Gabrielle Union goes makeup free.
In case you missed it, the “Being Mary Jane” star opted for a fresh face in a new selfie via Instagram. “Lookin like my mama …” she wrote, alongside a gorgeous snap, highlighting her pearly whites and barely there freckles. Though it’s no secret, Union, 42, is absolutely stunning, with or without makeup, it’s refreshing to see the glam girl au naturel.
Of course, Union is just one of many stars to join the barefaced revolution and slay. In May, musician Alicia Keys penned an essay, voicing her decision to embrace her natural beauty.
“We all get to a point in our lives (especially girls) where we try to be perfect. Does it start somewhere in second grade after picture day when you wear your frizzy hair out ’cause your mama says it’s beautiful but all your “friends” laugh at you? You grab the brush and gel and pull your beautiful big hair back into the tightest ponytail you possibly can to contain your unique hair in a bun — hiding a piece of who you are in order to fit into a picture of what others seem to see as perfection. Yeah, that’s one moment,” wrote Keys for Lenny Letter.
“It’s another moment where some piece of you realizes that to fit in or be thought of as beautiful, you have to cover up to be a bit closer to perfect,” continued “The Voice,” coach, revealing the pressure to feel beautiful and fit in didn’t end with her adolescence.
“It wasn’t until I walked into one of my first shoots for my new album recently that the issue was front and center again. 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,” Keys added.
Said Keys of her initial nerves to go barefaced: “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!!’ ”
Still, Keys felt “powerful.” She continued, “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.”
In the time since Keys launched her movement, stars including Tamron Hall, Union, and Kim Kardashian (well, sort of) have gone makeup-free, in the name of natural beauty. For more star stunners, sans makeup, check out the gallery below.
