Christina Aguilera unrecognisable on the cover of Paper magazine

Before: Christina Aguilera has had a dramatic 'make-under' for the cover of Paper Magazine. Photo / Getty

Christina Aguilera has always gone heavy on the makeup during her 20 year career in show business.

But for the May cover of Paper magazine, the Genie In A Bottle hitmaker had on not one bit of paint as she was seen in extreme closeup.

The siren, 37, was almost unrecognizable as she held a manicured hand up to her naked lips, flashing not a diamond ring but a band that said MOM on it.

Christina Aguilera's cover image for Paper magazine. Photo / Zoey Grossman

The cover line read Transformation and inside the photos by Zoey Grossman showed more of the same, though in some frames she was heavily made up.

In the makeup-free shots, Aguilera interestingly has freckles which fans have not seen before as they are always covered up.

The Stripped hitmaker also had her blonde hair worn naturally in one set up as little wisps surrounded her face.

"I've always been someone that obviously loves to experiment, loves theatrics, loves to create a storyline and play a character in a video or through stage," the Dirrty singer told the magazine.

Aguilera poses as her alter ego, Xtina. Photo / Getty Images

"I'm a performer, that's who I am by nature. But I'm at the place, even musically, where it's a liberating feeling to be able to strip it all back and appreciate who you are and your raw beauty," remarked the Lotus singer.

But she says she will be back to her heavily painted look very soon as she still loves makeup.

"I mean, I'm a girl that likes a beat face, let's not get it twisted," she explained with a laugh.

'I watched my mom have to be submissive, watch her Ps and Qs or she's gonna get beat up,' said the star.

'You can either be, unfortunately, so damaged by it that you take a turn for the worse, or you can feel empowered by it and make choices to never go down that route.'

It taught her to understand that some women cannot get out. "I hate when people say, 'Why doesn't she just leave?' There's psychological damage and mental abuse that comes with being in a situation like that. A lot of people don't have the ability to vocalize it themselves or have the know-how to get out."

The beauty came to mega fame in the 1990s with pop rock hits. But she got her start in the Mickey Mouse Club alongside Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.

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After a comeback with The Voice, she has since taken things slower as she welcomed her second child Summer Rain, three (she already has Max Liron, 10), but was recently a guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race.

And this year she has two movies coming out: Zoe, in which she plays a robots, and Melissa McCarthy's comedy Life of the Party, in which she plays herself.

She said her dream would be to work with Will Ferrell.