Fans of Beyonce have lashed out on Twitter, after more than 200 alleged unretouched photos from her 2013 L'Oreal cosmetic campaign were leaked on a fan site called The Beyonce World on Tuesday.
The 33-year-old superstar, known for her hit track Flawless, appears to have uneven and pimply skin under heavily applied foundation in the supposed pre-Photoshop images.
But her legions of admirers have come out in support online, criticising the posting of the pictures, with many claiming they are not real.
Beyonce has yet to comment on the unretouched photos, which were immediately taken down by the website soon after they were posted. (They were picked up by Complex and Gawker.)
The outtakes appear to be from Beyonce's adverts for L'Oreal's Feria and Infallible products, which advertise hair dyes, lipsticks and foundations.
Due to the widespread condemnation of the images, though, the fansite has since removed them and has posted a message.
'Due to the disdain of the BeyHive, we have removed the photos,' the statement reads.
'We don’t want to cause any drama, nor do we wish to start fan wars. Some of the things we have seen posted were just horrible, and we don’t want any parts of it. We were just posting the photos to share the fact that our queen is naturally beautiful, at the same time she is just a regular woman.'
While some of the reaction to the apparent pre-Photoshopped images was cruel, the majority of the 'Beyhive' - the adopted name for the Crazy In Love hitmaker's millions of fans, collectively - supported the 20-time Grammy winner with kind and encouraging words.
Famed Las Vegas act The Chippendales led the way by commenting: 'Unretouched photos of @Beyonce just prove she's a real person and a natural beauty.'
@SprinklesnBooze stood by the 7/11 songbird writing: 'Am I the only one that doesn't think #Beyonce looks horrible in these untouched photos?! She still looks better than me on most days!'
@JamilahLemieux reasonably explained: 'We know Beyonce is pretty. We know Beyonce wears a lot of makeup. You have exposed nothing but your pettiness.'
Meanwhile, others added that the leak of the images was 'unfair', while another added that 'Beyonce is actually a human being, shocking!'.
@MelanieCoMcCoy added: 'She's still beautiful. We all have blemishes. Leaking those photos was in very poor taste.'
This is not the first time L'Oreal has been under scrutiny for editing Beyonce's photos.
The brand was accused of whitening Beyonce's skin for another Feria ad in 2008.
The former Destiny's Child singer has been a loyal celebrity spokesmodel since she was 18-years-young.
In May 2013, clothing empire H&M attempted to retouch photos of Beyonce's curvy figure for their Spring/Summer ad campaign.
'When Beyonce found out they had edited the way her body really looks, she hit the roof,' said an insider to The Sun. 'She's a true diva and was furious that she had been given such a snubbing.'
Adding: 'Her people refused to give the pictures the green light so H&M were forced to use the originals.'
The singer is yet to make a comment on the unretouched images on social media.
In 2013, Beyonce's publicist tried to have 'unflattering' photos of her client performing at the Super Bowl taken down.
In an email to Buzzfeed - which posted pictures from her Halftime performance - her rep wrote: 'There are some unflattering photos on your current feed that we are respectfully asking you to change. I am certain you will be able to find some better photos.'
Instead of taking down the article, the site changed the post's title to 'The "Unflattering" Photos Beyonce's Publicist Doesn't Want You To See' and the images went viral and turned into memes.
