“So excited to finally announce that I am part of the @maybelline #bigshotmascara campaign,” Gutierrez wrote on an Instagram post. “Honestly I couldn't be more honored!” Renowned on his YouTube channel for slick liquid eyeliner flicks and perfectly contoured cheekbones, Gutierrez is part of a generation of young men who are as creative with beauty products as their female counterparts. And with millions of followers across platforms, it’s clear people are buying what he’s selling.

Maybelline isn’t the first major brand to appoint a male make-up ambassador. While CoverGirl signed Instagram and YouTube sensation James Charles in late 2016, New York-based brand Milk similarly champions both male and female ambassadors. “We don’t need labels, everyone is just themselves,” says male Milk ambassador Thistle Brown.

Male beauty is an increasingly profitable marketplace; three-quarters of men in the US and UK feel under pressure to look good, and male beauty and grooming product sales have increased 70% since 2012. And it’s a shift that’s only set to grow more pronounced; with 56% of 13- to 20-year-olds saying they know someone who goes by gender neutral pronouns like ‘they’ or ‘them’, for younger audiences, living outside of gender binary paradigms is a new norm.

Lore Oxford is Canvas8's deputy editor. She previously ran her own science and technology publication and was a columnist for Dazed and Confused. When she’s not busy analysing human behaviour, she can be found defending anything from selfie culture to the Kardashians from contemporary culture snobs.