No-makeup look opens door to new fans, Pamela Anderson says

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You can take the girl out of Ladysmith, but you can’t take Ladysmith out of the girl.

Pamela Anderson, who hails from Ladysmith, B.C., on Vancouver Island, graces the September cover of Better Homes & Gardens in all her newish makeup-free glory as she talks about her now-quiet life and new cookbook.

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The 57-year-old, six-times divorced mother of two ditched makeup in 2023 and says part of the plus side was she got new fans afterward.

“I have people stop me on the street now and say, ‘You know, I never liked you before, but I do now.’ And then I think, ‘Hmm, I know there’s a compliment in there somewhere,’” Anderson told the magazine, according to the New York Post’s Page Six.

The Baywatch actress said she initially “didn’t think anyone would even notice” when she first went makeup-free for Paris Fashion Week in 2023.

“It just happened to be this silly thing,” said Anderson in the magazine, adding that she didn’t want “to sit in a makeup chair for three hours.

“I was appreciating it as this girl who lives on Vancouver Island that got plopped into these glamorous clothes,” she said.

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“I felt like this little freckle-faced kid with a big, beautiful Vivienne Westwood hat on.”

The author, who is releasing a cookbook called I Love You in October, added; “Somewhere along the way, I started thinking that I want to challenge the idea of beauty and this mask we put on. As soon as I took the mask off, the whole world opened up. That was the beginning of me letting go of the image I had always had of myself. ‘What is this cartoon character that I’d created? OK, that was fun. But I’m not that person anymore.’”

Anderson has swapped teased hair and heavy makeup for overalls, cotton dresses and a natural look these days as she cooks and gardens in her home.

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“All the kids were always at our house,” said the actress in the magazine.

“I cooked for everybody, pots of spaghetti for the neighbourhood, and so my kids have always seen that part of me.”

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In fact, her sons with first ex-husband and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee — Dylan Jagger Lee, 26, and Brandon Thomas Lee, 28  — are co-owners of her skincare brand Sonsie Beauty.

Anderson said it “hurt” her kids that her eventful past and “those other things are the only things people think of their mom.

“’Yes, she’s been in Playboy. Yes, she’s done all these things, but we know who she is.’ It’s different now,” she summed up to the magazine.

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