Melisa Raouf used to spend three hours perfecting her cosmetics because she was self-conscious about her natural beauty. Raouf, however, didn’t wear it while competing in this week’s Miss England pageant while the other contestants did.
Raouf, 20, as a result, became the first competitor to compete in Miss England’s 94-year history without wearing makeup, sparking a worldwide movement for women to go bare-faced. Raouf claimed that it was a challenge to herself after years of feeling timid and insecure and being discouraged by a social media ecosystem overrun with painstakingly edited and filtered images.
In an interview, she claimed that “women are under pressure to look a certain way because society has a limited definition of beauty and perfection, and they’re frequently judged for not conforming to them. “I wanted to push the boundaries of that bare-faced round and subvert these unattainable beauty standards. ”.
The beauty industry has been criticized by proponents of skin positivity for exploiting women’s worries and using staged images to advertise its products. Raouf, a political science student at King’s College London, said she wanted to inspire women who, like her, felt unqualified.
Contestants could enter the Miss England finals by taking first place in a regional competition or by earning a particular title (such as “publicity queen”), which were held on Sunday and Monday in Birmingham.
After taking first place in the elective Miss London Bare Face Top Model competition in June and winning the Miss England semifinals in August, Raouf succeeded. The Miss London Bare Face, Top Model competition, which debuted in 2019, asks participants to post a selfie without makeup to their social media profiles.
Before the finals, Raouf ran a 10-kilometer race and picked up trash in London to raise money for the charity Beauty with a Purpose, which is associated with Miss World and provides food, water, and education to those in need. Her creation of the barefacetrendmovement helped her feel better about herself and met other women who shared her interest in skin positivity.
I’m very proud of her,” exclaimed Elle Seline, who created history by becoming the first contestant in the previous year.
Ms. without using makeup, the Great Britain competition, a beauty pageant for females between the ages of 31 and 44. It’s wonderful that more women are becoming conscious of the issue and using their platforms to advance the discussion.
Seline, 32, used her role as Ms. Dot Great Britain to promote women’s empowerment and the right to control their own bodies, including the choice of whether to wear makeup or get an abortion.
She claimed that being by herself during pandemic lockdowns allowed her to improve herself in advance of the competition, despite having struggled with bulimia as a child and being made fun of for her olive skin tone and larger features.
She said she viewed Raouf’s decision to stop wearing makeup as a free pass to a revolution in beauty.
Seline predicted that society would change significantly and have a different perception of beauty.
Raouf and the other Miss England finalists competed in ten rounds of competition, which included talent and hair. On Monday night, Jessica Gagen, a student of aerospace engineering, took home the prize. With contestants from more than 120 other participating nations, she will now compete for the title of Miss World.
Raouf made sure, however, to make a point of highlighting it at the end of her speech.
It’s time for a change, she said, “to show women that no matter your age, no matter your background, we are beautiful the way we are.” “For far too long, women have been pressured to look, act, or behave in a certain way, and I believe it’s time for a change,” she said on Monday.
The movement for genuine skin love has grown slowly but steadily, surprising even real-skin influencers who were worried that their unfiltered photographs might receive negative feedback.
Mariia Bilenka, a 25-year-old Ukrainian living in Hamburg, shared her skin story on social media in 2018. She did this because she was fed up with the inconsistent results she was getting from the treatments she tried to treat the skin outbreaks she had been experiencing since she was 13 years old.
Because skin conditions were such a taboo subject, Bilenka, a marketing specialist for a face-care app for those prone to acne, felt embarrassed.
More than 500,000 Instagram photos now have the hashtag bareface, and nearly 250,000 more have skinpositivity, showing the growth of a previously small group as real-skin activists and influencers who don’t wear makeup join the movement to view unedited, unfiltered images as attractive.
Everybody has scars, veins, lines, and other types of marks. But for some reason, we’re told we have to be faultless in every way,” Northcote remarked. I didn’t cause the acne. I just said that.
Raouf said the same.
She told The Washington Post that after entering the contest, she had learned how to love and accept herself for who she is in her skin, whether she was wearing makeup or not. Contrary to cosmetics or filters, “that inner confidence will radiate far more than that. ”.
