Pamela Anderson says giving up makeup is 'freeing, fun and a little rebellious, too'
Long known for her overlined lips, pencil-thin brows, and tousled blonde updo, Pamela Anderson broke down her more natural looks of late in an interview with Elle while promoting her new Aritzia campaign for the Babaton Fall '23 collection.
Commenting on the bolder, Instagram-ready makeup looks of the past decade, Anderson called her decision to go bare-faced "freeing, and fun, and a little rebellious too."
"I think we all start looking a little funny when we get older," she added. "And I'm kind of laughing at myself when I look at the mirror. I go, 'Wow, this is really … what's happening to me?' It's a journey."
Another factor in determining Anderson's new beauty direction was the death of her longtime makeup artist, Alexis Vogel, the woman responsible for the signature "Pamela" look -- dark, smoky eyes, a nude lip with dark liner, and defined eyebrows. Anderson told Elle that after Vogel's death in 2019, she felt it was "just better for me not to wear makeup."
Anderson notably showed off her naked face earlier this year in "Pamela: A Love Story," a documentary that allowed the actress to tell her life story using her own words, as well as videos, pictures and diary entries from her personal archive. Interviews conducted at her home on Vancouver Island (also her birthplace) showed her casually draped in an off-white dress and sweater ensemble interlaced with footage from the past.
The Babaton collection and accompanying campaign align beautifully with Anderson's less-is-more approach to beauty: Power suit separates in bold, mostly oversized cuts are tamed by a neutral color palette featuring black, beige and white, with delicate houndstooth and pinstripe prints making an appearance in several pieces.
Anderson poses against natural backdrops, including a barefoot shot on rocky beach where she wears a dark, pleated pantsuit, and an earthy forest scene in which she dons a boxy blazer with black slingback pumps and shorts while pushing a wheelbarrow filled with plants.
The campaign and interview highlight the renaissance Anderson has recently experienced, including a much-anticipated Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in the musical "Chicago" last year that ran for eight weeks. In tandem with her documentary, she also released the book "Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth" in January.
"If I'm not writing, I know I'm not in a good place," Anderson told Elle, explaining, "If I'm writing, I am in my body. I am where I'm supposed to be."
