10 Celebrities on Their Skin Struggles

Lip, Cheek, Hairstyle, Skin, Chin, Forehead, Eyebrow, Facial expression, Iris, Jaw,

(Image credit: Getty, design by Betsy Farrell)

published 12 November 2016

Sort of like what that delightful children's book about the human excretory system (opens in new tab) communicated, everybody gets zits, even famous people who can afford to have their faces extracted and lymphatically massaged every month like you're supposed to. Ha! Here, as a comfort to us all, 10 celebrities on dealing with their real, not-always-perfect skin.

1/10

Emma Stone

Today, it's like "WHERE ARE YOUR PORES," but it wasn't always even texture and beauty campaigns for Emma Stone. In an interview with Refinery29 (opens in new tab), she detailed her long battle with hormonal acne, beginning with a disastrous two months on Accutane when she was 17, and continuing when she was 20 and shooting Easy A, from which her blemishes were "kindly video-airbrushed out."

2/10

Amanda Seyfried

Her answer to the question "Did you ever have skin problems?" "F*ck yeah (opens in new tab)." She credits aging and Clé de Peau (for which she's a spokesmodel) for clearing up her stress-related eczema and hormonal acne.

3/10

Miley Cyrus

Thanks to her dermatological history, Miley Cyrus will never 1) go to bed without washing her face and 2) forgo cleaning her brushes. (Very smart.) "Your skin affects so much of how you feel, and your confidence," she told Byrdie (opens in new tab). "[Growing up], I always felt like no matter what I had on, or where I was, everyone was always staring at my bad skin."

4/10

Kerry Washington

Truth: Those Olivia Pope close-ups are hard-earned. "I've always understood the connection between science and skin," she said in an interview with Elle (opens in new tab). "I've been seeing a dermatologist since I was 6 years old for eczema. I really believe in exfoliating and I also use a red light for dealing with bacteria."

5/10

Victoria Beckham

The best revenge when you were once known as "Spotty Spice" (yes, people suck): readers clamoring to find out THE ONE FOOD VICTORIA BECKHAM EATS FOR PERFECT SKIN. "I used to have really problematic skin and [dermatologist Dr. Lancer] said to me, 'You have to eat salmon every single day.' I said, 'Really, every day?' And he said, 'Yes; breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you have to eat it every single day.'" BRB, buying so many fillets I'd be mistaken for one of those math problem people.

6/10

Katy Perry

The Proactiv evangelist (opens in new tab) isn't shy about the hard work it required to get her complexion in good enough condition to appear on-camera bare. "My skin used to be a lot more worse than it is," Perry said (opens in new tab), "so we would do a lot of coverage cause I was insecure about my skin."

7/10

Cameron Diaz

Another point for Team Diet Is Everything, as brought to you by someone who was formerly of Team Junk Food 5ever. "While I was eating burgers and burritos and onion rings and french fries and sodas, I had the worst skin," she wrote in her book (opens in new tab). "It was embarrassing, and I did everything I could think of to make it go away...The pimples were still there through high school and into my twenties, while I was modeling and acting. It was really challenging to cover them up for the cameras; it was awkward and embarrassing and frustrating, and I always felt really bad about myself."

8/10

Keira Knightley

"I tried a million products, but none of them worked," she said in an interview with InStyle UK (opens in new tab). "I had bad skin up until I was 25. I later learned that it was more about diet and hormonal changes." Same, honestly.

9/10

Kim Kardashian West

Pictured here sans makeup, Kardashian's self-proclaimed "big flaw" actually has nothing to do with her face. "I have that one patch on my right leg that is the most visible," she said (opens in new tab) of her 2010 psoriasis diagnosis. "I don't even really try to cover it that much anymore. Sometimes I just feel like it's my big flaw and everyone knows about it, so why cover it?"

10/10

Rihanna

And now, what is perhaps the best/realest for last: "I have an ugly day every month; pimples on my face, I'm fat and in a bad mood. It's more like an ugly week," she once said in Star magazine. (She also said (opens in new tab) she cuts out alcohol and ups her water intake when she does have a bad face day/week.)

Chelsea Peng is a writer and editor who was formerly the assistant editor at MarieClaire.com. She's also worked for The Strategist and Refinery29, and is a graduate of Northwestern University. On her tombstone, she would like a GIF of herself that's better than the one that already exists on the Internet and a free fro-yo machine. Besides frozen dairy products, she's into pirates, carbs, Balzac, and snacking so hard she has to go lie down.