Edel Coffey: Like Pamela Anderson, I am embracing going makeup free – here's why
Pamela Anderson attends the Isabel Marant Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 28, 2023 in Paris, France. Pic: Stephane Cardinale.
When Pamela Anderson turned up at Paris Fashion Week the week before last wearing no makeup, she stole the limelight.
Every single headline, every single photo, every single paparazzi shot. And there was stiff competition.
This was Paris Fashion Week after all, which was wall to wall with supermodels, fashion designers, and celebrities.
How telling it is in our current world that the thing that causes a stir is a female face devoid of makeup, something so rare that it causes international headlines.
Jamie Lee Curtis, herself experiencing something of a renaissance much like Pamela, responded to the fresh-faced look by proclaiming the natural beauty revolution had begun.
“@pamelaanderson in the middle of fashion week with so many pressures and postures, and and and, this woman showed up and claimed her seat at the table with nothing on her face. I am so impressed and floored by this act of courage and rebellion,” she wrote on Instagram — and her statement resonated.
Since lockdown, my own relationship with makeup has changed in a very natural way.
I didn’t wear makeup for most of lockdown. Why bother?
We weren’t going anywhere or doing anything so putting on makeup felt like a silly chore to add to the list when you were already busy with existential crises and home-schooling.
When we eventually started going out again, dressing up, putting on makeup, it all felt a bit weird.
After so long without makeup, I had gotten used to my unadorned face.
It feels so conspicuous, unnatural, too much, like I’m pretending to be something and the world is pretending not to notice. That is, I suppose, the entire anti-ageing industry summed up.
Not really liking how makeup looked or felt on my skin anymore, I pulled back from wearing it. I started getting facials and peels, things that made my skin look better without makeup.
Now I never wear makeup on an ordinary day. I do the school run, chores, my work, all without makeup. If I have to go somewhere, I’ll put a bit on. But just the basics, mostly my life is makeup free.
Maybe my reluctance to wear makeup has something to do with ageing.
My face looks different as I get older and the kohl-eyed, flawless foundation look I used to favour doesn’t work so well anymore when there are so many tiny tributaries for the make-up to settle into.
Recently, I sent a picture of an outfit to a friend. I wanted her opinion so I snapped myself wearing it and my friend texted back ‘You look so young’ in response to my makeup-free face.
I think I look exactly my age, which is fine, but looking at Pamela Anderson’s natural face last week, I found myself thinking something similar.
She looked like the 56-year-old woman she is, but she also looked young, or maybe youthful is a better word.
Without all the makeup perhaps something of our younger, makeup-free selves, our true selves, finds a way to shine through.
Jamie Lee is calling it a revolution but I’m calling this increasing shunning of makeup a power-down, a sort of reverse glow-up where removing the heavy makeup that has become de rigeur for young girls and women becomes a power move.
I love that Angela Scanlon is not wearing fake tan on Strictly, embracing her naturally pale skin instead. “I’ve spent 15 years getting to grips with the fact I have pale skin,” she said recently.
“You don’t need to fake tan to feel confident. I want to show that, for me, feeling sexy comes from being myself, not how orange my legs are.”
Likewise, a recent picture of Saoirse Ronan emerged showing her looking radiant, her face flush with her natural freckles.
So maybe Jamie Lee is right. Perhaps a revolution is happening, little by little, makeup wipe by makeup wipe.
Perhaps in the wake of contouring and flawless makeup and social media filters, our eye is now craving freshness. Or perhaps we have finally tired of a labour-intensive beauty standard.
It’s somehow fitting that Pamela chose to launch her makeup-free self in Paris, home of natural beauty, the place where every woman has a dermatologist and treats her skin with utmost respect, the place where you work with your natural hair colour and features to find your own beauty.
It’s about embracing and accepting yourself rather than crushing yourself to fit a narrow beauty mould.
In an interview with , Pamela said of her decision to not wear make-up, “I’m not trying to be the prettiest girl in the room. It’s just freedom, it’s a relief.”
Later, she posted on Instagram: “There is beauty in self-acceptance, imperfection and love.” It felt like a decent mantra for modern women.
There is something exposing about allowing ourselves to be seen as we are, it’s an act of extreme vulnerability, but it’s also an act of strength and power, because allowing ourselves to be our natural selves and to be seen as our natural selves is freedom.
