15-time Grammy winner Alicia Keys hopes her freckles will inspire other mixed race and biracial women to ditch their concealer and foundation.
The 35-year-old mother-of-2 has gone makeup-free in recent weeks to embrace her freckles and other facial imperfections.
“I was finally uncovering just how much I censored myself, and it scared me,” Keys told the NY Post’s Page Six. “Who was I anyway? Did I even know HOW to be brutally honest anymore? Who I wanted to be?”
Keys said her natural look came about by accident after years of hiding her beauty under makeup.
She said she arrived on the set for a photo shoot, fresh from the gym. She was wearing a scarf and a ball cap, when photographer Paola Kudacki saw her heading to the makeup table.
“I have to shoot you right now, like this!” Keys said Kudacki told her. “This music is raw and real, and these photos have to be too!”
Keys was stunned by the reaction to her natural freckles. She said the makeup-free trend inspired her to write a new song called “When a Girl Can’t Be Herself.”
“It was the strongest, most empowered, most free, and honestly beautiful that I have ever felt,” Keys said. “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!”
Her husband, musician Swizz Beatz posted her makeup-free photo from the shoot on Instagram.com. He paid his wife the ultimate comment, telling her she looked 16 (he later changed the age to 19).
“I hope to God it’s a revolution,” Keys said. “‘Cause 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.”
Congratulations to Alicia! The rest of us who have gone makeup-free all our lives welcome her with open arms!
Hopefully Alicia’s courage will inspire all black women to embrace their natural beauty and throw away their makeup kits.
