Last month, Alicia Keys released the video for her newest single “In Common” where she’s seen without any makeup on. Don’t get us wrong, she looks beautiful with and without makeup, but we wonder why she decided to go for that look.
In the latest issue of Lenny Letter, Alicia reveals that she’s been going for the au naturel look ever since she worked with photographer Paola Kudacki for her upcoming album. “It wasn’t until I walked into one of my first shoots for my new album recently that the issue was front and center again,” she writes. “I’d just come from the gym, had a scarf under my baseball cap, and the beautiful photographer Paola (never met a Paola I didn’t like) said, ‘I have to shoot you right now, like this! The music is raw and real, and these photos have to be too!'”
The photo Paola took is now the official cover art for her single, “In Common.”
Aside from her music video, Alicia has also fronted the latest issues of Vanity Fair and Fault Magazine without any makeup on. She adds on her column that she hopes this #nomakeup trend becomes a revolution among women.
“I felt powerful because my initial intentions realized themselves. My desire to listen to myself, to tear down the walls I built over all those years, to be full of purpose, and to be myself! The universe was listening to those things I’d promised myself, or maybe I was just finally listening to the universe, but however it goes, that’s how this whole #nomakeup thing began,” she writes. “I hope to God it’s a revolution. ‘Cause I don’t want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing.”
[The Cut]
Photo by Paola Kudacki
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