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Reader Kirstin likes her man's makeup and sent us this awesome request:
I was thinking to myself today that I haven't seen many options for guyliner/guy's makeup out there. I know there's no way in hell my guy would dress up without his makeup on for the big day, but I'd kind of like him to wear something other than his everyday eyeliner. Do you think we could have a superficial snack of awesome guy makeup?
– Kirstin
Hell yes we can. I found some good examples from the Offbeat Bride archives, a couple of YouTube gurus, and of course, some celebrities rockin' the guy makeup.
YouTuber GraysonCoutts shows us the basics of priming, concealing, and contouring.
YouTuber GossMakeupArtist shares his version of grungy, glossy guyliner and bronzer. He even uses a little color on his beard to make the look even dirtier. This is definitely good for a rock look.
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Help us out! What other kinds of makeup will the grooms be wearing on their wedding day?
About the Author: Catherine Clark
Catherine Clark loiters at her local library, makes art, watches movies en masse, plays video and tabletop games, poorly cooks healthy things, cuddles with her feline fur babies, and blogs at BijouxandBits.com.
In the celebrity-fabuloso department, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day rocks some pretty great guyliner.
Brian Molko was my immediate thought.
I drool over Molko in every picture. Especially from Black Market days. He has a great sense of style!
I’m sorry I am drooling over David Tenant
Who isn’t?
Thanks for featuring the image of James & Anna – James looking swell with some serious guy liner!! All credit the the MUA – Suzanna Forrister-Beer (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Make-Upps-by-Suzanna/221963897897888?fref=ts) for styling the hot lined look there! 🙂
I was JUST thinking about this. Every time we get done up to the nines, the boyo puts on his eyeliner. It would seem weird that this would be the one fancy dress day that he doesn’t, especially since I find the beard/eyeliner combo dreamy.
LOVE this! loves me some guyliner.
You should all wish Auros a happy birthday ’cause it happens to be his birthday today! 😀
Our friend Johanna did the eyeliner, which is basically one of those Egyptian Eye of Horus curlies. I did his nails. Unfortunately you can’t see it in any of the photos from the wedding day but I also used some little nail decals on his thumbs that were a silver/gold moon and star. For his kitties, who were named Tsuki and Hoshi, moon and star in Japanese. (Hoshi is still around but Tsuki is sadly no longer with us)
Happy Birthday Auros!
Ok, so, I finally got time to go back and watch those YouTube videos. I love GossMakeupArtist. I’ve seen some of his other looks. He generally has good tips and good styles and yay. But I have a big problem with this one:
He darkens his eyelids.
He darkens his eyelashes.
He darkens his beard.
He even contours his face with bronzer.
And then he does NOTHING to his eyebrows, thus making them vanish into his forehead!!
Eyebrows, very important expressive part of the face – please do not make them disappear!
With his light hair, though, too much (anything, really) on his brows would be too heavy and risks scouse brow status.
<3 I had to do Iain's eyeliner because he still can't do his own. He wanted to wear it (plus a touch of mascara and a dab of powder) because of the very good point that if I'm all made up then in the photos he would look rather washed out next to me! He rocks black eyeliner (with a little persuasion) for less formal/family based occasions, but this was just a little natural brown. It looked really good (but I'm biased anyway). I'm working on persuading him that guyliner should be worn at all times.
I feel so ambivalent about this, because I LOVE queering beauty standards and dudes with alternative masculinities/identities, but I really cannot abide the term “guyliner”. It’s such a gross portmanteaux! It’s like saying “Well, eyeliner is for LADIES ONLY so we have to have another name for it!”
I 2nd this. As if guys don’t have eyes or something. Just strange… but I do love guys rocking the eye makeup. As a matter of fact, I never have found David Tennant all that compelling, (I know, I know, just work with me) but I could NOT stop looking at the photo here. HAWT!
Attraction to David Tennant took several years to come to fruition for me. My fiance swoons and drools over him and always has, it wasn’t until I saw him in Fright Night (where that picture is from) that I thought: “Hmm, yes indeed, I believe I would!”
Actually, yeah. I know I used it, but it is a nasty word.
Wait, does this mean you also also hate my favorite portmanteau word of all time: MANTIES?
With a fiery passion that burns deep within my stretchy pants!
Although that comes more from my (widely shared, I think) hatred of the word “panties”.
Still, feminist-ID’d folks get up in arms over the “shrink it and pink it” approach to lady-fying all kinds of products, my distaste happens to go in both directions.
