Signals & Stats

New light

By Daniela Walker 20 : 10 : 2016 Male Beauty : Masculinity : Makeup

New York – Very Good Light is a new website dedicated to examining what it means to be masculine.

Very Good Light posts features about facial care, make-up and grooming as a way of interrogating masculinity
It is aimed at 16–26-year-old men who are searching for a forum to discuss male beauty

Very Good Light, New York

In his opening post, Very Good Light founder David Yi writes about how he almost died trying to take a good selfie. ‘I was spamming my Snapchat so hard I almost got hit by a semi-truck,’ he writes. ‘I mean, the light was just too good and the semi-truck really could wait.’ Yi felt confident, and more masculine – but then began to question what that meant. Did he feel masculine because he felt confident or because he was subscribing to particular norms?

Very Good Light is a space for men to find answers to these questions. On the surface it is a website dedicated to male beauty, with initial posts on using BB creams and how to part your hair, but Yi sees the topic of male beauty as a way to begin to question the broader meaning of masculinity.

As he asserts, the site is ‘built to be a safe haven and a non-judgemental space for guys to talk about manly things from all spectrums of manhood’.

The Big Picture

Inclusivity is a big topic in the beauty industry, but it is still often a conversation about race and not gender. But more men are wearing make-up and searching for forums and offerings that cater for them, like our Beauty Maverick tribe member, Patrick.