Whenever a celebrity gets photographed without makeup on, that definitely tends to get a reaction... but what that reason is really depends on why they're choosing not to wear any blush or eyeshadow at all. Sometimes they're called out for not looking good when they're snapped looking tired at the airport, sometimes they're honored for managing to look good despite not wearing any makeup, and sometimes they're praised for their bravery and feminist choices to intentionally forgo makeup and be comfortable. And when any of those things happens, we tend to get pretty fired up about it, since we tend to think that whether or not someone wears makeup shouldn't really matter that much at all. But it is the standard, particularly in Hollywood, so we tend to really notice it when celebs go without. Whatever their reasons might be for rocking a clean face, here are 15 celebs who choose to go makeup free.
15 Annalynne McCord
The 90210 actress started posting makeup free photos in 2012. One morning, she posted a photo to Instagram with the caption "I woke up this morning and decided I'm over Hollywood's perfection requirement. To all my girls (and boys) who have." Since then, she's been sharing fresh faced photos all the time, doing pretty much every activity imaginable. Annalynne has also been very open with the fact that she still gets zits and doesn't try to hide this. Instead, she shares her tips for dealing with breakouts. She's admitted that she is aware of the fact that taking care of the inside of your body is just as important or more important than what happens on the skin externally, and yet she still struggles to eat properly all of the time and tends to snack on things like Taco Bell. But awareness is always the first step toward getting to the next place in life, right? Food and water consumption can affect the skin in so many ways and you can suffer from everything from hormone imbalances, food intolerances, and being affected by too much sugar.
14 Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato doesn't always go makeup free, but the singer does post a no makeup selfie to Instagram every Monday because she believes in showing off her natural face. She has said, "Let's start a new Twitter/Instagram trend: #NoMakeupMonday... Why? Cause we deserve to show the world our beauty and our confidence!!!" Demi is a big advocate for living life in a super healthy way and without judgment. She has opened up about the bullying she faced growing up and about her adult mental health and addiction struggles. Demi once did a makeup free photo shoot for Vanity Fair, and she was also naked and there was zero retouching involved. She has said, "What does it mean to be confident? It means letting go, being authentic, saying I don’t give a f***k and this is who I am. I want to show the side of me that’s real, that’s liberated, that’s free. What if we do a photo shoot where it’s totally raw?"
13 Shailene Woodley
Shailene Woodley is a fan of going the natural route whenever possible, so it's not surprising that the actress could do without makeup as well. She started showing up to red carpet events in 2013 without any of the stuff and did it unapologetically. Part of the reason why she feels that this is an important move is because she wants to rewrite the images that girls growing up see. She saw a photo of herself one time that didn't really look anything like her, which made her realize how exaggerated so many of things she saw and idolized growing up actually were. Instead of being a part of that problem, she wanted to start offering a different more real version of herself for fans to see and hopefully understand that she is as real and normal as anyone else out there. She has said, "I realized that growing up and looking at magazines, I was comparing myself to images like that — and most of it isn’t real."
12 Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga definitely takes things to the extreme and makeup is no exception. She is either decked out in what looks like a full costume... or she goes totally makeup free and dressed down and looks like an entirely different person. She posts tons of makeup-free photos on her Instagram account, including ones with her ex-fiance Taylor Kinney. She even posted a makeup-free selfie to celebrate her 30th birthday, which also featured a hearty slice of cake in the shot. For a while there, we could not see Lady Gaga without full makeup, wigs, fake eyelashes, and the like, but it seems like the shift took place recently when she started shifting her focus to other projects like acting. Last year, Gaga won a Golden Globe for her performance on American Horror Story, and this season she will be back, playing an entirely new character. We have to admit, we kind of really like this new Gaga.
