No Makeup Selfie

Submission 33,974

Part of a series on Selfie. [View Related Entries]

About

No Makeup Selfie is a type of selfie in which the subject is shown without wearing any cosmetics.

Origin

On Twitter, the hashtag #nomakeupsefie has been used to denote a makeup-less selfie since as early as in September 2012^[16], around the same time the term selfie is believed to have entered widespread usage online.

Precursors

Makeup-less photographs of women have long been treated as an aesthetic criterion in the mainstream and celebrity news blogosphere^[17]^[18], mainly through paparazzi shots of actresses and singers seen in public without wearing makeup or side-by-side comparisons. Similar trends have been observed in other cultures and language zones as well, for instance, in 2006, a makeup-less beauty trend and selfie fad known as 쌩얼^[13]^[14] ("Sang-ul," meaning natural face) swept across the Korean web as part of the larger Ulzzang phenomenon, and in Japan, the term すっぴん^[15] ("no makeup") is used to highlight or praise someone's beauty qua beauty.

Spread

On March 18th, 2014, #nomakeupselfie^[4]^[8] had its first breakout on UK's Twitter and Instagram after British student Fiona Cunningham created a Facebook page titled "No Makeup Selfie" after being inspired by actress Kim Novak who appeared at the Oscars ceremony without any makeup. According to the Telegraph^[2], the other selfie fad was started under the moniker #itsokkimnovak^[3]^[6] by @LauraLippman earlier that month in support of the 81-year-old actress. Between March 19th and 20th, both #nomakeupselfie and #itsokkimnovak evolved into a viral fundraiser campaign for breast cancer awareness on Twitter (#breastcancerawareness), raising more than £2 million in donations for Cancer Research UK in 48 hours.

Notable Examples

Tweets about "#nomakeupselfie"

Celebrity Participation

Dozens of British celebrities have participated in the #nomakeupselfie movement, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Adele, Amy Willerton, Helen Flanagan, Kym Marsh, Jemima Khan, Michelle Heaton, Lucy Watson and Jodie Marsh, among others.

Parodies

Soon, a number of spin-off campaigns for other charity causes and parody hashtags were born, including #SellotapeSelfie^[11], #Manupandmakeup^[10] and #Dickinasock.^[19]