Selena Gomez famously showed up to the Met Gala in 2018 looking like she went a little (ok, a lot) heavy on the tanning lotion. And now, she’s revealing her first thought once she realized that she was, well, “completely orange.”
The 29-year-old Rare Beauty founder was asked about her “most memorable beauty disaster” in a Wednesday, February 2, interview with Glamour UK. Naturally, the Met Gala tanning mishap came to mind.
“While I was getting ready for the Met Gala a few years ago, we put on a bit of tanning lotion and it looked beautiful, but as the night went on it kept getting darker and darker,” she recalled to the outlet. “When I sat down, I saw a photo of myself and it looked completely orange.”
Her gut reaction? It’s time to leave. “Here I am at this prestigious event [and] my first thought was, ‘I have to get out here!’” she said.
The Only Murders in the Building actress previously told Vogue in September 2021 that she decided seconds later to address her skin tone head on as opposed to waiting for the internet to start commenting on her appearance.
“I had my security take a video of me because my first reaction was just to get the hell out of there and so, I’m running to my car. I’m literally just hauling ass to my care and then gonna put it online. I was saying this is my reaction after seeing my Met Gala photos.”
While Gomez handled the whole scenario like a pro, she told Glamour UK that she’s felt the pressure of Hollywood beauty standards for as long as she can remember.
“Being in the public eye from such an early age certainly comes with a lot of pressure. It’s hard to feel comfortable when you feel like everyone is watching, judging and commenting on the way you look,” she explained. “Self confidence is still something I work on daily, but when I stopped trying to conform to society’s unrealistic standards of beauty, my perspective entirely shifted.”
She continued: “It took me a long time to realize that I only wanted to be myself – that what made me unique was also what made me beautiful.”
Embracing her natural beauty is in part what inspired her to launch Rare Beauty in September 2020. “My hope with Rare Beauty is that we have open conversations around beauty and mental health and can change the industry by breaking down unrealistic standards of beauty together.”
