“I love getting smarter. I love being more conscious. I love being aware of what I think,” the musician said

Alicia Keys. PHOTO: THEO WARGO/GETTY

Alicia Keys is at peace with getting older.

In an interview with New York magazine’s The Cut, the musician, 42, shared that she’s embraced aging for many reasons.

“I love getting smarter. I love being more conscious. I love being aware of what I think,” she said. “I love being in touch with what I think and being comfortable knowing that what I know is the right thing for me, that I don’t have to seek so much validation from everybody else to decide if that’s a good thing for me or not.”

Keys also believes that “you get more beautiful as you grow older” because “your heart opens more” and “you have a quality about you that is so much stronger in a way.”

A make-up free photo of Alicia Keys.MICHAEL MULLER/NBCU PHOTO BANK/NBCUNIVERSAL VIA GETTY

The “Diary” singer told the outlet that after starting in the music industry at an early age, she learned how she wanted to express herself over time.

“It opened my eyes to how I didn’t feel comfortable or beautiful if I didn’t have my armor on, and if I didn’t have all my face and hair and pretty things and nice clothes on that somehow I was less than beautiful or just less than. I realized, like, Whoa, what’s underneath all that?‘ “

That realization was one that influenced Keys’ decision to go makeup-free in 2016.

“I think it was just the awareness of how much we subscribed to social standards of beauty, and I didn’t really think of that before. I just hadn’t thought about it,” she said.

In a previous conversation with PEOPLE about her lifestyle beauty brand, Keys Soulcare, Keys said she brought makeup back into her life on her own terms.

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz attend the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards. KEVIN MAZUR/MTV VMAS 2021/GETTY

“I get to determine what’s beauty to me. Nobody gets to tell me what that is, and I can’t tell anybody what that is either. That’s why my relationship with [makeup and beauty] has come to the place where it is,” she told PEOPLE.

In a birthday tribute in January, her husband, Swizz Beatz, opened up about how he appreciates Keys’ sense of self.

“She’s one of the purest goddesses alive. What I love about her most is the positive vibes. It’s her birthday and I’ve got a surprise,” he said in a song shared on Instagram.

This article was written independently by PEOPLE’s editorial team and meets our editorial standards. Keys Soulcare is a paid advertising partner with PEOPLE.