From Scarlett Johansson’s skincare journey to Kylie Jenner’s regret over implants, a new wave of celebrity transparency is reframing beauty and making space for imperfections.
Scarlett Johansson has always been a familiar face on screen — poised, polished, and camera-ready. But behind the red carpet glow was a struggle with skin issues that no makeup artist could erase. Acne, irritation, and years of overcorrecting with the wrong products left her frustrated and looking for a reset.
“Out of sheer frustration due to nothing working (to clear my skin) and unknowingly disrupting my entire skin barrier, I went back to basics,” she told Good Morning America. “Within a week, my skin looked better than it had in years.”
What began as a personal skin reboot became the foundation for The Outset, Johansson’s gentle, clean skincare line she co-founded in 2022 with beauty executive Kate Foster. And while most celebrity beauty lines lean into perfection, Johansson made hers about recovery — from years of breakouts, product overload, and, more quietly, the pressure to look a certain way.
“What I used to see in the past as perceived flaws, I now hold a lot more acceptance,” she said. “I am more comfortable because of The Outset — I have the best skin I have had in my entire life!”
The idea that flaws might be reframed rather than “fixed” is becoming increasingly resonant. From Kylie Jenner admitting she regrets getting breast implants at 19 to Pamela Anderson forgoing makeup altogether, a new set of beauty ideals is forming. They aren’t necessarily more natural, but they are more transparent.
During a rare candid exchange with TikTok fans, Jenner recently shared details about her breast augmentation: “Four forty-five cc, moderate profile, half under the muscle, silicone, Garth Fisher.” In the same breath, she reflected, “I had beautiful breasts, like natural tits… I wish… I never got them done to begin with.” It was a remarkably vulnerable statement from someone who has built a billion-dollar brand on contouring the face she now seems eager to un-filter.
Julia Fox, who has also made rawness her personal brand, praised Jenner’s honesty “I love it,” she told reporters at the Tribeca Film Festival. “I think we should be honest,” she said adding that those who aren’t honest are “setting an unrealistic bar.”
“Getting old is f—ing hot,” Fox said. “It is sexy. It is probably the sexiest time in life actually because being pretty and hot in your twenties is the f—ing trenches and I’m not going back there.”
If the early 2000s were defined by airbrushed secrecy — silicone bodies passed off as gym routines, nose jobs denied on late-night talk shows — then this current era feels built on the crumbling edge of that illusion. Jenner’s confession is not alone. Tisha Campbell spoke frankly about undergoing a “mommy makeover” post-divorce, explaining that she wanted to do something that made her feel whole again. Meanwhile, A-listers going makeup-free at fashion weeks and on the red carpets have become a global talking point, hailed as a radical act despite their simplicity.
Johansson, now nearing 40, points to that same shift. “There is such a profound movement of women who have lived full lives and are grounded in that, from Jamie Lee Curtis to Pam Anderson — they are celebrating their uniqueness and putting their realness forward.”
Still, the move toward transparency isn’t always tidy. According to one study, 90 percent of young women and girls surveyed reported using filters to alter their appearance on social media. Ninety-four percent said they used them because they felt “pressure to look a certain way on social media.” While the majority reported that social media made them feel bad about their appearances at least half the time, 75 percent said they felt they would “never live up to the images you see” on social.
Yet even as filters dominate, cracks are forming in the facade. Social media, long blamed for promoting perfection, is becoming a stage for reclaims. Creators share makeup-free mornings, unedited skin, the messy middle of Botox regret. These fragments, while still curated, mark a cultural loosening — a space for flaw and beauty to coexist.
The rebranding of imperfection also intersects with the economics of beauty. In 2023, breast augmentation remained the most common cosmetic surgery in the U.S., with over 300,000 procedures performed, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. But for the first time in decades, the number of removals is also rising. Explant procedures rose by nine percent between 2022 and 2023.
Johansson, too, touches on the emotional component of skincare, about how the products that clear your skin can also help clear your perception. She shares that her husband, comedian Colin Jost, is just as addicted to their Vegan Collagen Prep Serum as she is. “When I get to the bottom of my bottle, I’m like, ‘What do I do now?’” she laughed. “The product that all my friends, including Colin and I, are running through is the Firming & Plumping Vegan Collagen Prep Serum, which is such a forgotten step in skin care.”
But the serum is also a metaphor. The bigger message Johansson carries is of making peace with what does not fit the mold. It is a narrative of learning to let go of the war against yourself. While one woman shares a regret about surgery, another walks a red carpet without eyeliner. A mother designs a skincare line that makes her feel seen. And in the space between all of it, a kind of collective recalibration is happening. “I go out of the house and I don’t even wear makeup sometimes,” Johansson says. “I am presenting myself in a proud way and everything it has taken to get here.”
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