War Paint 

Words Lil­ly Delmage

Make­up designed for men – because why shouldn’t every­one have the tools to feel their most confident? 

War Paint for Men is an award-win­ning cos­met­ic brand, spe­cial­is­ing in cre­at­ing make­up designed specif­i­cal­ly for men’s skin. With the over­ar­ch­ing mis­sion to empow­er men, the com­pa­ny has become an indus­try leader in chal­leng­ing stereo­types, repur­pos­ing the pow­er of make­up, and sup­port­ing men’s men­tal health. 

It is a well-known fact that the make­up indus­try has tra­di­tion­al­ly been catered to, mar­ket­ed to, and dom­i­nat­ed by female con­sumers. The act of apply­ing make­up and assign­ing impor­tance on appear­ance has typ­i­cal­ly been asso­ci­at­ed with ‘fem­i­nine’ stereo­types, whilst ‘mas­cu­line’ expres­sions of beau­ty have been large­ly lim­it­ed to a bit of hair gel and the of trim­ming of facial hair.

But, this soci­etal nar­ra­tive is chang­ing. A recent study by Ipsos found approx­i­mate­ly one-third of all men are open to using beau­ty cos­met­ics, with younger gen­er­a­tions being the most open-mind­ed. As soci­etal bound­aries of what is con­sid­ered ‘mas­cu­line’ and ‘fem­i­nine’ are pro­gres­sive­ly blur­ring, as are the gen­dered buy­ing behav­iours of cosmetics.

Hav­ing worn make­up for 20 years to bet­ter his con­fi­dence, War Paint for Men’s founder, Dan­ny Gray, was his own tar­get cus­tomer. We spoke to Dan­ny to get bet­ter insight into why he start­ed War Paint for Men, how the pub­lic recep­tion has been, and the dif­fer­ent require­ments of men’s skin com­pared to women’s. 

Why did you start War Paint for Men, and what were your goals behind the brand?

I had the idea of War Paint for years before I start­ed it. Since I was a child, I’ve lived with a men­tal health con­di­tion called Body Dys­mor­phic Dis­or­der. It caus­es me to obsess about the way I look. So, when I was a teenag­er and start­ed get­ting acne for the first time, it real­ly affect­ed me. 

When my sis­ter showed me how to apply a lit­tle bit of con­ceal­er to help hide my red­ness and blem­ish­es, my world changed. I used make­up for years as a tool to help give me con­fi­dence. But when I went to shop for make­up that relat­ed to me as a man, there was basi­cal­ly noth­ing there, so I decid­ed to start my own brand. Our main goal is to spread con­fi­dence. Make­up isn’t only a tool for women, it’s for every­body that wants it.

Had you seen any­thing like this pre­vi­ous­ly on the mar­ket? If so, why do you think no one had filled this gap before?

There were some brands out there that also made make­up for men, but they were usu­al­ly uni­sex or a deriv­a­tive of a wom­en’s brand. There was no one out there mak­ing make­up specif­i­cal­ly for men, talk­ing to men in a lan­guage they under­stand, and for begin­ners. Peo­ple may have thought the gap was already filled by wom­en’s brands, or they did­n’t think the mar­ket was big enough yet — but it’s been grow­ing steadi­ly for the past 10 years at least.

There is a stig­ma around men wear­ing make­up, why is it impor­tant to shift this narrative?

We believe every­one should have access to the tools they need to feel good about them­selves. We all know look­ing after our men­tal health is cru­cial, so if we can help some­one feel more con­fi­dent, that’s a win in our eyes. 

How do you believe your brand is mak­ing steps to change this, what has been the response from your customers?

We’re chal­leng­ing the stig­ma around men wear­ing make­up by just exist­ing. Show­ing all dif­fer­ent types of guys, dif­fer­ent ages, eth­nic­i­ties, styles, is cru­cial so peo­ple can relate to what they see when they look at our brand. We get amaz­ing mes­sages from cus­tomers all the time telling us that our brand is help­ing to break down bar­ri­ers and change the nar­ra­tive around men and what’s ‘mas­cu­line’. It makes all the hard work worth it.

What are your most pop­u­lar prod­ucts, and why do you think they prove such a hit with customers?

Our best sell­ers are our Tint­ed Mois­turis­er and Con­ceal­er. I think what peo­ple love about them is that they’re sub­tle. They are also real­ly easy to apply but have notice­able results, which makes it a great intro­duc­tion to using makeup. 

It is men’s men­tal health month; how do you think your brand helps men feel more confident?

Make­up def­i­nite­ly isn’t the answer to hav­ing great men­tal health. But, if it can help cov­er that pesky spot you’re wor­ried peo­ple are look­ing at, or bright­en dark cir­cles after not much sleep, it can help you go out into the world know­ing you look great. It’s a real game-changer. 

Have you faced any back­lash for War Paint for Men?

Absolute­ly! We faced a lot of back­lash at the start for some of the types of men we were using in our ads, and we were accused of pro­mot­ing tox­ic mas­culin­i­ty. We’ve devel­oped the brand a lot since then, thank­ful­ly. But we still get a lot of neg­a­tive feed­back — some peo­ple sim­ply aren’t ready and accept­ing of men wear­ing make­up. And that’s total­ly fine. It takes time to cre­ate a change in atti­tudes. But, we’ll keep being here for those who are ready to try some­thing new and would rather try a men’s brand than a wom­en’s brand.

Your brand high­lights how men and women’s skin are dif­fer­ent and need dif­fer­ent make­up for­mu­las. How does our skin dif­fer and how do your prod­ucts adapt to this?

Men’s skin tends to be oili­er than wom­en’s and we also have larg­er pores. Our for­mu­las are designed with that in mind, so they are light­weight. We also have facial hair and poten­tial shav­ing issues to con­tend with, so we have skin­care and make­up prod­ucts to help with that too. 

Have you found men want dif­fer­ent things from make­up than women? 

There’s mas­sive vari­a­tion across wom­en’s brands, but many pro­mote high cov­er­age and a glowy fin­ish to help high­light skin. The audi­ence we’re cater­ing to is look­ing for some­thing a lit­tle more sub­tle, nat­ur­al-look­ing and matte. 

Were you sur­prised by the pop­u­lar­i­ty of your brand, or did you know the demand was out there?

I knew the demand was out there — I knew if find­ing make­up was a prob­lem for me, oth­er men would feel the same way. But I was shocked at how quick­ly it took off. In our first few months of trad­ing, we achieved over three times of what I had expected. 

A mas­sive con­grat­u­la­tions on your expe­ri­ence on Drag­on’s Den. How did you find your experience? 

Thank you so much. Being on the show was incred­i­ble. It came at the per­fect time for us as we had just gone viral for the first time, but unfor­tu­nate­ly for all the wrong rea­sons. We were being accused of run­ning ads that pro­mote tox­ic mas­culin­i­ty. So when the show came around, I knew it was the per­fect time to tell my per­son­al sto­ry and how War Paint is linked to my body dys­mor­phia. Once peo­ple saw that mes­sage, they real­ly under­stood. We did­n’t actu­al­ly end up going with invest­ment from the Drag­ons for many rea­sons, but it helped us to spread our sto­ry and cat­a­pult our brand into the market. 

Last­ly tell us, what’s next for War Paint for Men?

We have big plans ahead. We’re excit­ed to launch new skin­care prod­ucts next year and con­tin­ue to grow in retail. Watch this space!