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Actresses Without Makeup


jennifer love hewitt.JPGEvery parent of a teenage daughter has, at some point, wrestled with the makeup issue. Should it be allowed? If so, when? What kind? And how much? Contrary to popular belief, World War III will not be waged with nuclear warheads; it’s already being fought in homes around the globe with lipstick, mascara and rouge.

Well, if you’ve ever uttered the words, “You’re not going out of the house looking like that,” it might comfort you to know that several celebrities have endorsed a more natural look.

Ashley Greene, the 25-year-old actress who plays Alice Cullen in the Twilight series, says she forces herself to go without makeup from time to time. “I think it’s dangerous to get too comfortable with needing makeup,” she explains. “You kind of lose yourself, and you don’t think you’re pretty without it. It creates this whole downward spiral.”

Recently, actress Lily Collins shared her feelings about makeup with us on the Official Plugged In Podcast. Here’s what Mirror Mirror‘s Snow White thinks about that issue: “During my day-to-day life, less is more. I wear very minimal makeup because I’m all about keeping my skin healthy, hydrated and moisturized. You do wear it a lot when you’re working and doing photo shoots and press. And I do like to keep those moments when I put it on as being special ‘getting-ready’ moments. … The less there is on, the less there is to go wrong.”

Greene and Collins make a lot of sense. It’s important for a woman to protect her skin and her self-image. It’s also great when a celebrity is confident enough to invite fans to see her without all that icing.

Jennifer Love Hewitt (TV’s Ghost Whisperer, The Client List) recently tweeted a photo of herself sans makeup (you can see it to your right) to her 200,000 Twitter followers. In an age when paparazzi pride themselves on catching female celebs unaware and selling those not-so-glamorous photos to supermarket tabloids, Love Hewitt’s bold, proactive move impressed me. She vulnerably told the world, This is who I am. The real me. Take it or leave it. I can’t applaud a lot of the photo shoots this actress has posed for, but I really respected this one.

I’d love to know what you think of the makeup wars—raging both at home and in pop culture—as well as these actresses’ declarations of independence. Personally, I love it when celebrities give our daughters an excuse not to follow the crowd. As I continually remind mine, the best foundation is natural beauty that radiates from the inside out.