Helen Mirren Wants You to Ditch the Makeup

Jacqueline Laurean Yates
Dame Helen Mirren attends the premiere of
Dame Helen Mirren attends the premiere of “Collateral Beauty” in London. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

In a selfie-obsessed world, it can be difficult to imagine taking a photo without makeup. There are smartphone applications for “perfecting” your facial features, attachable phone ring lights to make sure images come out flawless, and not to mention full-on comprehensive classes for perfecting your angles. Thank you, Kim Kardashian!

But there are some individuals who aren’t big fans of the wearing-makeup-all-the-time movement. Actress and Pirelli calendar star Helen Mirren is one of those people.

The 71-year-old posed for the annual Pirelli calendar, which also featured Lupita Nyong’o, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Kate Winslet, without a single drop of makeup, and she’s advocating for the trend to stick.

In a recent interview with the BBC, Mirren said, “I think it would be wonderful if it became a fashion. Things are always cyclical, so I suspect we might’ve reached saturation with the whole selfie thing and maybe we’re moving in another direction.”

Throughout Mirren‘s career, she’s made red carpet appearances and collaborated with huge beauty brands such as L’Oréal wearing a full face of makeup. So she isn’t completely opposed to getting glammed up. She said, “It would be great if we are, without being puritanical, because I love makeup, dressing up, so I don’t want to be ‘Oh we’ve all got to go without makeup.'”

Though the film star told Yahoo Beauty that when she first saw her Pirelli calendar photo, she thought, “Oh my god, I look so awful.” She said, “In the context of the calendar, it’s brilliant actually. At the time, I was very pissed off that I wasn’t beautifully lit, in amazing makeup, with a gorgeous dress. Actually, it worked. It worked.”

Mirren never ceases to amaze us with her wealth of knowledge, grace, and ongoing nuggets of wisdom. And we’re glad she’s speaking up about the pressures to wear makeup and is encouraging others to embrace their own individuality as well.

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