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by Irmin Durand PARIS,

Egyptians did it, Indians do it, and in Europe men used to do it some two centuries back.

So it can hardly come as a surprise that in today's consumer heaven, the luxury brands that dictate the turns and twists in tastes and trends are elbowing Frenchmen towards the once taboo make-up kits and cosmetic creams.

No socks, ties or jumpers in this year's Christmas stockings. With masculine self-indulgence peaking, the big-name brands are scrambling over each other to launch the perfect "His" beauty range.

Only last September, flamboyant fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier caused something of a media buzz by unveiling Tout Beau Tout Propre, his men's makeup - or "beautifying" - line.

"Men who look after themselves are modern-day dandies," said Gaultier. "They travel, drive bikes and cars or pilot planes and like to have fun. But they also like to be elegant, though with a touch of irony."

So Gaultier has launched a pressed powder, lipstick, eyeliner and concealer packaged in elegant black cases pretending not to be make-up. The concealer balm is in a case that looks like a Zippo lighter, the two-ended anti-wrinkle and eyeliner pencil looks like a pen.

To mark the event, venerable department stores Galeries Lafayette and La Samaritaine hosted makeover sessions and makeup lessons to teach men just how to powder their noses “ la Gaultier. But at the stores salesmen are still having trouble teaching the few interested parties how to put it on.

"Oh! Look what he did to the lipstick", one salesman was overheard saying as he looked with dismay at a blunted stick handled with too much macho gusto.

Avant-garde Gaultier, however, is not the first to set his sights on the new, beautiful male. Guerlain fired the first shot back in 1988 with its Terracotta pour Homme powder compact - also packaged to deceive in what looked like an old-fashioned shaving-cream pot.

Clarins launched Clarins Men skincare a year ago, while Lancome jumped on the bandwagon in September with Lancome Homme. Not to be outdone, Shiseido presented a men's beauty range in November, just in time for the crucial end-of-year shopping period. Brands such as Aramis and Clinique tiptoed onto the scene many years ago.

At the supermarket, less claustrophobically female-dominated than the department store, Nivea tempts men with all manner of beautifying products which can be popped into the shopping trolley before nipping down the aisle for milk, eggs and butter.

These days these brands are not simply talking about fancy after-shave balm. Products on offer are top of the range items such as de-stressing face masks, pore-cleansing gels, facial scrubs, anti-wrinkle creams, eye-contour creams, firming creams and self-tanning gel.

Marie-Alix Le Roy, consultant for Marketing Intelligence, said the men's beauty market, though representing only 5 to 10 percent of general beauty products, was the fastest-developing sector, with a 20 percent annual growth rate. "There is an enormous reservoir there," she said, but "it will be a long process."

Man aged between 20 and 30 "who grew up with the same notions as women of being perfect" and "who have similar complexes about their appearance" would be the big buyers of the future. But they were after specific problem-solving products, such as anti-pollutants or anti-fatigue creams, she said. So even among men daring enough to don Gaultier's extravagant fashions, nip into a day-spa for a facial or slather on Clarins revitalising cream, there are woefully few who appear willing to take the actual make-up - or "beautifying", as it is called - plunge..

The chic little Gaultier makeup display on Galeries Lafayette's beauty floor remains pitifully abandoned at rush-hour, and the young men shopping at the Lafayette Homme all-male department store blush and say, almost identically: "It's a great idea, why shouldn't men use makeup? But it's not really my thing."

So, given this reticence even among the adventurous, why the stampede into men's cosmetics?

Gilles Aujard, the buyer for the big men's department at the Galeries Lafayette, said in an interview that the male customer in fact was a totally new market animal.

Though Gaultier might well be jumping the gun a little, Aujard himself admitted to having a liking for a Clarins anti-wrinkle serum.

"Men are interested in themselves nowadays, and they do their own shopping, they don't just listen to their wives or mothers, specially younger men, they take their own decisions. As for women they're now buying different presents for men - jewellery, cosmetics, nice underwear."

That may well be, but the growing trend may have far more to do with drumming up sales in a new market niche than with merely making men happy. Loreal for instance says 21 percent of men use skincare products today against only four percent in 1990. That figure will jump to 50 percent in 2005. If men really begin to turn to daily skincare routines, it might be no more than a hop, a skip and a jump to eyeliner, powder and lipstick, and beyond.

STONE 'N' STRING

www.ppilk.com

www.crescat.com

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