Wearing Makeup At A Young Age 'Messed' With Selena Gomez's Head: I Wanted To 'Change My Face,' Admits The Star
As a child actress, Selena Gomez had to start wearing makeup when she was just 7 years old. At first, playing dress-up was fun, but the superstar admitted that she thinks the experience "kind of messed with me."
"You're so young and then working. I have professionals doing my makeup and suddenly I can look 25 when I was 16, and it was crazy," she shared with ELLE. "Then I felt like, 'Oh, I look too young all the time. I should achieve that look more. I should try that.' It just made me question my beauty for what it was."
Struggling with what she saw in the mirror eventually led to her creating her cosmetics line Rare Beauty, which encourages fans to use makeup as a way to simply enhance their natural features.
Gomez in 2008
"I've been a victim to wanting to change my face and do things because I see such like, intense trends. I think the most rewarding part of creating this line is that we create a place for people who don't necessarily want to get work done or change their face," the Grammy nominee explained. "They just want to embrace what they are and what they have."
"Even if you do like to wear more makeup, even that will kind of work with what my brand," added Gomez. "That's why I wanted the brand to be there for girls and guys and whoever to feel like it's OK to not look like everybody else."
The Only Murders in the Building lead also wanted her collection to be suitable for every single person, so she went the extra mile to find the perfect shades.
"I am very much about inclusivity, I can't have 12 bronzing sticks," she quipped. "So the most challenging part about doing this was creating the right tones for each skin tone."
And you don't have to just take the "Baila Conmigo" singer's word for it, as she often steps out wearing the products herself!
"As far as testing, yes, I 1000% wear my products," she said. "I also give them to my friends. So I want them to try it. I have all kinds of friends that love big and dramatic or less or barely anything. I like to listen to their feedback a lot."