by
Black Girl With Long Hair
In May, Alicia Keys made a public declaration via LennyLetter.com that she was done with makeup, after a lifetime of hiding behind it;
I remember when I first started to be in the public eye. Oh my gawd! Everyone had something to say. “She’s so hard, she acts like a boy, she must be gay, she should be more feminine!” But the truth is, I was just from New York, and everyone I knew acted like that… I started, more than ever, to become a chameleon. Never fully being who I was, but constantly changing so all the “they’s” would accept me…
She began to express her frustrations in songwriting;
In one song I wrote, called “When a Girl Can’t Be Herself,” it says,
In the morning from the minute that I wake up / What if I don’t want to put on all that makeup / Who says I must conceal what I’m made of / Maybe all this Maybelline is covering my self-esteem
No disrespect to Maybelline, the word just worked after the maybe. But the truth is … I was really starting to feel like that — that, as I am, I was not good enough for the world to see.
This started manifesting on many levels, and it was not healthy.
Every time I left the house, I would be worried if I didn’t put on makeup: What if someone wanted a picture?? What if they POSTED it??? These were the insecure, superficial, but honest thoughts I was thinking. And all of it, one way or another, was based too much on what other people thought of me.
All of this came to a head, when Alicia Keys unintentionally partic did a makeup-free photo shoot;
I’d just come from the gym, had a scarf under my baseball cap, and the beautiful photographer Paola (never met a Paola I didn’t like) said, “I have to shoot you right now, like this! The music is raw and real, and these photos have to be too!”
I was shocked. Instantly, I became a bit nervous and slightly uncomfortable. My face was totally raw. I had on a sweatshirt! As far as I was concerned, this was my quick run-to-the-shoot-so-I-can-get-ready look, not the actual photo-shoot look. So I asked her, “Now?! Like right now? I want to be real, but this might be too real!!”
And that was it. She started to shoot me.
It was just a plain white background, me and the photographer intimately relating, me and that baseball hat and scarf and a bunch of invisible magic circulating. And I swear it is the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt.
I felt powerful because my initial intentions realized themselves. My desire to listen to myself, to tear down the walls I built over all those years, to be full of purpose, and to be myself! The universe was listening to those things I’d promised myself, or maybe I was just finally listening to the universe, but however it goes, that’s how this whole #nomakeup thing began.
Alicia Keys had her first major test of the #nomakeup philosophy at the BET Awards. In situations like this, makeup is often used to highlight celebrities’ faces under bright lights and endless flash photography. But we have to say, Alicia looks just fine barefaced! See for yourself.
Do you think Alicia’s #nomakeup movement will spread to other celebrities?
10 Responses
She has subtle makeup on though
This is so fake considering she had a nose job to erase her blackness.
She looks awesome without makeup but I don’t think it will spread to other artists because I don’t feel they are strong enough to go barefaced. Nowadays celebrities are too interested in having their face done all the time. Whatever is her motivation to keep making music she has my vote, anyone who thinks she has fallen off needs to relisten to her albums & open their minds.
I don’t think that she had bad intention doing this but honestly, it benefits when your skin is ‘flawless’ and spot free without any acne scars or hyperpigmentation. I highly doubt that she would have done this if she suffered from skin problems and personally what she done here is not really brave. No hard feelings towards Alicia, she’s beautiful with make-up or no makeup but that’s the issue. I would praise someone that doesn’t fit the ‘natural’ standard of beauty rather than someone that does
she suffered greatly from adult acne. she was one of the faces of proactive for quite some time. so, for her, she is brave and courageous bc she has to work harder than someone who’s only ever had to use jergens soap and water to cleanse
She looks good but it won’t spread THAT much to OTHER stars.
She looks good, but let’s be real here. This is a marketing scheme and after this project she’s promoting is out, she’ll be done with this phase and will go back to wearing makeup again. She’ll just come up with some ‘deep’ reason for why. You watch.
No I don’t think it’ll spread to other celebrities. Ironically, she isn’t really the first celebrity to rock this no make-up look at red carpet/public events, actress Joy Bryant has been doing this her entire carreer minus the movement. I think people need to keep in mind one thing–women love makeup. We know all the stuff on the commercials, television, magazines and ect are all an illusion, we been made aware of this countless times, but at the end of the day, it still boils down to the fact we women do love makeup; Not all of course, but you get the gist. I think the mantra should be, to allow women to be beautiful in whichever way they present themselves–make-up free or not.
Alicia will never be as good as her first 2 albums.. But, yeah, she looks good w/o makeup.
Bravo!