14 DAY TRIAL // Ukrainian model Valeria Lukyanova is best known as the “Human Barbie” because, when she’s through with her usual beauty / makeup routine, she looks just like one of the Mattel dolls would if they came to life. This means that she’s completely unrecognizable without makeup.
The other day, Valeria posted a new selfie on her Facebook, showing off her almost impossible figure in a two-piece swimsuit and her face without a (visible) trace of makeup on it. Because her makeup routine usually implies such large quantities of it applied in such an elaborate fashion, the contrast between how she looks before and after makeup is almost startling.
Another startling thing about the photo is Valeria’s tiny frame, which she is said to have achieved through plastic surgery (including the removal of ribs to make the waistline taller and smaller) and excessive dieting.
She said herself that she’s now on a “diet of light and air,” but we know from her recent GQ interview that she’s almost constantly on juice diets, which means she hardly ever eats any solids and gets whatever nutrients she needs from natural juices.
Valeria doesn’t say anything in the description of the photo but, since it comes just one day after Justin Jedlica, aka the human Ken Doll, said in an interview that she had no real talent and was just an “illusionist” because she used so much makeup, this can’t be a coincidence.
To quote Brad Pitt’s character in the critically panned “The Counselor”: “[These people] don't really believe in coincidences. They've heard of them… But they've just never seen one.”
Barbie and Ken (the human versions not the actual dolls) hate each other and have been “feuding” in the media since they both traveled to the UK for a joint photoshoot. It didn’t turn out well, with Valeria saying Justin was a freak for getting so much plastic surgery, and he calling her a fake for not getting any.
He said pretty much the same thing in his newest interview, trying to explain why he didn’t understand the world’s fascination with Valeria because, in his eyes, to be worthy of the nickname Human Barbie, you would have to get plastic surgery and not just achieve the look with makeup.
So, in a way, it looks like Valeria is trying to get Justin to see that, makeup or no makeup, she’s still a Barbie, i.e. she still has the doll’s unrealistic proportions and unmoving plastic face. By the way, Valeria makes it a point of never showing any emotion with her face because she’s trying to banish all emotions from her heart: she thinks they make man irrational and she hopes to attain a state of pure rationality.
*[Update, April 18]: The header photo is not the selfie mentioned in the article text. It is not the photo in which Valeria is shown without makeup. As the text says, that photo is available on Facebook (click to see it).