Alicia Keys: a #nomakeup convert

Alicia Keys is in the spotlight after speaking out about the revelation of going makeup-free.

In an essay published on Tuesday by Lenny titled "Alicia Keys: Time to Uncover," the 15-time Grammy Award winner talks about her frustration at the way she believes women are "brainwashed into feeling like we have to be skinny, or sexy, or desirable, or perfect."

Explaining how the pressures of fame affected her relationship with her self-image, and consequently her self-esteem, Keys writes: "Every time I left the house, I would be worried if I didn't put on makeup: What if someone wanted a picture??" The behaviour, she concludes, was "not healthy."

Thankfully all that changed recently, when the musician turned up for a photo shoot fresh from the gym with her face scrubbed bare, and the photographer insisted on snapping her on the spot. Her verdict? "I swear it is the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt."

The star has since posed sans makeup for Vanity Fair, and as this picture, lovingly reposted by her husband Swizz Beatz confirms, she's never looked better.


Keys is the latest recruit to the #nomakeup movement that has swept the internet over the past few months, and she is far from the only celebrity to take up the cause.

Hollywood actress Cameron Diaz recently took to Instagram without a scrap of product to promote her new book "Longevity," which looks at how to age naturally and better. In March Lady Gaga, as fearless as ever, marked her 30th birthday by posting a makeup-free selfie of herself about to dig into a slice of cake on Twitter.


Supermodels from Gigi Hadid, 21, to Cindy Crawford, 50, have taken to social media to show off their #nomakeup selfies -- so much so that going barefaced is becoming something of a right of passage for those working in the beauty industry today. So is a makeup-free photo beauty's new badge of honor? For now at least, this is the trend that keeps on daring to bare.