While I think the women themselves look good and it's a nice twist to feature more natural, minimalist styling on the covers, I'm really not wowed by this particular set.

Mostly because I can't say the "no makeup" claim looks genuine in those photos. The women clearly look like they're wearing minimalist makeup. Lips don't sheen like that on their own, nor are they naturally pearlized. Eye lids aren't naturally shaded like that. To Elle's credit it doesn't look like they used a lot of hair products (both Monica and Sophie's hair are kinda soft and fly away instead of shellacked to hell).

I'm also kinda disappointed at the styling (or maybe it's direction) on Sophie. Compared to the other two she looks like she just rolled out of bed, and not in that "sexy bed head" way. Like they were going for intimate casual, and ended up with We're Out Of Time, Just Lean On The Wall. Maybe it's also because the other two women have a very distinct expression, while Sophie's pic looks kinda like they were going for dreamy but ended up with I'm Waiting For The Elevator. It doesn't seem like a cover-worthy image, which I'm guessing is more a fault of the art director than the model.

While the no-makeup thing seems like a hoax, I can accept that they all probably look good naturally. I remember one ad exec saying if you know what you're doing you can light a woman who is not wearing makeup and still make her look very beautiful. So there's probably a lot of very careful lighting, which I think is totally acceptable — good fashion photography is supposed to be flattering. Of course there's been some photoshopping to the images themselves to balance things like hue and contrast, but if they've done some 'shopping to the women I'll grant Elle that at least it's not overt.