Just a few months ago, Bach Buquen was a mid-tier content creator from Paris. Today, he’s a bona fide TikTok teen idol with 6.1 million followers. But it wasn’t his shirtless, thirst trap workouts or his meme-worthy shoulder dance to Modern Talking’s “Brother Louie” that catapulted the 19-year-old to social media stardom. It was something he’d been doing since his early teens: wearing makeup.

In the late 2010s, queer beauty influencers like James Charles, Patrick Starrr, and Bretman Rock rose to internet fame by serving up sassy humour in full-glam faces. Buquen’s image couldn’t be more different: he’s traditionally masculine and straight. But that may be precisely why Buquen has not just attracted a sizable following but shifted social norms, making it less taboo for men to wear makeup.

Buquen is certainly having a moment. In the last six months, he’s inked partnerships with everyone from Armani Beauty and Anastasia Beverly Hills to Charlotte Tilbury and Hugo Boss. Gucci and Balenciaga have dressed him to attend their fashion shows. During a recent trip to New York (his first), teen girls stopped him on the street for selfies and Interview magazine dubbed him “TikTok’s favourite French heartthrob.” Last week, Kate Moss appeared on his TikTok (alongside Tilbury). Last week, he’s working with Jacquemus to promote the brand’s New York store opening.

“I think he’s one of a few boys who are very influential right now,” said Claudia Soare, president of Anastasia Beverly Hills. “They can help break that barrier [around men wearing makeup].”

Boys of Beauty

At 14, Buquen, who is half Vietnamese and half French-Italian, began stealing his mother’s foundation to cover his pimples, hiding behind his school bag while applying it on the Paris metro. “I was scared,” he recalled. “A lot of people are close-minded and think it’s just for women.”

Three years later, he had attracted 200,000 followers on TikTok with a mix of selfies and lipsyncing videos. But he soon grew weary of the haters and quit the platform. Last September, with encouragement from By Imhotep, a Paris-based Gen Z-led talent agency, he started posting again.

He wanted to combat the sense of shame associated with men wearing makeup. So, this August, during rush hour at the St. Lazare metro station, he set up two iPhones — one for lighting, the other for recording — and filmed himself applying his makeup. He posted it on TikTok with the call to action “Normalise makeup for men” and the hashtag #makeupformen.

He posted a few more versions of the video, and what followed was a viral success, fueled by both love and hate, that pushed #makeupformen to prominence and grew his TikTok following to over 4 million.

But Buquen isn’t the only teen TikToker making waves in men’s beauty.

In January, 22-year-old Matteo Sinet, known for his colourful, ever-changing hair, saw a similar rise. A TikTok showcasing his extensive skincare routine, featuring The Ordinary’s pink-coloured serum, went viral, amassing nearly 3 million likes and 40 million views in one month. His followers topped 4.2 million. North West — daughter of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West — engaged him in a playful makeup battle on TikTok. Recently, Sinet starred in Armani Beauty’s back-to-school makeup campaign.

Everyday Masc Appeal

Buquen and Sinet have a few things in common. They’re both straight and in many ways traditionally masculine, and that’s a big part of their appeal.

Buquen is a former rugby player who fits the “hyper-masculine hetero dude” image, said UTA marketing executive Nate Jones. Meanwhile, Sinet is an avid boxer who played basketball in the OTE (Overtime Elite) league, a French pathway to the NBA.

For Buquen, putting on concealer or dabbing liquid blush on his face makes him “feel more confident.” Sinet says he wears light makeup, lipstick and lipgloss for the same reason, insisting that wearing cosmetics isn’t just a TikTok stunt. “This is my routine in real life,” he said.

“You can’t call them beauty influencers — they’re not,” said Anastasia Beverly Hills’ Soare. “They’re guys with a following who do a lot of things — one of the things that they happen to do is beauty.”

Be Like Bach

While Buquen and Sinet have attracted the most attention, a growing number of TikTok creators focused on men’s makeup are gaining traction, such as @hwaniieww (1.6 million followers), @lucamornet (415,000 followers), and @joelerdmann_(262,000 followers).

“Men’s makeup is shifting from niche curiosity to a rising trend,” according to Quilt.AI. Internet searches for men’s makeup rose 120 percent in the past two years, the company said. And the category is expected to continue to grow. Future Market Insights estimates the global market for male colour cosmetics will more than double over the next 10 years, from $17.57 billion in 2023 to $43 billion by 2033: a small fraction of the overall beauty market, to be sure, but more than pocket change.

“There is a cultural shift towards men incorporating makeup into their daily routines,” said Armani Beauty president Richard Pinabel, noting “a strong reception to our brand among male consumers” and that “face and lip are the biggest opportunities with concealer, gloss, and [products for] brows.”

Tom Ford and Chanel have long offered beauty products for men. But launching men’s-specific makeup lines may not be the best strategy for brands targeting the opportunity and Armani Beauty has avoided launching a cosmetics offering that’s overtly for men.

In March, Anastasia Beverly Hills launched Beauty Balm, a genderless skin tint serum that quickly resonated with men because “it doesn’t look like makeup,” said Soare. “It’s very Gen Z, very fluid.”

“I think the nonchalance [Buquen] brings to the conversation is the same nonchalance a brand should bring,” said Jones. “It’s a product for everyone. Don’t make a big stink about it.”

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Ruuby, the British on-demand beauty services provider founded by entrepreneur Venetia Archer in 2016 has raised $2.6 million in an investment round led by Manchester-based investor Praetura Ventures.

The investment is part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund which seeks to provide capital to businesses throughout the north of England, where access to institutional investment is often lower.

