Selena Gomez Says Unrealistic Beauty Standards Make Her Sad

Selena Gomez has been open about her approach to beauty and her passion for combining her cosmetics brand, Rare Beauty, with mental health initiatives. However, at yesterday’s TIME100 summit in New York, Gomez spoke about how far the beauty industry needs to go, saying people around the world are still surrounded by a “very unrealistic standard” – something that she hopes to “break” with Rare Beauty. Gomez, 31, launched the brand in 2020 with a mission to “shatter unrealistic standards of perfection.”

“Personally, I think there are very unrealistic standards in the cosmetics world and it makes me a little sad for my generation,” she said. “And for anyone looking at something that’s probably been photoshopped and made pretty, it’s… I just wanted to break that down. I don’t know how to do makeup and I have a makeup line.

She added that Rare Beauty hopes to make products that don’t make its fans “feel like they have to look a certain way.”

Gomez also mentioned the names of her products, which have always been positive and uplifting. It’s a detail that fans appreciated and rallied around online.

“I wanted them to feel good when using my products,” she continued. “And all of our products are named after uplifting things, from our Find Comfort range to anything that comes to mind, body and soul, we try to be very conscious even when naming products for to be reminders of joy or just to find yourself. So I really wanted to create fun makeup for people. I don’t believe in looking a certain way. It’s exhausting.

Gomez also discussed the brand’s ongoing efforts in the mental health space. Rare Beauty continues to donate 1% of its sales to support the Rare Impact Fund, an organization that provides young people with access to mental health services.

“I didn’t really want to enter the cosmetics world without a mission,” Gomez concluded. “It was actually a dream come true within this brand, plus we were able to make hopefully decent products.”