11 Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow still wears makeup some of the time, but she really has embraced the no makeup look. She posts photos of herself online without makeup, and also allows herself to be photographed without makeup when she goes to book signings and other events. When she does wear makeup, however, she makes sure to keep it healthy and organic. She is actually the creative director of the organic makeup company Juice Beauty and has worked on creating a high-performance makeup formulation. "I think there’s a myth around organic (and to be fair, it’s definitely true of some brands), that because it’s not loaded with hard-hitting, taxing chemicals, it can’t possibly work. Juice Beauty is one of those all-too-rare companies that’s really living up to its promise to consumers — sourcing really beautiful, organic ingredients and doing the research and development to create powerful formulations, all while being incredibly kind to the environment.”
10 Beyonce
Sure, Beyonce gets glammed up plenty of the time, but she also posts a ton of photos where she's not wearing any makeup at all... especially when she's on vacation running around in a bathing suit or just hanging out with Jay-Z and Blue. Beyonce actually looks so great without makeup that it doesn't even look like she isn't wearing makeup. You'd have to think with so much time spent in full hair and makeup for performances that relaxing a bit in the off time would be key. Instead of spending excess time getting glammed up on her downtime, it seems like she just prefers to spend that time with her family. That's certainly not true for all of us, but hey, good for bey. She was born fabulous. It is pretty easy to fake a no makeup look, however, using a tinted moisturizer or even mixing some normal foundation with a moisturizer to lighten the load a bit, and then using a concealer to cover any blemishes that are popping out at you.
9 Ellen Page
The actress is frequently spotted out and about with no makeup on, and she doesn't always wear the stuff when she's playing roles, either. She's actually one person that we're more likely to see without makeup on than with makeup on, no matter what she's doing. Although she does put on a smoky eye for some events and red carpet situations. In both Juno and Whip It, Ellen barely wore anything beyond lip gloss, and honestly, she doesn't really need all that much. It sort of fits with her personality to keep a fresh face. When she does get a little more glammed up she still tends to keep it on the low maintenance side, like something that she could probably pull off on her own as opposed to hours in the glam squad chair. She also tends to keep things pretty simple and natural when it comes to her hair as well. She seems to rock either her natural color or close to it, and she generally either has it pulled back or loose in a natural air dried way.
8 Lupita Nyong'o
Lupita Nyong'o actually grew up in a household that didn't allow makeup, so since her mom never wore any, it makes sense that she wouldn't be super into the idea now. She's played around with it here and there but has explained why she sees it more as an accessory than anything else: “My mother didn’t think makeup was necessary, and I don’t think it's necessary... It’s an accessory. It’s as necessary as a pair of earrings if you know what I mean. It’s something I do to adorn myself. I don’t do it to hide myself.” Lupita does put on makeup for some red carpet appearances, which is generally a bold lip or eyeshadow color and looks exactly like an accessory as she says, as opposed to something that is there to cover anything up. She has a pretty glowing complexion naturally so that helps with not needing to camouflage many (or any) imperfections. She seems to appreciate the way she was raised. "Today I can look in a mirror with no makeup on and love myself.”
7 Lorde
Lorde is often seen not wearing any makeup. She has even posted a selfie where not only was she not wearing makeup, but she also had her zit cream on full display. Lorde is one celebrity who has spoken out against Photoshop and she's posted unedited and photoshopped shots side by side on her Instagram account to show the differences between what's real and what's been totally touched up. She likes to remind her fans that she is just a normal girl underneath it all. Lorde is another celebrity who also tends to keep things pretty natural with her hair. She has naturally curly hair and volume, and we seem to see her rocking it that way almost all of the time, in what seems to be her natural color. When she does go for makeup, she often chooses a bold lip color while keeping the rest of her face looking pretty clean. It's a striking move that calls attention to the mouth but also keeps the eyes moving around the face from the juxtaposition of color vs no color.
6 Chrissy Teigen
Chrissy Teigen is a pretty open person and so it makes sense that she likes to show off her clean face. The model actually once wiped her face clean on TV while co-hosting on Tyra Banks' show FABLife. Both Chrissy and Tyra mentioned that their nighttime routines include both washing their faces thoroughly and also applying plenty of moisturizer before bed. Chrissy did show, however, that her skin suffered a bit following her pregnancy. She posted a photo with the caption, "Goodbye pregnancy glow. Hi itchy red spots," showing herself pouting with said red spot showing on her cheek. Chrissy does not just post revealing photos of her face without makeup, but she also posts photos of her body without photoshop. Chrissy has posted multiple photos of her legs with her thigh stretch marks showing intentionally, to show that she's normal and comfortable with it. Some might argue that being a model her version of normal is a little different than the average women, but she's still just who she is and proud of it.
