Celebs go 'naked face' (well, mostly) in the no/less makeup trend

Remember when we (women) wouldn't leave the house without a full face of makeup? We are officially over that now, and so are some celebrities.

No-makeup celebs such as Alicia Keys are getting attention lately. Keys, 35, declared in a Lenny newsletter essay she didn't want to "cover up" any more, and proved her commitment by showing up on the red carpet for the BET Awards last month without makeup.

Mila Kunis, 32, posed on the back cover of Glamour wearing only face serum and eye cream. "I commend women who wake up 30, 40 minutes early to put on eyeliner. I think it’s ­beautiful. I’m just not that person," she told the magazine.

On the cover of the August Allure, Kylie Jenner, 18, glows like the fresh-faced teenager she is in hardly-there makeup. Inside, she says in an interview that she is thrilled that the Kardashian fame and TV show have helped her pursue her dream of creating a cosmetics line, including her wildly popular Lip Kits.

And there's Ronda Rousey, 29, the actress/model/UFC champ, who stars in a Reebok commercial, ripping off her fake lashes and extensions and lacing up her training gear. She says she's "fine not being perfect."

Adele, world famous for her expertly applied makeup, including signature cat-eye black liner, doesn't mind letting everyone see her without it. On July 20, she posted two black-and-white selfies on her Instagram page baring all in Vancouver, where she was on tour.

The list of famous women who have posted similar barefaced selfies includes Emma Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Selena Gomez, Lady Gaga, Hilary Duff, Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Gwen Stefani, and many more. Plus, scores of non-famous women and girls are posting selfies showing #nofilter or #iwokeuplikethis.

They're all helping adjust the standards of what's deemed beautiful to include a face either entirely or nearly without makeup. They're not anti-makeup, per se; after all, if women are performing on stage, screen, red carpet, the balance beam at the Olympics or the cover of a fashion magazine, it's part of the job to be painted.

But more women are pushing the message that going without doesn't make you less attractive, but it might make you look more authentically you, and you'll be spared one of the time-sucking rituals of getting ready for work every day.

"I'm 41 now, I'm not 25, I want to be a real person that you know — that's what 41 is like," said Chelsea Handler, keynote speaker at a recent conference on social media in Los Angeles. "That's what it looks like, that's how powerful you can be, that's what type of life you can lead."

Keys used to fret that paparazzi would snap her on the street without makeup, but not anymore. If they do, so what? Move along, guys, nothing to see here.

"What if someone wanted a picture?? What if they POSTED it???" Keys wrote in her declaration of independence from makeup. "These were the insecure, superficial, but honest thoughts I was thinking. And all of it, one way or another, was based too much on what other people thought of me."

Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive says the no-makeup trend is here to stay.

"There’s a movement among women, and in the culture overall, toward authenticity," says Leive, who likes the trend but personally lasted just a few days without makeup. "It doesn't mean that wearing zero makeup is inherently more authentic than a 12-step tutorial on contouring on YouTube. It means showing who you are underneath it all feels good and is empowering."

Social media such as Instagram and Snapchat have allowed celebs to show themselves less filtered — "warts and all," says Michelle Lee, editor-in-chief of beauty mag Allure, who says she sought to present Kylie Jenner, who is more often seen in dramatic makeup, in the "surprising" minimalist look.

"Celebrities are saying they don't have to be perfect all the time," Lee says. "They're saying we're just like you even when we look perfect on magazine covers. We (too) have dark circles under our eyes when we don't get enough sleep."

But leave off the talk about accepting your "flaws," she says. "The message we want to send is these are not flaws, this is your face and it’s beautiful as it is," Lee says. "If makeup is your thing, and it is for a lot of women, that’s beautiful, too."

It's a useful message for young women, she says, for whom makeup is as alluring as it was for their mothers. But millennials are way more savvy about the mechanics of makeup and skin care than their moms were, thanks to their access to YouTube and social media and the scores of young how-to-do-it makeup mavens giving tutorials every day.

"When I was growing up and learning how to put on makeup, I was clueless; nowadays there are so many ways for girls to learn, and they know so much," Lee says.