--- title: Alicia Keys Wears No Makeup For Her New Single's Artwork description: Alicia Keys revealed why she chose to go makeup-free for her single, "In Common"'s artwork in an essay for Lenny Letter. canonical: https://time.com/4352591/alicia-keys-in-common-makeup-free/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-31T18:12:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:32:50.382Z og:title: Here's Why Alicia Keys Chose to Go Makeup-Free og:description: "It is the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt." og:url: https://time.com/4352591/alicia-keys-in-common-makeup-free/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Why Alicia Keys Chose to Go Makeup-Free twitter:description: "It is the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Alicia Keys Says Her Makeup-Free Look Is the 'Most Honestly Beautiful' She's Ever Felt > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 31, 2016 6:12 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 31, 2016 6:12 PM UTC [Alicia Keys](http://content.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,75560433001%5F1977496,00.html) sported an au naturel look in the art for the first single, “In Common_,”_ off her upcoming sixth studio album — a conscious decision that was inspired by the album’s [focus on the pressure for women to be perfect](http://motto.time.com/4254777/feel-more-powerful/). In a refreshingly honest essay for [_Lenny Letter_](http://www.lennyletter.com/style/a410/alicia-keys-time-to-uncover/), the [14-Grammy-award-winning singer](http://time.com/4296265/dj-khaled-obama-white-house-criminal-justice-reform/) revealed that she was tired of how women are constantly judged. “Before I started my new album, I wrote a list of all the things that I was sick of,” she wrote. “And one was how much women are brainwashed into feeling like we have to be skinny, or sexy, or desirable, or perfect.” Keys’s barefaced beauty came as a result of a shoot with photographer Paola Kudacki. “I’d just come from the gym, had a scarf under my baseball cap, and the beautiful photographer Paola (never met a Paola I didn’t like) said, ‘I have to shoot you right now, like this! The music is raw and real, and these photos have to be too!’” The photos ultimately became Keys’ art for “In Common” with the 35-year-old singer citing her makeup-free look as “the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt.” See Alicia Keys’ sans makeup photo below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4352591/alicia-keys-in-common-makeup-free/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4352591/alicia-keys-in-common-makeup-free/"},"headline":"Alicia Keys Says Her Makeup-Free Look Is the 'Most Honestly Beautiful' She's Ever Felt","datePublished":"2016-05-31T18:12:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:32:50.382Z","description":"\"It is the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt.\"","url":"https://time.com/4352591/alicia-keys-in-common-makeup-free/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","Alicia Keys"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4352591/alicia-keys-in-common-makeup-free/","name":"Alicia Keys Says Her Makeup-Free Look Is the 'Most Honestly Beautiful' She's Ever Felt"}}]}] ```