5 Gisele
Gisele Bundchen is one of the most successful supermodels in the world so it's not entirely shocking that she's capable of rocking a makeup-free face, but she does it a lot. Many of the photos that Gisele posts on social media where she's just hanging out or spending time with her husband and kids is done makeup free. Gisele also tries to live as clean of a life as possible when it comes to eating and things like that, so going makeup free seems to line up with the natural choices. Gisele and Tom Brady actually follow a pretty strict 80 percent plant-based diet with foods that are organic and local. Gisele does, however, use a little bit of makeup here and there, even though she feels better without it. She has said, "I've always felt better with less makeup. I just feel more like myself. I don't even put foundation on my cheeks. I just put foundation … around the mouth, that always gets red. And around the eyes — especially the edge of the eye where it's red."
4 Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore is spotted without makeup all the time in her daily life, and she also posts tons of makeup-free photos on her Instagram as well. She even posted a happy looking makeup free selfie at the beach on her 40th birthday, showing that she's just fine with her face the way that it is. Drew has mentioned in the past that she feels great after a good workout. Drew tries to eat an organic diet whenever possible, but she has also opened up about how she doesn't think we can always have it all, all of the time, in the sense that she thinks people should be putting a little less pressure on themselves in general. She has compared her body shape to her work ethic, that she may not be tall and thin, but that she runs a company so maybe she should be happy with that part and not focus on the things she doesn't have. But we think she looks amazing regardless of how she sees her body.
3 Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz is still posting pictures of her makeup-free face in her 40s and she looks as amazing as always. She recently published a book called Longevity that is about learning how to age well. Cameron has opened up about getting Botox in the past and how she didn't like it. She felt like it changed her face so dramatically that it didn't feel like her, and she didn't want to be that person that it became, preferring to see her own aging face in the mirror than a face that didn't belong to her at all. She decided not to keep modifying her face in that way and embraced the healthiest life possible to start trying to age in the most beautifully natural way possible. She has said, "So, let’s start celebrating and living an engaged life, and stop punishing ourselves for not looking a certain way, and instead of holding ourselves accountable for actually taking care of ourselves inside first, knowing the results on the exterior will be a shining side effect."
2 Cara Delevigne
Cara Delevigne is frequently shot without makeup, and also posts a ton of no makeup Insta selfies. The model and actress once even posted a no makeup selfie in front of the Mona Lisa. She actually posted three in a row, with the caption progression of pretending to ask out Lisa for a weekend date and getting rejected by her. Clearly, Cara is quite comfortable in her natural state. Even when Cara isn't wearing makeup she tends to have a pretty bold look thanks to her thick eyebrows that aren't going anywhere. She has said that she likes makeup just fine but could also do without it completely: "I love it but it's not something that bothers me that much and if I had a choice I wouldn't wear makeup and I would just jump around in pajamas all day." That sure sounds like the Cara we see presented to the world all right. When she does wear makeup, she can pull off some pretty bold looks, which she of course does while walking the runway or posing for a photo shoot.
1 Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys wrote an essay earlier this year for Lena Dunham's blog where she explained why she didn't plan on wearing makeup anymore, and so far she's stuck to her promise. Alicia shot an album cover makeup free, has been performing makeup free, doing interviews, and even hitting the red carpet. Alicia recently presented at the MTV VMA's without makeup on as well. On one of her Today Show appearances Alicia got the hosts to wipe off their makeup as well. Alicia has made sure to be clear however that she doesn't have anything against makeup and that she actually likes it, she just doesn't want to feel like wearing it isn't a choice and thinks people should just be accepted for who they are more often. In her Lenny Letter essay, she wrote, "I don't want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing."
