It’s 2018 and the beauty industry is abuzz with discussions of gender and what it means in the beauty world. Unisex perfumes have been around for a while, but what about fashion and beauty? It’s time to rethink the issue.
Traditional Outlook
For many years now, the beauty industry has marketed products on the basis of a strictly binary categorization, with totally different products being offered to women and men. For instance, it’s not so long ago that gender marketing designed female-targeted products in pastel shades with evocative sexy names and floral motifs, whereas brands targeted at men featured steel blues and greys, with the words “For Men” emblazoned on them. Today, these stereotypes seem outdated and are less prevalent. According to market research company Mintel, gender-neutral beauty is an international trend in 2018 – as consumers shift away from customary gender stereotypes and beliefs in general, they will expect that brands frontline gender-neutral messages in their new product development and marketing promotions.
Non-Binary Beauty Products
An interesting take on beauty products is not to focus on either male and female skin, but on different skin types and their ingredient and treatment requirements, regardless of gender. A great example of such a move forward is non-binary beauty company Non Gender Specific (NGS), whose logo states that it is “the brand for every human.” As its corporate philosophy, this incredibly popular brand (which sold 5,000 bottles of its Everything Serum in just 48 hours) states that they hope to endorse a reduction in the amount of consumer waste created, with multi-functional products that use powerful, inclusive, and natural state-of-the-art formulations. Another example is British online cosmetic and fashion retailer ASOS. It’s Face + Body beauty subdivision offers unbiased products with a campaign featuring multi-ethnic women, men and non-binary models of all body shapes. Also JECCA, a unisex cosmetics brand, offers a broad range of gender-neutral products focused on the transgender community, in line with its #MakeupHasNoGender marketing pitch.
Unisex Aesthetic Treatments
With all this, it is clear that men as well as women are interested in beauty treatments. A quick Google search for unisex hair removal, for example, shows up many products and treatments that are not specified for use according to gender. These range from hair removal creams, to wax, sprays and devices. One such device is the Sensilight Mini by Sensica. Using advanced FDA-cleared, Reactive Pulsed Light (RPL™) technology, this hand-held, home-use device disables hair re-growth at the root, resulting in permanent hair reduction in both men and women.
