Celebs' No Makeup Selfie Movement: Keepin' It Real For The Sake Of Inner Beauty

For so long, social media has been dominated by the perfection of celebrities, social media influencers, and Instagram models. Our feeds, for years, have been overwrought with makeup gurus and perfectly sculpted bodies.  In many ways, we have been bombarded with faux perfection from all angles.  Of course, it’s not all bad—I love a good contour and a full beat—but it’d be remiss of us to ignore the ways in which we ‘ve allowed these ideations of perfection to affect our lives.  For some of us, makeup has served as a very real means for us to feel confident and gain self-esteem, and, for some of us, it’s just something we do to make our look more “complete.”  For others, it’s self-expression, a way to create and make beautiful art with lipsticks and eyeshadows.  Regardless of your reason for wearing makeup, there has certainly been an emphasis on wearing it.  Recently, however, there has been a shift towards makeup-free (actual makeup-free, not “I’m trying to look makeup-free” makeup-free”) looks and selfies from multiple celebrities.  What does this shift we’re experiencing mean for us?  How will this promotion of “the real us” play out?

Perhaps, even, we are shifting towards a world where inner beauty is just as, if not more, important than outer beauty.  Perhaps we are shifting to a world of honesty, of brazenly living our truths.  Perhaps we may begin to live in a world that values the beauty of the mind, heart, and soul, in the ways in which we value external and physical beauty.  The fact that celebrities are at the forefront of this movement is even more powerful.  Selfies like Sarah Hyland’s—selfies that aren’t reflective of thousands of dollars’ worth of skin care like a great deal of makeupless celebs—are even more powerful. With the idolatry of celebrities that pervade the masses, seeing them being confident in their own skin may even encourage fans to seek to find this confidence within them.  

Wearing makeup is, by no means, a bad thing.  In fact, taking care of yourself externally is often a great way to feel good about yourself internally. Taking self-care days, putting effort into how you look, and caring about your personal hygiene and appearance can all be great indicators of how you’re feeling in the inside.  But we can’t ignore the ways in which our celebrity-idolizing culture can impact our internal esteem and confidence in a negative way.  Seeing celebrities finally show us the real them, can make us feel more secure in showing the world the real us.  Regardless of the ways in which you use makeup and the reasons you use them, seeing people with sweatpants, hair tied, chilling with no makeup on (thank you, Drake) on both a national and international scale will undoubtedly alter the ways in which we think about beauty, both internally and externally.  If this trend continues to take flight, who knows what standards of beauty will look like in a few years?  Who knows how we’ll feel about ourselves, our beauty, and the light that shines within us.