The most beautiful thing a woman can wear is confidence,” said American actor Blake Lively, arguably one of the most beautiful women in the world. It is now empowering to realise that covering up flaws is passé. Recently, L’Oréal Paris came up with the #OwningIt campaign aimed at women embracing natural ageing. Multiple-Grammy winner Lady Gaga—who also has an Oscar to her name—doesn’t consider herself conventionally attractive. She told Glamour magazine, “I’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me.” She also responded to body-shamers with a stripped down picture of her au naturel.
Pooja Nagdev, founder of organic skincare brand Inatur, says, “When it comes to skincare and beauty, I believe that a simple life makes us look and feel relaxed and uplifted. Organic and natural products ensure that we are nurturing ourselves with chemical-free and holistic care. Our social slogan at Inatur is #bywomenforwomen. We need to feel good about our complexions and then style ourselves the way we want.”
Women are letting their inhibitions go and stepping into the sunshine. What’s considered beautiful in one culture doesn’t necessarily translate to another and being told that a particular feature isn’t attractive can take its toll on the most gorgeous of women. In fact, some celebs have even gone back to remove fillers that reverse the ageing process.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba and Cameron Diaz are pioneers in the natural ageing process. Diaz has opened up about her experience with Botox in the past: “It changed my face in a weird way. I’d rather see my face ageing than a face that doesn’t belong to me.”
Ageing gracefully is the Holy Grail of the beauty industry. While earlier cosmetic surgery and anti-ageing solutions flooded the market, nowadays many celebs have come out against the system. Virgin Atlantic airlines recently came up with a circular telling its air hostesses that they don’t need to wear makeup. The #nomakeup #nofilter movement is going strong on the social media. The trending term #flawsome also celebrates your flaws and understands that you are still awesome.
Dermatologist and founder of Zolie Skin, Nirupama Parwanda, says, “There can be a lot of mixed opinion in the air when it comes to cosmetic surgery or non-surgical approach to enhancing facial features. Cosmetic surgery is more of a personal choice than a necessity. Everyone has their own beauty standards and one should not let others impose their standards on them.” At the end of the day, body positivity is here to stay. Singer Alicia Keys took the world by storm when she decided to stop wearing makeup. And model Winnie Harlow is simply slaying it by not shying away from vitiligo, a condition that affects the pigment of the skin. She dubbed her walk on Victoria’s Secret runway as: “Another step for representation.”
With many gorgeous celebrities saying no to makeup and embracing their imperfections, it has been proved that ‘perfect’ doesn’t exist. In fact, Japanese philosophy well defines it: ‘Wabi sabi’. It aims at seeing beauty in imperfection. It focuses on the fact that a society’s connotation of perfection isn’t worth striving for. Recently, designer Sabyasachi used a dark-skinned and plus-sized model in his wedding shoot for International Women’s Day. Measures such as these also send a message to women everywhere that you don’t have to alter yourself to be attractive. It empowers women.
Apart from being a fashion icon, actor Lupita Nyong’o is known for her striking natural looks. She opened up about her hair journey with Carolyn Korman in the autumn 2018 issue of Porter magazine: “My hair is something that, historically, has been shunned. It’s often been painted as uncivilised or wild.” But Nyong’o got her own back at the world, and how. Likewise, model Ashley Graham proved to the industry that ‘curvy’ women can also be hot and beautiful. The model has been defiant about her appearance and advocates body positivity.
As Vineet Kapur, founder of skin solution brand O3plus, puts it, “True beauty revolves around your natural self.”