We've lost the plot on “maxxing”

Beauty is maxing out on maxxing.

A quick glance at my inbox reveals pitches on scentmaxxing, a note about vaginamaxxing, and dispatches in favor of and staunchly against tanmaxxing (at Allure, we fall firmly in the latter camp). Journelle Skin, the aesthetics arm of lingerie brand Journelle, recently trademarked “Dermmaxxing” as the name of a bespoke treatment comprised of XERF, a fractional laser, radiofrequency microneedling and at-home skin care. Even for the uninitiated, the suffix may be self-explanatory: It’s about optimization at its most extreme. Scentmaxxing, for instance, involves using a frenzy of spritzes of your favorite fragrances, which is rude to anyone standing in a 10-foot radius, and potentially headache-inducing. Tanmaxxing, more dangerously, involves weaponizing the UV index to amplify a tan (read: sun damage), and is often augmented by tanning oils, Sun-In, or the banned peptide Melanotan II.

A chorus of medical professionals and organizations, including the Skin Cancer Foundation, have warned against using Melanotan II and the UV index to get a deeper tan. In an era of extremes, I was reassured by a strong consensus among voices of reason: No, you should not subject yourself to premature aging or put yourself at risk of skin cancer, and you definitely shouldn’t inject yourself with a banned peptide, which can only make things worse. But reaching a sensible conclusion seems so much rarer in the face of a powerful trend that brings self-optimization to a toxic extreme.

“Aren’t the origins of the maxxing trend antithetical to the fact that the bulk of beauty products are made for, marketed to, and purchased by women?”

These maxxing permutations all hail from the same umbrella term: “looksmaxxing,” which can entail anything from teeth-whitening strips and daily moisturizing to under-the-knife procedures, in the name of self-improvement. The term “hardmaxxing,” on the more extreme end, includes what the internet calls “bone-smashing,” which is exactly what it sounds like. With every iteration, though, looksmaxxing was born in the darker recesses of the internet. (Even the Pope had something to say about it.)

“Looksmaxxing communities are part of the manosphere, a group of male-oriented websites that share a ‘red pill ideology,’” states one study from several Canadian universities, which analyzed thousands of comments on discussion boards in those communities. The term “red pill” is a reference to the 1999 film The Matrix, and “red pill communities support misogyny, embrace traditional gender roles, critique feminism, and suggest that men are victims of misandry [discrimination against men].”

This bears similarities to some antiquated modes of beauty marketing, which have largely shifted in the last decade or so. Now, longevity is the 2026 equivalent to anti-aging, and weight loss has been rebranded as wellness. Putting those euphemisms aside, aren’t the origins of the maxxing trend antithetical to the fact that the bulk of beauty products are made for, marketed to, and purchased by women?

Regardless, I do understand the appeal. Whimsical beauty parlance is hardly new, and to the credit of marketers, it works. Recent years have seen trends like dolphin skin, clean-girl makeup, and siren eyes find their footing in the zeitgeist. I found a TikTok, posted in June, that showcases a single fragrance; as I write this, that video has over 150,000 likes, 22,000 bookmarks, and has been shared 1,500 times. The shopping link in the video says that 586,900 bottles of the fragrance have sold. That one fragrance gets introduced in the creator’s description as “a rich, luxurious dessert.” But in the frame, only a single word: scentmaxxing.

Sure, with that kind of commercial power and social media influence, I see the appeal of the bandwagon and why the beauty powers that be would jump on it. But that doesn’t negate the dubious origins of maxxing, or its more dangerous incarnations. One of looksmaxxing’s most recognizable faces, Braden Peters, is more broadly known as Clavicular. He’s tall, has prominent bone structure, perfectly coiffed hair, and razor-sharp eyebrows, so it’s no shock that he’s walked runways for Elena Velez in New York and 424 in Paris. By his own admission, though, he credits much of that bone structure to tapping his face with a hammer, over and over again. He started taking mail-order testosterone when he was 14, and believes it has rendered him infertile. He was hospitalized in April for a suspected drug overdose, after he had publicly admitted to using methamphetamine to lose body fat, known as leanmaxxing.

“It’s counterintuitive to give a name so connotatively corrupt to approaches that are meant to be fun.”

Self-mutilation in the name of beauty existed long before the internet spawned the manosphere. Even a procedure as popular as a facelift has its own gruesome costs. We’re also in the age of facial conformity, where the social media fodder we’re inundated with sways our desire to look like ourselves. But beauty, at its best, can also be a means of self-empowerment and an act of agency. When the late Leonard A. Lauder, architect of Estée Lauder’s market domination, first noted the phenomenon known as the lipstick index, its premise was a simple one: In times of economic downturn, women reach for a new tube, a relatively affordable luxury item, to make themselves feel better.

What separates going under a surgeon’s knife and hammering one’s own face isn’t just safety or common sense, but the dark undertones of the maxxing craze. Devotees treat attractiveness as an expression of superiority rather than individuality. Vaginamaxxing, for instance, is focused on changing the appearance, smell, and/or tightness of the genitalia. “The vaginal wellness boom is here,” proclaims the aforementioned email, noting “Top 1% pH.” When did vaginal health become a competition?

Many of the maxxing trends are older beauty tips, just repackaged. Eyemaxxing with makeup may yield a cartoonish result, but the sculpting techniques behind it have existed for years. Other cosmetic rituals like teeth whitening have also been around for ages. I’m surprised I haven’t seen contouring rebranded as cheekbonemaxxing yet.

But it’s counterintuitive to give a name so connotatively corrupt to approaches that are meant to be fun. On the wellness front, there's the repackaging of the Mediterranean diet as nonnamaxxing, a misnomer to anyone who has a nonna, or just has met one. Because that’s what we all think of when we think of antifeminist rhetoric—Mediterranean grandmas.

The maxxing spectrum is broad. Even Peters described his sobriety as “alivemaxxing” after his reported overdose, in both a reversal of harmful behavior and a reinforcement of language born out of misogynistic ideologies. Maxxing might be trendy, throwaway marketing parlance, but its less benign origins need to be acknowledged.

Read more about current beauty culture:

At 75, I'm Rethinking My “No Plastic Surgery” Stance

Cosmetic Procedures Make Freakier Friday Confusing As Hell

Dark Manicures Are Actually Better in Summer

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