When Alicia Keys declared she was Team #NoMakeup last Spring in an article on Lenny Letter entitled “Alicia Keys: Time To Uncover,” the public wasn’t exactly completely on board with her proclamation. Some felt Alicia Keys was condemning women who choose to wear makeup while others felt the singer was a fraud, especially when they found out exactly what it take for A. Keys to walk around makeup-free. And though Alicia has already explained her decision to forego makeup is a personal one, telling fans and critics alike “Do You” when it comes to their beauty choices, once again, she’s defending her #NoMakeup stance in the latest issue of Allure magazine.
Plain and simple, the singer who has been an activist since day one told the mag:
“I’m not a slave to makeup. I’m not a slave to not wearing makeup either. I get to choose at [any] given moment. That’s my right.”
Further explaining her non-anti-makeup stance, Alicia added:
“I think makeup can be self-expression. I have no intention to shame anyone at all [who chooses to wear it]. No one should be ashamed by the way you choose to express yourself. And that’s exactly the point. However, if you want to do that for yourself, you should do that.
“I am all about a woman’s right to choose. I think a woman should do anything she wants as it relates to her face, her body, her health. Whatever mode of expression that empowers you, that’s what you should do. What I am not down for is this ridiculously high, unrealistic expectation about appearance that we as women are held to.”
And that, many people have forgotten, was the basis for Alicia’s #NoMakeup movement — the feeling that she had to meet unrealistic standards to be beautiful.
“I started at 20 years old in this ridiculously invasive world [the music business] in which everyone covered me in makeup and then threw me under tons of lights, so I’d sweat for two or three hours,” she told Allure, adding how the breakouts resulting from all of the makeup would maker her feel even more self-conscious.
“It took me so long to finally say, ‘Whoa! Who am I under there?’” she explained. “That is just my own personal quest.”
Check out the photos that backup Alicia’s remark that she’s neither a slave to makeup, nor a slave to not wearing makeup on the next few pages.
