Tracee Ellis Ross On Turning 47 & Finding The Courage To Go Makeup-Free

We've all been taught that beauty is only skin deep, but according to the latest YouTube tutorial I watched, beauty also requires hundreds of dollars worth of brushes, palettes, and other miscellaneous makeup products that simply do not fit into my weekly budget. For women, like me, who have grown tired of beating our faces (and our bank accounts) into submission but still seek to keep our glow-on-go, never fear, because the Girlfriend in our head just slid through with a must-have beauty tip you didn't know you needed. According to Tracee Ellis Ross, the key to putting on your best face for the day is not putting anything on your face at all. At this year's PaleyFest, the actress explained:

"There are so many other things to focus my time and attention on. And I think we all do the best with what we've been given."

Although the Black-ish actress is the queen of style, hair, and beauty hacks alike, at 46, she's grown to appreciate the beauty of being totally barefaced. To Tracee, not only is going make-up free more convenient, but it's one helluva self-confidence booster. She continued:

"I would call it confidence. I think what it is is that I am comfortable with myself. And the truth is that I prefer my face the way it actually looks, then some weird sort of brushed version of it."

"I mean, don't get me wrong, I love makeup and I love playing things and all of that. But I'm really conscious of not getting trapped in not liking what I actually got, you know?"

A little over one week from now, this sexy Scorpio will celebrate her 47th birthday and couldn't be more proud of the woman she's become. While Tracee says that it took more than four decades of primping, prodding, and once even ironing her hair to become something that she wasn't, she's finally grown to embrace and fall in love with the woman that she is. She told the co-anchor of Good Morning Philadelphia:

"I love a birthday. I feel good in my skin. I'm 46, I'm going to be 47 on Oct. 29 … It took me a long time to figure out who I was. Once I figured it out, I knew who I was but I didn't have the courage to be that person. Now I'm like, this is me. Take it or leave it. I may not be your cup of tea. But this is me."

Life won't always turn out the way you planned it, but that's good news for you, sis, because that means it can turn out to be more than you ever imagined.

Tracee said that although years ago, she would have pictured her life looking much differently, possibly with a husband and children, she's become the woman of her dreams by living outside of her comfort zone and she doesn't plan on changing that mentality anytime soon:

"So much of the good stuff of life comes out of the comfort zone. But I personally have learned, from experience, there is no point in pushing myself so far outside of the comfort zone so that it creates another wound."

Featured image by Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com