Make-up free pageants a must for 'real' beauty

Former beauty queens say a vote to keep make-up free rounds in the Miss England contest is important for "empowering" women and girls.

The competition was one of the first to introduce a 'bare-faced' heat in 2019, but had considered removing it due to divided opinion among contestants.

Melisa Raouf, 23, who competed make-up free for the whole contest in 2022, said it helped her feel "empowered and brave" after years of struggling with her appearance.

Meanwhile, Elle Seline, 34, who entered Ms Great Britain - one of the Miss Great Britain events - without make-up in 2021, said it helps "normalise" natural beauty.

The winner of the Miss England Bare Face Top Model contest is fast-tracked to the final round of women vying for the overall title.

In January, organisers invited people to vote on social media whether to keep it as an optional round.

Not everyone agreed the round should stay, with some commenting it could be "daunting" for some contestants, or reinforce a different kind of "beauty standard", with many stating the heat must remain optional.

However, the vast majority of people voted to keep it in the competition.

Elle, who lives in Surrey, has previously spoken to the BBC about being bullied about her appearance at her Wiltshire school.

She said she hopes in a few years people entering beauty pageants without make-up could "be the norm", bringing pageants "out of the dark ages".

"The key element is the choice for women to be able to do what they want with their body, their faces," she added.

Melisa, from London, said she was initially "a bit worried" about going make-up free.

"I was so insecure - all the photos I posted before were filtered, altered, loads of makeup on, always comparing myself, always thinking I wasn't good enough," she said.

"There were all these toxic beauty standards. It had a really detrimental effect on my mental health."

She said the feeling she got from winning the bare-faced round in the Miss England contest inspired her decision to compete make-up free in the whole competition.

Melisa said she was "actually quite upset" organisers were considering removing the make-up free element.

"It shows the people watching that these girls are not really glitz and glam 24-7, these is their real selves," she said.

"It's really refreshing for everyone to see."

Since competing, she said she has started posting unfiltered photos online to help others "feel more happy in their skin, more beautiful".

"I want to be that role model," she said.

"It should be normalised. If we don't want to wear make-up, we don't have to."

She is considering entering Miss England bare-faced again this year and hopes other pageants will introduce make-up free heats in the future.

"At the end of the day it's a choice. I think that's what's so powerful about it," she said.

Elle said since she entered Ms Great Britain bare-faced she has received messages from people who say she has helped them.

She also speaks in schools, colleges and mental health groups about her journey, body image and choice, and even took her message to Parliament in 2022.

"It's helped me become more my authentic self," she said.

"I'm so much more vulnerable with people, I don't put on that front any more, I don't hide behind things."

"Beauty standards will always be a thing, but as long as we're talking and we're making these moments... I think that's where the changes will be," she added.

"Sometimes leaving the house without make-up is hard but people are realising that it is OK just to exist and be yourself."

Angie Beasley, director of Miss England, one of the biggest beauty pageants in the UK, said she introduced the Bare Face Top Model heat to see the "real" people behind the applications.

"I was getting so many entries on our website from contestants with filters on and their faces covered in make-up we couldn't see the real contestant," she said.

Following the vote to keep the bare-faced element, she said: "It's fantastic to know the contestants love the make-up free round so much - the feedback is they feel empowered."

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