'I don't want to need makeup to love myself': Leeds Miss England finalist set for bare-faced catwalk

A Leeds woman competing for the Miss England crown has spoken of the pressure to look perfect as all 38 finalists prepare to walk the grand final catwalk without make-up for the first time in the beauty pageant's 98-year history.

Angel Patel, a 25-year-old associate genetic technologist from Leeds, said she wanted to rediscover the confidence she had as a child, before feeling pressure to look a certain way.

She is among the finalists taking part in the Bare Face Top Model round, which was introduced in 2019 to boost confidence, empower women and challenge unrealistic beauty standards.

Angel said: "Posting a selfie with no make-up on isn’t always an easy thing to do in today’s world.

"Make-up is an art. It can be creative, transformative and empowering, and I genuinely admire the people who use it to express themselves.

"But sometimes, amongst all that beauty, I think we can forget to appreciate the face underneath it all.

"Growing up, I remember seeing Bollywood actresses arrive at events with little to no makeup.

"You could see their real features, their skin, their imperfections and somehow, that felt normal.

"There wasn’t this constant pressure to look perfectly polished all the time.

"I look back at pictures of myself as a little girl and think about how little I cared about how I looked.

"If I didn’t have make-up on, it never crossed my mind that I should feel insecure about it. And I want to find a little bit of that feeling again.

"Because there is nothing wrong with loving make-up, but I don’t want to ever feel like I need it to love the person looking back at me in the mirror.

"So here I am, bare-faced, completely myself, and learning to appreciate the features I was born with.

"Maybe confidence isn’t always about changing what you see. Sometimes, it’s about learning to see the beauty in what was already there."

The competition's organisers have now made the make-up-free catwalk an invitation for every finalist, rather than an optional round.

Previously, contestants submitted natural selfies on social media, with the winner of Britain's Bare Face Top Model automatically reaching the final 12.

Only two beauty queens have competed make-up free in the Miss England final before - Melisa Raouf, 20, in 2022, and Paige Loren Cannon-James, 21, last year.

Organiser Angie Beasley said the change was intended to show how the competition "challenges modern beauty standards and the pressure to look picture-perfect".

She described it as a "bold celebration of confidence and authenticity".

Last year, Ms Beasley considered scrapping the round altogether following a backlash from some contestants.

It had divided opinion, with some arguing it stopped women making their own choices about their appearance, while others believed it was empowering and promoted a more realistic body image.

The competitors ultimately voted to keep it.

Ms Beasley said: "Social media is full of filters and unrealistic beauty expectations.

"We want to encourage women to feel confident in their own skin and show that you don't need a face full of make-up to feel beautiful.

"It's about confidence, and natural beauty. You don't need make-up, filters or flawless skin to be beautiful.

"This is the first time all judges and all finalists will have been invited to the make-up free catwalk and I'm sure it will be really empowering for all the contestants that take part."

The Miss England final will be held at Athena in Leicester on November 17.

The winner will go on to represent the country at Miss World 2027 in Tanzania.