Gym Makeup: Since When Do Workouts Have to Look Good?
In 2017, Puma and Maybelline released a joint collection: smudge-proof mascara, highlighter, and liquid lipstick in shades called "Fearless" and "Fierce," designed specifically for the gym. The collection was aimed at women, as gym makeup always is.
The gym makeup category grew significantly after that and resurged again from around 2023, with brands repositioning products explicitly around workout aesthetics. The British Vogue beauty editor explained the logic plainly that year: "So many people post workout selfies that I'm not surprised they're tempted to wear a bit of makeup." That is a more honest account of what this category is actually for than most of the marketing copy. The gym has become a filming location, the workout has become content, and the industry has built a product range around how women look while doing it rather than how they perform.
Wearing makeup to the gym is a completely personal decision, and for many people it genuinely reduces self-consciousness in a space that can already feel exposing. The product choice is not in question here; what is worth examining is what the category implies, and how it is sold.
Another Standard That Only Applies to Women
Research from This Girl Can found that women are put off exercising specifically because of how their body looks during a workout, with "jiggling" cited as a concern alongside the fear of not appearing sufficiently feminine. That was a finding about exercise, not about beauty products. The appearance pressure was already there before anyone formulated a mascara to survive a spin class.
Between 38% and 71% of women have experienced harassment in exercise spaces. Women make up around 40% of professional athletes but receive approximately 4% of sports media coverage, and when they are covered, the focus disproportionately falls on appearance, femininity, and attractiveness rather than performance. Female athletes have historically competed in more revealing kit than men in the same sports, a disparity that has never been justified on functional grounds.
Gym makeup and athleisure did not create any of this, but they highlighted that the expectation of looking good while exercising was already operating, already making women self-conscious, already shaping what exercise spaces feel like, and build a product range around that pressure. Wet n Wild's "Ath-Beauty" line, Covergirl's "Active" range, and Superdrug's description of gym makeup as helping you "look your very best while getting a sweat on" are all selling the same idea: that the gym is another occasion requiring appearance preparation.
There is no equivalent market aimed at men. Men's fitness content and advertising centres performance, strength, and output. The question of whether a man looks attractive mid-workout is not one the industry has decided to monetise, and that asymmetry is the entire premise of the category rather than a coincidence.
Index:MH sets measurable standards for how the beauty and fashion industry affects consumer mental health. To find out more about our work, visit indexmh.org.
