Holly Madison wants us to know that she isn’t perfect. And so she allowed Life and Style magazine to publish a photo of her in a bikini without retouching. I don’t see much in the cellulite department, but Holly insists that it’s there. “I have cellulite—and had it even when I was at my absolute thinnest. I’m never not going to have cellulite,” she said. “People need to just accept that it’s there.” Good point, but I’m actually more interested in that scar on her lower back that looks suspiciously like a butterfly tramp stamp that’s been lasered off.
Posing for photos sans retouching has become a big celebrity trend. And I gotta give it up for them—there is something reassuring about seeing that famously gorgeous ladies don’t just come that way and understanding that there’s an entire industry that makes people look the way they do on glossy pages. After the jump, more stars without retouching.
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Kim Kardashian
In the same issue of Life and Style, Kim Kardashian went unairbrushed, too. I couldn’t find photos, but never fear—she’s done this lots before. She went naked and as-is in the May issue of Harper’s Bazaar. “The message [of this shoot] is embrace your curves and who you are,” she said.
Kim also sent the same message in 2009, when she went unairbrushed in a bikini in (you guessed it) Life & Style. Deja vu.
Jessica Simpson
To prove a point in advance of her TV show, “The Price of Beauty,” Jessica Simpson went without makeup and airbrushing on a cover of Marie Claire last April.
Britney Spears
Around the same time, Britney Spears released before and after retouching versions of her Candies campaign. I spent like an hour noting the subtle differences.
Bethenny Frankel
Bethenny Frankel did this, too, when she was criticized for looking way too perfect in her PETA ad. “Everything I’m about is being honest and being upfront,” she said. “So if people are talking and saying [the photo] was airbrushed…then, you know what? Here’s the picture.” She looks pretty good there, too.
Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard was brave and agreed to go without airbrushing on the September cover of Vanity Fair. She looks gorgeous and actually her age.
Joy Bryant
Joy Bryant also went nude and unretouched in Harper’s Bazaar, in the same spread Kim Kardashian appeared in. Wait, she looks incredible. That doesn’t help.
Sadie Frost
Sadie Frost guest-edited Grazia magazine last year, and included a photo of herself naked without retouching. “I want to make a big point here,” she said. “It’s not about taking my clothes off and using digital trickery to make me look slimmer. I’m like any other woman. I have bits I like—my boobs, my shoulders, my arms—and bits I don’t—my bum and my stomach.”
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtts stripped down and agreed to go unairbrushed for More magazine. “It’s a gimmick,” explained the magazine’s editor-in-chief. “Aside from a gimmick, you are not going to see many celebrities bare faced. They can’t even go to get the mail bare faced.”
Claudia Schiffer
Claudia Schiffer posed for a Tank magazine cover topless and without retouching. Her face looks amazing, but I see a few too many bones for comfort in the body. What do you think—do you like seeming unairbrushed images of celebs or would you rather they keep the air of perfection?
Original by: Kate Torgovnick