But perhaps that’s from my own selfish perspective – if we could effectively smash the gendering of fashion and beauty, I’d have more Eddie Izzard/Alan Cumming types to ogle. So discomfiting portmanteuxs aside, I’m just glad to see some pretty doodz representin’. 🙂
I thought I was the only person who hated the word “panties”
it reminds me of unmentionables that dirty girls sell on the internet.
I can not bring myself to call children’s underwear “panties” so instead taught the little girl I nanny for that they are called “knickers” (the british name for girls underwear)
Lots of people hate the word PANTIES, which is part of why I’ve reclaimed it, along with other words that have fallen out of favor like MOIST.
DJ Moist Manties is totally my new rave name.
I mostly used the term to say “an eyeliner look for guys” because guys and girls tend to wear their eyeliner differently.
I don’t think that’s true though. There isn’t a single eye-look in this post I haven’t seen on plenty of girls (or at least something very close to it) and about half of them I’ve done on myself. I think there’s almost certainly a broader _range_ of looks that girls do but I can’t think of a single thing that’s guy-exclusive or even mostly-guys where eye makeup is concerned.
Other kinds of makeup, yeah, sure – obviously girls aren’t doing much of the beard-darkening or cheekbone-bronzing (at least not in the same way).
Thanks! I think a darkened up version of Clint Catalyst’s look would be awesome.
Sorry for contributing to the icky word “guyliner.” We definitely use “eyeliner” and “eye shadow” at the house. I was using it more to mean “a slightly more masculine take on wearing eye makeup”
I agree, it’s just like “mandals” as if guys aren’t supposed to wear sandals.
I completely agree, you nailed it. I’m a straight boy and I have a pair of eyes as well which once in a while I feel like highlighting and valorizing them differently, with eyeliner or eyeshadow. Guyliner feels like a guy has to compensate God knows how the supposed femininity which comes from a bit of makeup, which is cumbersome and funny :).
Making clear that I’m thin and relatively fit, not big frame, I wonder if I can pull of said look with hair kept short and on the thinning side, lol. I saw that some with very buzzed hair or even bald, with or without a hat, can pull off tha look of makeup, especially if with thick and defined brows.
I’m confident with the short look, but if I had thick hair or ever recover it back, I would have wanted to try all kind of varying cropped and long haircuts.
MMMMMMMMMMMM TENNANT
David Tennannttttt… Sorry, what?
Love this post!
Shirtless David Tenant. Well done Superman, well done.
The public deserves it! 😉
We live by a man’s salon for butch straight guys grrr *flexes* and they’re all for waxing guys and calling it manscaping and MAN-icures! But I did like the ‘bromance’ come in with your dude friend for valentine’s and each only pay half the cost… The website is full of popculture puns like ‘smooth hand luke’ and ‘wax on/wax off’
I think it sucks that we’re in a culture that really does make things so black and white, as a trans guy I poke fun at ‘guy liner’ I think my eyes look so amazing and enhanced but it didn’t occur to me that it was a feminine thing just an aesthetic thing
I’m not in a place where I pass as male yet but I’ve known gender variants to experiment with make-up in a theatrical sense. If I’m able to one day grow a beard maybe my punk roots will come back. Depending on facial hair some men wearing eyeliner just end up looking like creepy magicians. Some of the above make up, look like more subtle homages to adam ant.
My family is really encouraging me to wear traditional femmey girl make up meant for women as a woman. My greatest compromise would be the make up like the last gent shown. I’d love to look like that! [[saves that pic for manspiration]] I figure if I want to look less wore out in pictures and just have a liiiiittle bit of a spark about me, done very natural, I’d let one of the sweet gay dudes doing Lou’s make up have a quick go at me, but less is more for me. “You’re not painting a house” – My mom, in terms of almost every activity I did growing up… be it decorating a cake or putting on concealer
I’m really surprised that brian molko didn’t make the list he’s prettttttttttttttttty… also bowie and cobain, even johnny depp… but this was an amazing jumping off point.
How has this post been up this long without anyone mentioning Adam Lambert?
Awesome feature – I run a blog about men’s makeup, and will definitely have to show this to my readers. I’m a big fan of Clint Catalyst and his aesthetic, so I’m really happy to see him here, too! I think it’s great that you’ve showed there is diversity to men’s makeup and not just the typical “guyliner” that’s been popular the last decade or so.
Hi, I’m a man, that blog seems like an interesting idea. Too bad you can’t comment directly with tumblr.
Though I don’t like some of the make up experiment there, they still are pics worth posting. But what’s an everyday make up and glam outfit for a men, in your idea?
Thanks.
Make up makes guys so pretty, I’m sad it’s not more common. My dude likes sparkles but hates how make up feels and bringing attention to himself at all.