gen Z men per its scraping of 1.8 million TikTok, Instagram and Reddit posts this year, is taking this moment to play in new product territories. 

“One thing we’re acutely aware of is that, if you think about social media, guys’ images are portrayed to their friends and to the world in more places [today] than they once were,” said Jeff Raider, cofounder and co-CEO of Harry’s and its parent company, Mammoth Brands, which has done more than $1 billion in total revenue during the last 12 months. “What we’ve heard from our customer is that they’re looking for targeted solutions to specific problems that they can perceive almost immediately.” 

This has opened the door for Harry’s to introduce a $28 Cooling Eye Kit meant to depuff undereyes; a black lip balm that harnesses a subtle, Korean plumping technology, and an antishine facial stick, priced at $20 for a two pack. 

“Our customer enjoys the process of grooming…he thinks of it as investing in himself. We still care a lot about shaving and have been growing in that category, but we always knew that if we could build credibility with guys there — which is a pretty high-risk moment, this is a knife that you’re taking to your face — there’s lots of other things we can do over time,” Raider said. 

Fragrance has also been a big part of that effort, with Harry’s dropping its first trio of $35 colognes last fall, and like Dr. Squatch, increasingly leaning into limited-edition body wash scents as an acquisition tool.  

Called Scentlabs, Harry’s’ limited-edition body wash series now comprises more than 40 percent of body wash sales made via harrys.com and the brand’s TikTok Shop storefront. Launches often tap into sports fandom and wellness trends, like the its golf-inspired Grunskeeper Body Wash, or the minty Cold Plunge wash, each of which have seen more than 50 percent new customer acquisition. 

Meanwhile, Caldera + Lab, a men’s skin and hair care brand that serves a more mature customer between the ages of 35 and 70, has seen success for its almost fitness-adjacent approach to skin care. 

“Our customer is looking for one thing and that’s performance,” said founder Jared Pobre, who brought Caldera + Lab to nordstrom.com this spring and is tracking to reach $60 million in sales this year, up from $40 million in 2025. 

The brand is best known for its antiaging facial serums, The Good and The Great, which are both priced at $110 and geared toward dry and oily skin types, respectively. Key products also include two facial moisturizers, a $45 cleanser and a $88 peptide eye serum. More than 60 percent of the brand’s monthly purchases, Pobre said, come from repeat customers. 

“Our customers aren’t asking, ‘why does it cost so much?,’ they’re asking, ‘is this going to work? Am I going to see improvement with my dry skin, with wrinkles, with firmness?,’” said Pobre. “We’re benefiting from a lot of things that are happening. The biggest shift is that men are optimizing their fitness, their nutrition, their sleep, their mindfulness…we’ve seen a much more educated consumer who’s looking for sophisticated ingredients and to improve their long-term skin health.” 

For the younger customer — at least from a facial skin care point of view — Nectar data shows that it is most often the no-frills, accessible brands like CeraVe and The Ordinary that are easing Gen Z men into the category. 

“Gen Z is not a monolithic audience,” said Evan Horwitz, CEO of brand agency Movers + Shakers. “[If] there’s some toxic masculinity happening over here — fine, that’s one segment, but there are so many other segments of men that are still interested in personal care products that brands can engage with. Who engages back isn’t always up to you, but in the social-first era, which talent and influencers you’re partnering with, and which niche audiences you want to drop into — you have direct control over that.”

[insert chart of Nectar top-10 brands by Gen Z men’s resonance once designed]