Ruuby has raised $9 million in funding and generated $22 million in sales to date.

Primarily app-based, Ruuby allows customers to book beauty services including hairstyling, makeup application and massages, as well as injectables to a location of their choosing. Since its inception, the business has delivered nearly 500,000 services and has over 150,000 users, as well as 3,000 beauty professionals on board.

In a statement, Archer said monies raised will be used to increase its presence in France and Switzerland, as well as increasing its reach across the UK with plans to hire more staff in Manchester and Liverpool.

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Refy Bets the Indie Beauty Boom Isn’t Over Yet

Despite a slowdown in the M&A pipeline and rising pressure on indie brands, British cosmetics company Refy thinks it can buck the trend and become a breakout star. Pulling it off will require careful calibration to help it broaden its presence without denting its status.

Hedge fund Starboard Value has taken a stake in Kenvue, the consumer products company that makes Band-Aid, Listerine, and Tylenol, and which went public last year, two people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

Reuters was not able to immediately learn the size of the stake.

Kenvue, previously a part of Johnson & Johnson, has seen its stock price fall 18 percent since the company was listed publicly in May, 2023. It closed trading at $21.72 per share on Friday, giving the company a market value of $41 billion.

Starboard may want the company to review how it positions its brands and how they are priced in order to boost its performance, one of the sources said.

The sources were not authorised to discuss the hedge fund’s positions publicly and declined to be identified. A Kenvue representative was not immediately available for comment.

The news, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes two days before the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit where Starboard chief investment officer, Jeffrey Smith, is scheduled to present investment ideas.

At the conference, Starboard is expected to discuss its new roughly $1 billion investment in pharmaceutical company Pfizer. The hedge fund has signaled that it wants the pharmaceutical giant to improve its financial performance.

Smith met last week with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and the company’s lead independent director. Pfizer delivered the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine but its stock price has lost nearly half of its value since 2021 when demand for the vaccine was high.

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Chandni Shah; Editors: Subhranshu Sahu and Edwina Gibbs

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The Kenvue-owned skincare giant is releasing a new range, Collagen Bank, targeting younger consumers with actress Hailee Steinfeld as a spokesperson, a TikTok-first rollout and a focus on anti-ageing care.

Reome, a UK-based biotechnical skincare label founded in 2023, announced Monday that it raised over £1.1 million ($1.4 million) in an initial fundraising round led by Rianta Capital, the family office of New Look store founder Tom Singh, which has also invested in suncare brand Hello Sunday.

The funding will allow the 18-month-old brand to expand its product offerings, wholesale distribution, and direct-to-consumer business, as well as facilitate partnerships with biotech laboratories to create new ingredients. The brand currently offers three SKUs with a pipeline of 21 additional products. The next launch, a new formula created with the L’Oréal-backed and US-based biotech lab Debut, is slated for January 2025.

”I often say to investors, I may not be a seasoned entrepreneur with 20 failed businesses behind me, but what I do know is beauty,” said founder Joanna Ellner, who started her career as a beauty editor and later worked as a consultant for companies including L’Oréal and Unilever. “I know what constitutes a trend versus a sea change in the industry.”

Reome sits at at the centre of the prestige skincare and biotechnology markets, with the latter looking increasingly attractive to investors as growth in the former slows down. Ellner believes that biotechnology’s potential in beauty “is very misunderstood, both by the industry and the consumer.”

”The real challenge and opportunity for Reome is to lead that conversation,” she added.

Ellner previously raised a friends and family round worth £100,000 ($130,000) before the brand’s launch in January 2023 with a single SKU — a “broth” made with bio-fermented ingredients — and a six-month exclusive deal with luxury beauty boutique Space NK. Reome then launched its own e-commerce platform before then expanded to shelves at Moda Operandi and Formula Fig in North America.

In 2025, the brand hopes to beef up its wholesale presence in Europe, Australia, and the United States.

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As the beauty industry has grown in value and saturation, emerging brands have often leaned on outside investment to grow. But for those who don’t want — or can’t access — external funding, a more roundabout path is needed.

Luxury clothing maker Moncler showcased its latest celebrity collaborations in a series of pavilions built inside an old shipyard in downtown Shanghai on Saturday as it looks to shrug off the sector’s global malaise.

More than 8,000 guests were on hand for “The City of Genius” event, which featured separate pavilions for each of this year’s Moncler Genius collection collaborators — a list that includes high profile names such as A$AP Rocky, Edward Enninful, Willow Smith and Rick Owens.

Moncler Genius has since 2018 invited creators from various fashion, music, and artistic fields to co-create collections that put their own spin on Moncler’s down jackets and this year saw the collections variously showcased in runway shows, modelled in elaborate garden settings, and on a go-kart racetrack.

The event arrives in Shanghai as the luxury world braces for a slowdown due in part to China’s slowing economy and consumer pullback.

France’s LVMH, a bellwether for the luxury sector, on Tuesday reported a 3 percent fall in third-quarter sales.

Moncler, however, has been outperforming luxury competitors this year, with revenue up 11 percent in the first half and double-digit growth among Chinese consumers shopping both at home and abroad. The firm is yet to report third-quarter results.

“China is a very good market,” Moncler chief executive Remo Ruffini said at a press conference prior to Saturday’s event. “[The luxury market] is volatile, you know, but ... I’m sure in five years, China will be much bigger than it is today.”

Last month Ruffini tightened his control of the group after striking a deal with LVMH, which purchased a 10 percent stake in Double R, the investment vehicle controlled by the Moncler CEO, enabling Double R to up its stake in Moncler from 15.8 percent to 18.5 percent over the next 18 months.

By Casey Hall; Editor: David Holmes

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