Kiwi celebrities show off their stunning no makeup looks
- Publish Date
- Wednesday, 6 September 2017, 11:09AM
Rachel Hunter, Rebecca Gibney and Grace Palmer. Photos / Instagram
When your job title includes something along the lines of 'model', 'actress', 'TV presenter' or 'MC', chances are you spend a lot of time with a full face of makeup on.
But what about when the cameras aren't rolling, the modelling gig is over for another day and yet another fabulous event has wrapped up?
We bring you the famous women who not only embrace being makeup-free, but *gasp* have no qualms about sharing photographic evidence of it.
Lorde
She might sing "I do my makeup in somebody else’s car" on her single Green Light, but Lorde has always been more than happy baring a fresh face, even when she burst on to the international music scene at the (usually) very impressionable age of 16.
Back in 2014, the singer even famously took a swipe at publications who dared to Photoshop out her teenage acne.
"Remember, flaws are ok," she told her Twitter followers when she posted two contrasting images from the same Lollapalooza performance – one natural and one with her skin smoothed to unnatural perfection.
i find this curious - two photos from today, one edited so my skin is perfect and one real. remember flaws are ok :-) pic.twitter.com/PuRhxt2u2O
— Lorde (@lorde) March 31, 2014
Fast forward to 2017, and Lorde is still a young woman completely comfortable in her own skin, with or without makeup.
Rebecca Gibney
New Zealand-born actress Rebecca Gibney is beloved on both sides of the Tasman for her impressive history of TV credits and has been winning fans all over again with her take on beauty and "being who you want to be".
She casually shared a make-up free selfie with her more than 85,000 Instagram followers last month, before posting another shot celebrating her "laugh lines" a couple of days later.
Referring to her laugh lines, Gibney said she was "proud of these marks of happiness".
"[It] doesn't mean I want to post pics of my lines all the time.
"I've had Photoshopped pics and flattering pics taken in the past. Some with makeup, fake hair, fake lashes, the works. Some taken by paps on holiday where I don't look so great. That's life."
Anna Reeve
High-profile blogger Anna Reeve is also more than happy to share a bare face with her tens of thousands of Instagram followers.
The former model says she’s had many more makeup-free days since becoming a mother to her identical twin boys – although she’s almost never without her trusty eyeliner.
"You know that I'm really sick if I don't have eyeliner on," she told Viva a couple of years ago.
"It gives the illusion of lashes because I don’t have that." (Reeve has a rare form of alopecia, which means she has no hair, eyelashes or eyebrows.)
"If someone said I could only have one makeup item for the rest of my life, I would say eyeliner."
Grace Palmer
Shortland Street fans are probably more used to seeing former star of the show Grace Palmer with the full face of makeup that comes with being on the telly.
But as she demonstrated on Instagram last summer, this actress isn't afraid to let those freckles shine.
Nadia Lim
Who can be bothered with makeup when you're on holiday?
Not celebrity chef and My Food Bag co-founder Nadia Lim, especially when there's the added bonus of wrangling a one-year-old at the beach too.
Lim shared a sweet holiday snap - sans makeup - from Fiji back in June, looking completely relaxed, despite discovering holidays with young children aren't quite so simple.
"Loving the warm water in beautiful Fiji," she wrote on Instagram. "But gotta say holidays are quuuuuite different with kids! You don't get the same kind of 'break' that's for sure!" (sic).
Kerre McIvor
Kerre McIvor has two very busy jobs - broadcaster and in-demand MC – which usually require two very different styles, as she demonstrated on a particularly busy day a month ago.
With a shift behind the microphone at Newstalk ZB to get through before hosting an awards evening afterwards, McIvor shared side-by-side photos of her ensembles for each.
"Had to put up with quite a bit of ribbing at work today with my Hilda Ogden curlers," she said. "But it was a tight turnaround to get ready for the Cuisine New Zealand Good Food Awards. And I wasn't going to miss out – [I] love a good hospo knees up."
Verity Johnson
Three's Verity Johnson caused a few waves amongst her colleagues when she decided to do a week at work without makeup back in May (and yes, that included going on camera without it).
Speaking after her first appearance on TV with a bare face, Johnson said she couldn't help but think she "looked about 12".
"I half expected someone to come up and ask 'Are you an unaccompanied minor? Do you need a cookie?'"
After the week without makeup and speaking to her workmates about their reasons for wearing it, Johnson concluded makeup "wasn't just about feeling pretty".
"It's about identity, self-confidence and professionalism," she wrote.
"This is why it's so difficult to be one of those idealistic, all natural Instagram beauties who endorse makeup free selfies and herbal teas."
Rachel Hunter
Given she’s a supermodel, it should surprise nobody that Rachel Hunter looks stunning with or without makeup.
And through her TVNZ show Rachel Hunter's Tour of Beauty, Hunter has visited numerous countries exploring the world's different notions about what it means to be beautiful.
In an interview about the series with Fashion Quarterly, Hunter said "happiness and the sense of community and belonging" are the keys to beauty.
"When you see a grumpy person, it's not very attractive. But when you see someone who is really joyful and happy, that's truly beautiful, and you see that when people gather."
This article was first published on Spy and is republished here with permission.
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