Ansel Elgort, Makeup King of the Golden Globes, and the Arrival of the Very Famous Beauty Boy

On Sunday, at the 77th annual Golden Globes, Ansel Elgort had a twinkle in his eyes. An actual, literal twinkle, I mean: a smear of glitter running from the corner of each eye, above and below, like a forked river. And then, while announcing the Best Original Song category, he enthusiastically applauded his own singing—and revealed nails painted a perfect, undoodled-paper white.

We are happily past the point where men wearing makeup to an event feels groundbreaking: The likes of Ezra Miller have made this common practice, CoverGirl campaigns are fronted by folks like James Charles, and It boy Luka Sabbat works with Milk Makeup. What feels noteworthy about Elgort’s beauty look, instead, is how much it feels of a piece with the rest of his outfit. He wears a little glittery eye shadow the way men for decades have worn watches, or a tie—it’s an accessory meant to enhance his whole look. The twinkling blue makeup complements Elgort’s midnight-blue velvet tuxedo; the white nail polish corresponds well enough to his white shirt.

Elgort, it seems, is not alone: Over the past month, elements of beauty and the hashtag self-care movement have trickled into the lives of some of Hollywood’s most visible dudes. After Harry Styles was whooshed out of a recent BBC radio appearance, he showed off nails painted an Easter-egg blue with cutesy flower designs. This past weekend, Lil Uzi Vert posted a series of pictures of himself in a Hello Kitty sheet mask and wearing a shirt printed with the words “I’m Good / Everything’s Great.” (It was!) And on a visit to an Uncut Gems pop-up shop in New York last month, Timothée Chalamet took his devotion to beauty brands one heeled-boot step further, turning up in a millennial-pink Glossier hoodie.

I should note that this is novel only in a vacuum: Men have worn makeup since the beginning of time. (Perhaps we can interest you in our recent guide to using concealer?) More men than ever care about taking care of their skin, and plenty, like Chalamet, are assured devotees of Glossier’s Milky Jelly face cleanser. The men listed above are hardly the first to make known their love of all the beauty industry has to offer (astute observers will remember that Elgort posted a picture of himself doing the viral Glamglow glitter mask last year, like every other beauty influencer). But to assert that the majority of men are comfortable with grooming and beauty would be a mistake. A poll conducted by GQ found, among many startling statistics, that only 38 percent of respondents had used moisturizer at all in the past six months. (Please, moisturize twice a day!)

What feels different here, and worth noting, is the accumulation of all these instances, as well as the context. Elgort's venturing onto the Golden Globes red carpet, where the tuxes have only just ventured past traditional black-and-white, ushers male beauty into a long-conservative stratosphere. Or consider the fact that skin care has so successfully entwined itself with the life of Hollywood’s most famous young actor, Chalamet, that he walks around in a beauty brand’s limited-edition merch. How did he even come into possession of it? How much serum does one celebrity need to buy before the brand’s influencer-relations corps picks him up on its radar? Someone get me a picture of this man’s medicine cabinet and/or Dopp kit, STAT.

For too long, the manly attitude toward grooming was to not have one at all—to question what was necessary beyond a bar of soap, anyway. With that in mind, the arrival and mainstreaming of the beauty boy is a welcome vision—tinged in millennial pink.

Originally Appeared on GQ