There is nothing more liberating than embracing your natural beauty — just ask Pamela Anderson.
The 56-year-old actress sat down with Vogue France to discuss how breaking free from conventional beauty standards has boosted her self esteem after making headlines for her decision to stop wearing makeup.
“I didn’t come to Paris Fashion Week and think: ‘I’m not going to wear any makeup,’” the “Baywatch” star explained while getting ready for the Vivienne Westwood fashion show last week.
“Something just came over me and I was dressing in these beautiful clothes and and I thought, ‘I don’t want to compete with the clothes,’” she continued. “I’m not trying to be the prettiest girl in the room.”
Although Anderson didn’t plan on going to the shows barefaced, she admitted that it has been a freeing experience.
“I feel like it’s just a freedom,” the blond bombshell added. “It’s like a relief.”
Now that she isn’t spending hours on her hair or makeup, the actress’ getting ready process is relatively nonexistent.
“It’s almost noon and the show is at one,” she said, still in her bathrobe. “I let my hair dry naturally and I just put on some moisturizer.”
“You kind of have to challenge beauty sometimes,” Anderson added. “If we all chase youth or we are all chasing our idea of what beauty is in fashion magazines then we are all going to be disappointed or maybe a little bit sad.”
While Anderson sometimes questions whether or not she “is doing the right thing” by going makeup-free, she strives to be a role model for other women to embrace their natural beauty at any age.
“I think I’m happiest that I’ve ever been in my own skin,” she said. “It’s what is inside the clothes that counts and I think beauty does come from within.”
“And I know that that sounds cliché, but I love clichés,” the former Playboy model joked. “I’m so corny.”
Not only has the “Barb Wire” star ditched her glam team, but she also works as her own stylist.
“I’m just kinda doing this freestyle,” she said while zipping herself into her own vintage Vivienne Westwood look complete with a matching floppy hat.
Anderson revealed in August that she stopped feeling the need to wear makeup after her longtime makeup artist, Alexis Vogel, died in 2019 from breast cancer.
“She was the best. And since then, I just felt, without Alexis, it’s just better for me not to wear makeup,” Anderson told Elle.
The trendsetter called her new outlook “freeing, and fun, and a little rebellious too.”
“I did notice that there were all these people doing big makeup looks, and it’s just like me to go against the grain and do the opposite what everyone’s doing,” the Gen Z style icon continued.
“I think we all start looking a little funny when we get older. And I’m kind of laughing at myself when I look at the mirror. I go, ‘Wow, this is really…what’s happening to me?’ It’s a journey,” Anderson admitted.
Since then, Anderson has appeared on several magazine covers sans-makeup and attended multiple fashion shows with her natural beauty on display.
Her decision has also inspired many of her fans and fellow celebrities — including Jamie Lee Curtis — to potentially follow suit.
The “Everything Everywhere All at Once” actress praised Anderson’s “courage and rebellion” to put down the makeup brush in an Instagram post on Monday.
“THE NATURAL BEAUTY REVOLUTION HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN,” she captioned photos of the blond beauty.
“@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,” Curtis continued. “I am so impressed and floored by this act of courage and rebellion.”
