Celebrities Are Sharing Themselves Without Full Glam in Bare Skin

Stars are just like us. And that means they have real, human faces with acne scars, rosacea, and sun damage. But a lot of times, you’d never know it by the glam that celebrities have on the red carpet. Beauty standards still largely dictate that people, particularly women, present themselves to the world in flawless skin devoid of pores and imperfections. Of course, that’s not the reality. Real people have real skin, and a growing number of celebrities are posting videos and sharing photos where they have little to no makeup on. It’s refreshing to see, and it’s a good reminder that no one is perfect.

Singer Alicia Keys was one of the first A-listers to champion a no-makeup look and helped popularize it. In 2016, she chose to ditch the foundation and blush and opted for a makeup-free album photo shoot. “I swear it is the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt,” she wrote in a Lenny Letter essay. She inspired other celebrities like Pamela Anderson to rethink their beauty routines. Anderson famously did the press tour for her 2025 film The Naked Gun without makeup.

While many people do choose to go completely makeup-free, Keys shares that she now wears some makeup. She does so, however, often using products that are combined with skincare. An example of this would be a product like BB cream, which is generally lighter weight and lighter coverage (compared to foundation) and often has moisturizing qualities or contains SPF.

What the movement—and sharing bare faces—is really about is feeling good about showing up in whatever way you like, not the way society dictates. Maybe it’s a cut crease, a simple swipe of mascara, or nothing at all.

“I was taking on these tremendously oppressive beauty standards that I thought somehow applied to me in regards to being perfect, and I obviously rebelled against that,” Keys told WWD in 2022, eight years after her no-makeup proclamation. “I found my way around to the fact that I get to create my beauty standard, I get to choose what is beauty to me, and how I want to express that.”

Celebrities are known for going in full glam, but many are choosing to share what they look like without any makeup on, and it's refreshing.

Alicia Keys

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Taylor Swift

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Pamela Anderson

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Millie Bobby Brown

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Selena Gomez

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Amanda Seyfried

@voguemagazine In the latest installment of Vogue’s #BeautySecrets, #AmandaSeyfried opens up about her skincare journey including her struggles with #Eczema ♬ original sound – Vogue