Now it's men who reach for makeup.[File photo]

In college, Ge Candong's classmates mocked him for being unfashionable.

Since then, the 28-year-old has transformed himself into a "metrosexual," a straight urban man who is sensitive, caring and not embarrassed about enjoying a stylish life. He takes care to coordinate his outfits and follows a rigorous skin care regimen.

"Dressing well and using makeup is good for me and I'm happy to be a handsome man," he says.

He was plagued by dark circles around his eyes at college - caused by fatigue - and a female friend suggested eye cream. It worked and since then has been an avid reader of fashion magazines and websites focused on male beauty.

When his colleagues went sightseeing on a trip to Los Angeles last year, Ge went shopping instead and spent some US$2,000 on skin care products

"A product designed to minimize the pores and control grease without feeling tight was perfect for me, so I bought it without hesitation - even though it cost me an arm and a leg," he says.

Cheng Gong is another of China's increasingly stylish young men. He says he had little fashion sense until he enrolled at the Central Academy of Drama.

Cheng says he prefers a confident and "appropriate" look rather than high fashion and believes men should be masculine.

Art director Xiao Yaohui agrees and says: "A woman should dress like a woman, and a man like a man" - even though "the mainland has entered the so-called 'gender-neutral era' in which men and women are interdependent and treated more equally."

He adds: "Two decades ago, no man would dare walk down the street in pink, but now one in every 10 men has a pink shirt or coat in his wardrobe."

A Beijing-based office worker who didn't want to give his name has been a regular men's beauty shop client since 2001 and says he spends up to 50 percent of his wages here. "But this investment makes me look like 20-something rather than a 30-something."

According to cosmetics company L'Oreal, 2011 saw a 40 percent jump in the men's skin care market in China - five times that of the women's skin care market.