Alicia Keys may be the girl on fire, but she is also the queen of rocking a no makeup look.
The musician took a break from wearing makeup in 2016, a decision she has since explained she made in order to help other women feel more comfortable in their own skin. “I realized I became addicted to it,” Keys told Glamour U.K. in November 2020 of her relationship with makeup. “I didn’t feel comfortable without it.”
She later described beauty products as her “armor” in a November 2023 interview with The Cut, adding that if she didn’t have makeup on and her hair styled, she felt as though “I was less than beautiful or just less than.”
Keys has since returned to using makeup and launched her own beauty brand, Keys Soulcare, in 2020. Thanks to her no-makeup period, Keys approaches beauty from a different perspective.
“I’ve been able to just recognize that we are perfect as we are and that doesn’t mean you don’t have days that you want to be different ways,” she told The Cut. “Some days I’m totally in my sweats, I don’t care. I’m putting my sneakers on. It’s perfect. I love it, I feel great. Some days I’m like, ‘You know what? This is a day I’m ready to just turn up in every way.’ And some days you’re somewhere in the middle and it’s cool.’
Scroll down to see Keys’ best no-makeup looks from over the years:
