From Beyonce to Mila Kunis, seeing stars without makeup is becoming just as common as seeing them in makeup. But there's still something ridiculously fascinating about entertainers who make their living looking fabulous going au naturel. The latest celebs making headlines for baring all: Scarlett Johansson, Kate Winslet, and Julia Roberts. They're among 20 "bold talents," like Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt, who sat for American artist Chuck Close, as he shot their portraits with a rare 20-by-24-inch Polaroid camera for Vanity Fair's 20th Hollywood Issue.
Check out this behind-the-scenes video on what inspired the project ...
Love Close's mission to photograph these stars without glamorization or airbrushing ... and how he went about it by really letting them be a part of the process, but with both parties understanding that the end result was going to be as real as it gets.
It's easy to look at these pics and think, "Yeah, of course ScarJo still looks amazing without a speck of mascara or lip gloss. She's ScarJo." But there's more to it than that. Something we can all takeaway from this, which is that "giving up a great deal of vanity," as Chuck put it, and being comfortable in your own skin can be an actual alternative to makeup. These stars look so gorgeous and radiant in part, because in all their bare-faced glory, they exude confidence. That very same thing works for us, too. If you feel good, and you feel like you look good, you do glow. You do look as stunning as you do with makeup -- maybe even more so.
As brave and bold as these entertainers are for going sans makeup for VF, they're not the only ones capable of doing so. As you can see from Close's work, revealing our true selves really isn't as scary or crazy as it sounds.
What do you think about these makeup-free pics? How do you feel about going makeup-free?
Image via Vittorio Zuzino Celotto/Getty