men's personal care

Anti-aging products targeting men are a hot opportunity

By Rieva Lesonsky

If you’ve walked into a beauty store, spa, salon, department store or even drugstore lately, you’ve no doubt seen plenty of skincare and makeup products making anti-aging claims. Most of those products are aimed at women.

That could be a mistake, according to new research from Mintel on American dads with children under 18 at home. Mintel found 34% of dads who use personal care products care about preventing the signs of aging, compared to 26% of male personal care product users overall. The more children a dad has, the more they wanted to stay “forever young”—32% of men with one child say they care about aging, while 38% of dads with two children have anti-aging concerns.

And yet, according to the Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD), only 4% of men’s personal care products launched in America last year made anti-aging claims.

This leaves a huge gap in the market. “The discrepancy between the amount of men interested in preventing the signs of aging and the number of products touting these benefits indicates a significant opportunity for anti-aging personal care products specifically formulated for and marketed to men,” says Mintel.

What look are men going for? Mintel says 52% want to look “healthy,” 40% want a “laid-back look,” 27% want an “effortless look” and 19% prefer to look “polished.”

Like women, men are buying “natural” products (47% say that’s the top claim they look for on product packaging). And 70% of men use sunscreen/sun protection, while 64% use facial skincare products.

Men’s personal care products (including skincare, deodorant, soap and bath products, hair products and shaving/depilatories) was a $4.5 billion industry in 2017. Mintel forecasts “slow and steady category sales growth as men aged 35-44, and specifically dads, help to propel the market forward.”

Men’s skin care stock photo by goodluz/Shutterstock
Exercise stock photo by baranq/Shutterstock